CAMRA Adds Over 800 Pubs to its Good Beer Guide 2027

CAMRA has published the 2027 Good Beer Guide, adding over 800 new entries as brewery closures continue to outpace openings.

The Guide which uses an independent, volunteer-led selection process and features 4,500 pubs, 1,700 brewers and 5,000 beers, also renewed calls for a competition investigation into the UK beer market, continuing their quest to get independently brewed beers on as many bars as possible.

The foreword for the 2027 edition is written by Sir Ian Rankin. He, and his fictional detective Rebus, both frequent the Oxford Bar, in Edinburgh, which features on the cover of this year’s Guide.

This year, data from the Guide shows:

• 137 breweries have closed, and only 57 new breweries have opened.
• There are 812 new entries in the 2027 Guide.

In a year where independent brewery closures have slowed, but not returned to growth, the Guide remains the go-to source for finding choice and quality in pubs.

Ash Corbett-Collins, CAMRA Chairman, said: “The Good Beer Guide is fiercely independent, just like the brewers making the best beer. It is the result of the time and effort of our volunteers across the UK to find the pubs serving the best kept cask beer.

“This year, we released our flagship report, ‘Beer in the UK’, alongside our campaign to expose how ‘Big Beer’ is dominating the UK beer market, and how ordinary drinkers and independent brewers lose out as a result. Because of that, we need the Competition and Markets Authority to start a formal investigation of the UK on-trade beer market. If you agree with us, please join CAMRA, buy the Guide, and find amazing independently brewed beers for yourself.”

Sir Ian Rankin, writing in the foreword of the Guide, said: “What makes the perfect pub?  Ask fifty people and you might get fifty different answers… My preferences might not be yours, but there are a few things we can probably agree on. We want the beer to be good and the welcome to be friendly. We want to see signs that the bar represents the best of its community or neighbourhood. We want to feel like we fit in.”