The choice of British craft beers for bars and pubs continues to grow, with the number of UK breweries up by 14% year on year, according to a book out today.
According to the Campaign for Real Ale’s new Good Beer Guide 2014, there are now 1,147 breweries in the UK, putting figures at a 70-year high. The numbers in London have doubled in 12 months after the arrival of 23 new breweries.
The Good Beer Guide estimates that the number of regularly brewed British beers is now over 5,200. The region with the greatest number of breweries is West Yorkshire, where eight new breweries have taken the total up to 57.
The guide’s editor Roger Protz said: “With more breweries comes greater choice for the drinker and more opportunities to buy locally produced brews.”
He added that female brewers were adding momentum to the real ale market in the UK and helping to attract new drinkers.
“It is only in modern times that men have overtaken women as the main brewers of beer, as historically it was women who dominated brewing,” he said. “Traditionally known as ‘brewsters’, it is fantastic to see more women rejoining the industry and in many cases giving the chaps a run for their money, such as the award-winning Brewsters Brewing Company in Lincolnshire.”
Camra statistics show that the number of women enjoying real ale is on the rise, with women now accounting for 22% of their membership – a growth of 20,000 in the last decade alone. The amount of women trying real ale is up from 14% to 34% in the last three years.
Growth is also continuing for specialist craft beer bars such as the Craft Beer Co (pictured) which now has sites in Brighton and Brixton, Clerkenwell and Islington in London.
For more information on the 2014 Good Beer Guide, or to order a copy, visit www.camra.org.uk/gbg.
