CAMRA has thrown its weight behind SIBA’s new Indie Beer campaign, designed to help consumers seek out independent beers and breweries.

The campaign includes a brewery checker tool so consumers can find out if a brewer is independently owned, and an “assured” mark for brewers to use to show their independence.

CAMRA national chairman Ash Corbett-Collins said: “CAMRA is delighted to be supporting SIBA’s Indie Beer campaign. We know that finding independent and local beer is often a top priority for our members and beer drinkers across the UK. It’s great that SIBA are committed to transparent communication about ownership in beer.

“Unfortunately, we often see global brewers market their own brands as if they were independent, tricking consumers in the process. It is vital that consumers have access to the right information about where their beer is being brewed, and whether it’s in independent ownership.”

Find out more about the Indie Beer initiative here.

In March 2024, Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) launched ‘Fresh Ale’. These are brewery-conditioned versions of their cask range, which are then kegged and served through cask handpumps. They positioned this as a way to ‘revive’ cask by giving it a longer shelf life. Their announcement can be found here. 

There are two main implications for cask beer and consumers that CAMRA opposes. Most noticeably the dispense method is misleading, but this also creates a more general threat to cask as the beer is not cask-conditioned, but the use of ‘Fresh Ale’ marketing seeks to imply that it is. 

We anticipate that more breweries may release ‘Fresh Ale’ – and believe that the practice of filling casks with brewery conditioned beer has become more common in recent years, if little known or actively advertised as such. 

CAMRA has a long-standing policy on the issue of using a handpump to dispense non-cask beers – which entered CAMRA policy as ‘misleading dispense’ in 1988/89.  

After CAMRA-coordinated complaints to Trading Standards around the country, Local Authority Co-ordinating Body on Trading Standards (LACOTS) started an enquiry in relation to potentially misleading methods of dispensing beer. CAMRA made a submission to the enquiry in November 1988.  

Although no legislation resulted, LACOTS agreed that the use of a handpump to serve keg beers was misleading and this advice was passed to all local Trading Standards departments. As a result, the use of a handpump as the point of sale on keg beers virtually disappeared within a few months making this a major campaigning success.   

The UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide is celebrating its 52nd edition with not one but two optional covers featuring the UK’s favourite fictional locals: Coronation Street’s Rovers Return Inn, and Emmerdale’s Woolpack.
You can buy it directly, with your members discount, from the National CAMRA shop to get all the information on CAMRA branches’ top 4,500 pubs.
Congratulations to all North Herts’ entries in The Guide:

• The Orange Tree, Baldock – our Branch and County Pub of the Year
• The Lordship Arms, Benington
• The Red Lion – Breachwood Green
• The Crown, Buntingford
• The Goat, Codicote
• BB’s Bar, Hitchin
• The Half Moon, Hitchin
• The Vic, Hitchin
• The Plume of Feathers Ickleford
• The Lytton Arms, Old Knebworth
• The Station Pub, Knebworth
• Garden City Brewery, Letchworth
• The Red Lion at Preston
• The Strathmore Arms, St Paul’s Walden
• The Broken Seal Tap Room
• The Chequers Beer House in Stevenage.

Also featured under ‘Award Winning Clubs’ is Hitchin Rugby Club, our Club of The Year. 

Why not pop along to a few to congratulate them in person?