CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has launched the new edition of its famous Good Bottled Beer Guide, which this time features over 1800 bottle-conditioned beers.
This definitive guide showcases beers from across the UK in a plethora of styles, from light thirst quenching golden ales to aromatic and citrusy India pale ales and rich, powerfully flavoured stouts and porters.
Jeff Evans, author of CAMRA’s Good Bottled Beer Guide, says the book represents the huge range of beers now brewed in the UK: “The Good Bottled Beer Guide highlights the breadth of fantastic beer now being produced in the UK – as well as traditional British beer styles such as bitter and stout, we are now very lucky to have international beer styles such as American-style pale ales and German-inspired wheat beers being brewed on these shores.”
Jeff added: “From world famous brews such as Fuller’s Vintage Ale and Worthington’s White Shield, to beers that use hops from New Zealand and America such as Buxton Brewery’s Axe Edge IPA, the range of beers is so great that there’s never been a better time to be a beer drinker in the UK.”
This eighth edition of the Good Bottled Beer Guide features some relatively new breweries which have quickly made a name for themselves in the beer world – the likes of The Kernel, Red Willow, and Rebel, to name but a few – but also fantastic bottle-conditioned beers from some of the UK’s biggest brewers such as Thwaites, Wells & Young’s and Shepherd Neame.
Bottle-conditioned beers from 342 different breweries feature in the new Good Bottled Beer Guide, with 583 beers chosen for detailed profiles, complete with tasting notes, within the guide – so readers aren’t just informed of what’s available, but what they should opt-for too.
Other features include star awards for the best beers, rosettes for the best breweries, a comprehensive listing of specialist beer shops and full details of how to buy, store and serve bottled beer.
“The number of breweries producing bottle-conditioned beer, or ‘Real Ale in a Bottle’ has grown massively in recent years thanks to an explosion in microbreweries across the UK. With more and more small breweries looking to bottle their beers both for local sales and in order to reach further markets, the traditional method of bottle conditioning – where live yeast is used to give the beer light carbonation via a secondary fermentation in the bottle – is proving a popular approach.”
A sister publication to the Good Beer Guide, CAMRA’s Good Bottled Beer Guide by Jeff Evans is now available from all good retailers, and the CAMRA shop (www.camra.org.uk/shop), priced £10.99 for CAMRA members, and £12.99 for non-members. The book will be on sale throughout the Great British Beer Festival, Earls Court, London, August 13th-17th 2013.
”Bottle Conditioned” is a term used to describe beer which undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle via the addition of live yeast at the bottling stage. This is similar to Real Ale as served in pubs, whereby yeast in the cask gives the beer a natural soft carbonation. Therefore “Bottle Conditioned” is often referred to as “Real Ale in a Bottle.”
