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EnglishWhat Do Real Ale, Cider and Perry Mean on the CAMRA Website?
Updated
On camra.org.uk, real ale, cider and perry are the drink categories CAMRA exists to champion, alongside the pubs, clubs and festivals that serve them. Real ale is the campaign's core focus and the reason it was founded; cider and perry sit beside it as traditional, naturally produced drinks that CAMRA also campaigns for. If you are trying to understand the site's vocabulary before using its pub-finding tools or reading its guides, these three terms are the ones to know.
Real Ale: The Campaign's Core Focus
Real ale is the term CAMRA uses for beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops, water and yeast) that is matured by secondary fermentation in the container it is served from, and dispensed without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide. In practice this usually means cask beer pulled through a handpump in a pub, though the definition is about how the beer is conditioned and served, not the shape of the pump.
The key mechanism is that the beer finishes fermenting and conditioning in the cask, so it is a living product that changes once tapped. That is why cask beer is served relatively fresh and why pub cellarmanship matters. For example, a pub that turns its casks quickly and keeps its lines clean will show a beer very differently from one where a cask has sat tapped for days.
On the CAMRA site, real ale is the thread running through pub recommendations, beer festival listings and the Good Beer Guide. The site's own framing — "champions real ale, cider, perry and the pubs that serve them" — puts real ale first because it is the campaign's founding concern.
Cider and Perry: Championed Alongside Real Ale
CAMRA treats cider and perry as traditional drinks with production standards worth protecting, in the same spirit as real ale. Cider is fermented apple juice; perry is fermented pear juice, made in a comparable way from perry pears. Both are covered on the site alongside the pubs that serve them, so when you search for pubs or festivals you may see cider and perry listed next to the beer offer.
The practical point for a reader is that CAMRA's pub and festival information is not beer-only. If you drink cider or perry rather than ale, the same listings and events are relevant to you.
Why the Definitions Matter When You Use the Site
| Term | What it refers to | Where it shows up on camra.org.uk |
|---|---|---|
| Real ale | Beer conditioned by secondary fermentation in the cask and served without extraneous CO2 | Pub finding, beer and festival listings, the Good Beer Guide |
| Cider | Fermented apple juice, traditionally made | Pub and festival listings alongside beer |
| Perry | Fermented pear juice from perry pears | Pub and festival listings alongside beer |
Knowing the distinction helps you read the site accurately: a pub listed for its real ale is being recommended on cask-conditioning grounds, not simply for selling beer. If your interest is cider or perry, the same pub and festival pages remain the right entry point.
Where to Go Next on the Site
The homepage points to three practical routes: finding great pubs, clubs and beers; the Pub of the Year competition; and the Good Beer Guide (the site describes the current edition as the 54th). Membership is promoted with the benefit of free festival entry, and the "Join Us" links lead to the site's plans page. Prices and any login requirements are not stated in the material available here, so check the plans page directly before assuming what membership costs or what access it includes.
If your goal is simply to understand the vocabulary, the short version is: real ale is cask-conditioned beer and the campaign's central subject; cider and perry are the traditional apple and pear drinks CAMRA defends alongside it; and all three are tied on the site to the pubs and festivals where you find them.