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54-718: The Good Beer Guide is a book published annually by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), listing what it considers to be the best 4,500 real ale outlets ( pubs , clubs , and off-licences ) in the United Kingdom. The content of the Guide is decided upon by volunteers in CAMRA's local branches. Throughout the preceding year, CAMRA members anonymously rate the quality of the cellarmanship of beer in venues using CAMRA's National Beer Scoring System (NBSS) through either WhatPub or

108-536: A standard size of measure , referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. For example, in the UK and Ireland, a barrel of beer refers to a quantity of 36 imperial gallons (160 L; 43 US gal), and is distinguished from other unit measurements, such as firkins , hogsheads , and kilderkins . Wine was shipped in barrels of 119 litres (31 US gal; 26 imp gal). A barrel of oil, defined as 42 US gallons (35 imp gal; 160 L),

162-464: A barrel when water or alcohol is lost due to evaporation , a portion known as the "angels' share". In an environment with 100% relative humidity , very little water evaporates and so most of the loss is alcohol, a useful trick if one has a wine with very high proof. Most beverages are topped up from other barrels to prevent significant oxidation, although others such as vin jaune and sherry are not. Beverages aged in wooden barrels take on some of

216-522: A cask. The modern US beer barrel is 31 US gallons (117.34777 L), half a gallon less than the traditional wine barrel (26 U.S.C. §5051 ). Barrels are also used as a unit of measurement for dry goods (dry groceries), such as flour or produce. Traditionally, a barrel is 196 pounds (89 kg) of flour (wheat or rye), with other substances such as pork subject to more local variation. In modern times, produce barrels for all dry goods, excepting cranberries, contain 7,056 cubic inches, about 115.627 L. In

270-676: A ceremony to crown the winner in the spring. There are also the Pub Design Awards , which are held in association with English Heritage and the Victorian Society . These comprise several categories, including new build, refurbished and converted pubs. The best known CAMRA award is the Champion Beer of Britain , which is selected at the Great British Beer Festival . Other awards include

324-675: A commemorative glass showing the details of the festival. A festival programme is usually also provided, with a list and description of the drinks available. Members may get discounted entrance to CAMRA festivals. The Campaign also organises the annual Great British Beer Festival in August. It is now held in the Great, National & West Halls at the Olympia Exhibition Centre , in Kensington , London, having been held for

378-549: A convex shape and bulge at their center, called bilge. This facilitates rolling a well-built wooden barrel on its side and allows the roller to change directions with little friction, compared to a cylinder . It also helps to distribute stress evenly in the material by making the container more curved. Barrels have reinforced edges to enable safe displacement by rolling them at an angle (in addition to rolling on their sides as described). Casks used for ale or beer have shives and keystones in their openings. Before serving

432-435: A cooper and tubs made of staves in use at the grape harvest. Herodotus ( c.  484 – c.  425 BC) allegedly reports the use of "palm-wood casks" in ancient Babylon , but some modern scholarship disputes this interpretation. In Europe, buckets and casks dating to 200 BC have been found preserved in the mud of lake villages . A lake village near Glastonbury dating to the late Iron Age has yielded one complete tub and

486-684: A few years at Earl's Court as well as regionally in the past at venues such as Brighton and Leeds . This is the UK's largest beer festival, with over 900 beers, ciders and perries available over the week long event. For many years, CAMRA also organised the National Winter Ales Festival. However, in 2017 this was re-branded as the Great British Beer Festival Winter where they award the Champion Winter Beer of Britain . Unlike

540-632: A grape distillate named pisco is either aged in oak or in earthenware . Some wines are fermented "on barrel", as opposed to in a neutral container like steel or wine-grade HDPE (high-density polyethylene) tanks. Wine can also be fermented in large wooden tanks, which—when open to the atmosphere—are called "open-tops". Other wooden cooperage for storing wine or spirits range from smaller barriques to huge casks, with either elliptical or round heads. The tastes yielded by French and American species of oak are slightly different, with French oak being subtler, while American oak gives stronger aromas. To retain

594-489: A monthly newspaper called What's Brewing until its April 2021 issue and there is a quarterly colour magazine called Beer . It also maintains a National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors to help bring greater recognition and protection to Britain's most historic pubs. CAMRA supports and promotes beer and cider festivals around the country, which are organised by local CAMRA branches. Generally, each festival charges an entry fee which either covers entry only or also includes

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648-901: A number of wooden staves. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder (died 79 AD) reported that cooperage in Europe originated with the Gauls in Alpine villages who stored their beverages in wooden casks bound with hoops. Pliny identified three different types of coopers: ordinary coopers, wine coopers and coopers who made large casks. Large casks contain more and bigger staves and are correspondingly more difficult to assemble. Roman coopers tended to be independent tradesmen, passing their skills on to their sons. The Greek geographer Strabo ( c. 64 BC to c. 24 AD) recorded that wooden pithoi (barrels or wine-jars) were lined with pitch to stop leakage and preserve

702-584: A predetermined number of miles set by each CAMRA branch, generally around 20, although the North London branch has set it at 30 miles from brewery to pub, even if it comes from a distribution centre further away; in addition, each participating pub must keep at least one LocAle for sale at all times. CAMRA members may join the CAMRA Members' Investment Club which, since 1989, has invested in real ale breweries and pub chains. As of January 2021

756-477: A process that is known as solera . Laws in several jurisdictions require that whiskey be aged in wooden barrels. The law in the United States requires that " straight whiskey " (with the exception of corn whiskey ) must be stored for at least two years in new, charred oak containers. Other forms of whiskey aged in used barrels cannot be called "straight". International laws require any whisky bearing

810-416: A whisky branded as "Jameson Caskmates". Cask ale is aged in the barrel (usually steel) for a short time before serving. Extensive barrel aging is required of many sour beers . Traditional balsamic vinegar is aged in a series of wooden barrels. The pepper mash used to make Tabasco sauce is aged for three years in previously used oak whiskey barrels since its invention in 1868. Vernors ginger ale

864-428: Is 42 US gallons (35.0  imp gal ; 159.0  L ). This measurement originated in the early Pennsylvania oil fields , and permitted both British and American merchants to refer to the same unit, based on the old English wine measure, the tierce . Earlier, another size of whiskey barrel was the most common size; this was the 40 US gallons (33.3 imp gal; 151.4 L) barrel for proof spirits, which

918-451: Is aged for at least three years. Like with other spirits, longer aging results in a more pronounced flavor. Beers are sometimes aged in barrels which were previously used for maturing wines or spirits. This is most common in darker beers such as stout, which is sometimes aged in oak barrels identical to those used for whiskey. Whisky distiller Jameson notably purchases barrels used by Franciscan Well brewery for their Shandon Stout to produce

972-525: Is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans , which promotes real ale , cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. The organisation was founded on 16 March 1971 in Kruger's Bar, Dunquin , County Kerry , Ireland, by Michael Hardman, Graham Lees, Jim Makin, and Bill Mellor, who were opposed to the growing mass production of beer and the homogenisation of

1026-424: Is marketed as having a "barrel-aged" flavor, and the syrup used to produce the beverage was originally aged in oak barrels when first manufactured in the 19th century. Whether the syrup continues to be aged in oak is unclear. "Angels' share" is a term for the portion (share) of a wine or distilled spirit 's volume that is lost to evaporation during aging in oak barrels. The ambient humidity tends to affect

1080-498: Is mizunara oak ( Quercus crispula ), and recently Oregon oak ( Quercus garryana ) has been used. Someone who makes traditional wooden barrels is called a cooper . Today, barrels and casks can also be made of aluminum , stainless steel , and different types of plastic , such as HDPE . Early casks were bound with wooden hoops and in the 19th century these were gradually replaced by metal hoops that were stronger, more durable and took up less space. Barrel has also been used as

1134-428: Is not typically considered necessary elsewhere, whiskey made elsewhere is usually aged in used barrels that previously contained American whiskey (usually bourbon whiskey ). The typical bourbon barrel is 53 US gallons (200 L; 44 imp gal) in size, which is thus the de facto standard whiskey barrel size worldwide. Some distillers transfer their whiskey into different barrels to "finish" or add qualities to

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1188-518: Is selected because of its ability to transfer certain aromas to the spirit. Cognac is aged only in oak casks made from wood from the Forest of Tronçais and more often from the Limousin forests. Some types of tequila are aged in oak barrels to mellow its flavor. "Reposado" tequila is aged for a period of two months to one year, "Añejo" tequila is aged for up to three years, and "Extra Añejo" tequila

1242-408: Is still used as a measure of volume for oil, although oil is no longer shipped in barrels. The barrel has also come into use as a generic term for a wooden cask of any size. An Egyptian wall-painting in the tomb of Hesy-Ra , dating to 2600 BC, shows a wooden tub used to measure wheat and constructed of staves bound together with wooden hoops. Another Egyptian tomb painting dating to 1900 BC shows

1296-780: The Champion Beer of Scotland and the Champion Beer of Wales . CAMRA developed the National Beer Scoring Scheme (NBSS) as an easy to use scheme for judging beer quality in pubs, to assist CAMRA branches in selecting pubs for the Good Beer Guide . CAMRA members input their beer scores online via WhatPub or through the Good Beer Guide app. The CAMRA Pub Heritage Group identifies, records and helps to protect pub interiors of historic and/or architectural importance, and seeks to get them listed . The group maintains two inventories of Heritage pubs,

1350-464: The Good Beer Guide app. These scores are then reviewed by local volunteers in the spring, who put forward those they consider to serve the best real ale. The number of entries each branch area has is decided at county level, with an emphasis on ensuring that a geographically wide spread set of entries are included in each year's Guide. Entries for each venue give details on factual information such as opening times, food availability and accessibility of

1404-399: The Guide would carry the name of the managing editor. The Good Beer Guide 2023 featured a foreword by King Charles III . The Guide was first published in 1972 and was just 18 pages long. Rather than a professionally published volume, it was a collection of sheets of paper stapled together and posted out to CAMRA members. The first printed edition was published in 1974. In a list of

1458-456: The age of sail . Its viscous nature made sperm whale oil a particularly difficult substance to contain in staved containers. Oil coopers were probably the most skilled coopers in pre-industrial cooperage. Olive oil , seed oils and other organic oils were also placed in wooden casks for storage or transport. Wooden casks were also used to store mineral oil. The standard size barrel of crude oil or other petroleum product (abbreviated bbl)

1512-765: The British brewing industry. The original name was the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale. Following the formation of the Campaign, the first annual general meeting took place in 1972, at the Rose Inn in Coton Road, Nuneaton . Early membership consisted of the four founders and their friends. Interest in CAMRA and its objectives spread rapidly, with 5,000 members signed up by 1973. Other early influential members included Christopher Hutt, author of Death of

1566-851: The English Pub , who succeeded Hardman as chairman, Frank Baillie, author of The Beer Drinker's Companion , and later the many times Good Beer Guide editor, Roger Protz . In 1991, CAMRA had 30,000 members across the UK and abroad and, a year later, helped to launch the European Beer Consumers Union. CAMRA's campaigns include promoting small brewing and pub businesses, reforming licensing laws, reducing tax on beer, and stopping continued consolidation among local British brewers. It also makes an effort to promote less common varieties of beer, including stout , porter , and mild , as well as traditional cider and perry . CAMRA's states that real ale should be served without

1620-846: The Great British Beer Festival, the Winter event does not have a permanent venue and is rotated throughout the country every three years. Recent hosts have been Derby and Norwich , with the event currently held each February in Birmingham. In 2020 CAMRA also launched the Great Welsh Beer Festival, to be held in Cardiff in April. CAMRA presents awards for beers and pubs, such as the National Pub of

1674-455: The NI, for reasons such as having been overly modified, but are still considered historically important, or have particular architectural value. The LocAle scheme was launched in 2007 to promote locally brewed beers. The scheme functions slightly differently in each area, and is managed by each branch, but each is similar: if the beer is to be promoted as a LocAle it must come from a brewery within

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1728-539: The National Inventory (NI), which contains only those pubs that have been maintained in their original condition (or have been modified very little) for at least thirty years, but usually since at least World War II . The second, larger, inventory is the Regional Inventory (RI), which is broken down by county and contains both those pubs listed in the NI and other pubs that are not eligible for

1782-455: The UK this is strictly correct only if the container holds 36 imperial gallons. The terms " keg " and "cask" refer to containers of any size, the distinction being that kegs are used for beers intended to be served using external gas cylinders. Cask ales undergo part of their fermentation process in their containers, called casks. Casks are available in several sizes, and it is common to refer to "a firkin " or "a kil" ( kilderkin ) instead of

1836-506: The US, the wine gallon of 231 cubic inches being the standard gallon for liquids (the corn gallon of 268.8 cubic inches for solids). In Britain, the wine gallon was replaced by the imperial gallon . The tierce later became the petrol barrel. The tun was originally 256 gallons , which explains from where the quarter, 8 bushels or 64 (wine) gallons, comes. Although it is common to refer to draught beer containers of any size as barrels, in

1890-454: The Year . The competition begins in the preceding year with branches choosing their local pub of the year through either a ballot or a panel of judges. The branch winners are entered into 16 regional competitions which are then visited by several individuals who agree the best using a scoring system that considers beer quality, aesthetic and welcome. The four finalists are announced each year before

1944-488: The beer, a spile is hammered into the shive and a tap into the keystone. The wooden parts that make up a barrel are called staves , the top and bottom are both called heads or headers , and the rings that hold the staves together are called hoops . These are usually made of galvanized iron, though historically they were made of flexible bits of wood called withies . While wooden hoops could require barrels to be "fully hooped", with hoops stacked tightly together along

1998-481: The center of a barrel is called a bung hole and the stopper used to seal it is a bung . The latter is generally made of white silicone . A barrel is one of several units of volume , with dry barrels, fluid barrels (UK beer barrel, US beer barrel), oil barrel, etc. The volume of some barrel units is double others, with various volumes in the range of about 100–200 litres (22–44 imp gal; 26–53 US gal). Pre-1824 definitions continued to be used in

2052-561: The central body of the organisation based in St Albans . It is governed by a National Executive, made up of 12 voluntary unpaid directors elected by the membership. The local branches are grouped into 16 regions across the UK, such as the West Midlands or Wessex . CAMRA publishes the Good Beer Guide , an annually compiled directory of the best 4,500 real ale outlets and listing of real ale brewers. CAMRA members received

2106-843: The club had over 3,000 members and owned investments worth over £17 million. Although all investors must be CAMRA members, the CAMRA Members' Investment Club is not part of CAMRA Ltd. 51°45′06″N 0°18′51″W  /  51.7518°N 0.3141°W  / 51.7518; -0.3141 Cask Barrels have a variety of uses, including storage of liquids such as water, oil, and alcohol. They are also employed to hold maturing beverages such as wine , cognac , armagnac , sherry , port , whiskey , beer , arrack , and sake . Other commodities once stored in wooden casks include gunpowder , meat , fish, paint, honey, nails, and tallow . Modern wooden barrels for wine-making are made of French common oak ( Quercus robur ), white oak ( Quercus petraea ), American white oak ( Quercus alba ), more exotic

2160-404: The composition of this share. Drier conditions tend to make the barrels evaporate more water, strengthening the spirit. However, in higher humidities, more alcohol than water will evaporate, therefore reducing the alcoholic strength of the product. This alcoholic evaporate encourages the growth of a darkly colored fungus, the angels' share fungus, Baudoinia compniacensis , which tends to appear on

2214-491: The compounds in the barrel, such as vanillin and wood tannins . The presence of these compounds depends on many factors, including the place of origin, how the staves were cut and dried, and the degree of "toast" applied during manufacture. Barrels used for aging are typically made of French or American oak , but chestnut and redwood are also used. Some Asian beverages (e.g., Japanese sake ) use Japanese cedar , which imparts an unusual, minty-piney flavor. In Peru and Chile,

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2268-632: The country's brewers, the entry for Watney's consisted of the advice to "Avoid like the plague." Concerned that this statement was libellous, the publisher, Waddington's, recalled the first print run and revised the entry to "Avoid at all costs." The Guide is published each year, occasionally with multiple bindings: In the past, CAMRA also published the Good Cider Guide and the Good Bottled Beer Guide . Campaign for Real Ale The Campaign for Real Ale ( CAMRA )

2322-403: The dead as grave goods . An "ageing barrel" is used to age wine ; distilled spirits such as whiskey , brandy , or rum ; beer ; tabasco sauce ; or (in smaller sizes) traditional balsamic vinegar . When a wine or spirit ages in a barrel, small amounts of oxygen are introduced as the barrel lets some air in (compare to microoxygenation where oxygen is deliberately added). Oxygen enters

2376-413: The desired measure of oak influence, a winery will replace a certain percentage of its barrels every year, although this can vary from 5 to 100%. Some winemakers use "200% new oak", where the wine is put into new oak barrels twice during the aging process. Bulk wines are sometimes more cheaply flavored by soaking in oak chips or added commercial oak flavoring instead of being aged in a barrel because of

2430-470: The entire top and bottom third of a barrel, iron-hooped barrels only require a few hoops on each end. Wine barrels typically come in two hoop configurations. An American barrel features six hoops, from top to center: head- or chime hoop , quarter hoop and bilge hoop (times two), while a French barrel features eight, including a so-called French hoop , located between the quarter- and bilge hoops (see "wine barrel parts" illustration). The opening at

2484-438: The exterior surfaces of most things in the immediate area. Water barrels are often used to collect the rainwater from dwellings (so that it may be used for irrigation or other purposes). This usage, known as rainwater harvesting , requires (besides a large rainwater barrel or water butt ) adequate (waterproof) roof-covering and an adequate rain pipe . Wooden casks of various sizes were used to store whale oil on ships in

2538-454: The final product. These finishing barrels frequently aged a different spirit (such as rum) or wine. Other distillers, particularly those producing Scotch, often disassemble five used bourbon barrels and reassemble them into four casks with different barrel ends for aging Scotch, creating a type of cask referred to as a hogshead . Maturing is very important for a good brandy , which is typically aged in oak casks. The wood used for those barrels

2592-496: The label " Scotch " to be distilled and matured in Scotland for a minimum of three years and one day in oak casks. By Canadian law, Canadian whiskies must "be aged in small wood for not less than three years", and "small wood" is defined as a wood barrel not exceeding 700 litres (150 imp gal; 180 US gal) capacity. Since the U.S. law requires the use of new barrels for several popular types of whiskey, which

2646-406: The much lower cost. Sherry is stored in 600-litre (130 imp gal; 160 US gal) casks made of North American oak, which is slightly more porous than French or Spanish oak. The casks, or butts, are filled five-sixths full, leaving "the space of two fists" empty at the top to allow flor to develop on top of the wine. Sherry is also commonly swapped between barrels of different ages,

2700-443: The property, as well as subjective information such as the attractiveness of the wallpaper and the welcome visitors are likely to get from the bar staff. The Good Beer Guide also includes a list of real ale breweries in the United Kingdom, with lists and tasting notes on their beers. After two long stints as editor, Roger Protz announced in autumn 2017 that the Good Beer Guide 2018 would be his last. CAMRA stated that from 2019

2754-534: The staves were 38 mm (1.5 in) thick and featured grooves where the heads fitted. They had Roman numerals scratched on the surface of each stave to help with re-assembly. In Anglo-Saxon Britain, wooden barrels were used to store ale, butter, honey and mead . Drinking-containers were also made from small staves of oak , yew or pine . These items required considerable craftsmanship to hold liquids and might be bound with finely-worked precious metals. They were highly valued items and were sometimes buried with

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2808-407: The use of additional carbonation. This means that "any beer brand which is produced in both cask and keg versions" is not admitted to CAMRA festivals if the brewery's marketing is deemed to imply an equivalence of quality or character between the two versions. CAMRA is organised on a federal basis, over 200 local branches, each covering a particular geographical area of the UK, that contribute to

2862-540: The wine. Barrels were sometimes used for military purposes. Julius Caesar (100 to 44 BC) used catapults to hurl burning barrels of tar into besieged towns to start fires. The Romans also used empty barrels to make pontoon bridges to cross rivers. Empty casks were used to line the walls of shallow wells from at least Roman times. Such casks were found in 1897 during archaeological excavations of Roman Silchester in Britain. They were made of Pyrenean silver fir and

2916-511: Was of the same volume as five US bushels. However, by 1866, the oil barrel was standardized at 42 US gallons. Oil has not been shipped in barrels since the introduction of oil tankers , but the 42 US gallon size is still used as a unit of measurement for pricing and tax and regulatory codes. Each barrel is refined into about 20 US gallons (17 imp gal; 76 L) of gasoline , the rest becoming other products such as jet fuel and heating oil, using fractional distillation . Barrels have

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