Welcome to Reading & Mid Berkshire CAMRA

About the local branch...

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has 200 local branches which campaign for good quality cask beer served in good pubs. The Reading and Mid Berkshire branch is responsible for central Berkshire. Based around Reading, we extend to Pangbourne and Aldermaston in the west, Arborfield and Burghfield in the south, and Twyford in the east. We look after some 400 pubs - not all of which serve real ale but we're working on it!

Campaigns

The branch supports all national CAMRA campaigns including Cider Month, Community Pubs Week and Mild Month. We organise branch events in support of these and work closely with local pubs who wish to hold their own events. Often you will find us on a campaigning trip to a brewery, a cider farm or just to some great pubs. And of course every year we organise the best campaigning event of all, the famous Reading Beer Festival.

Beer Festival

The Reading Beer Festival is one of the top events in the UK. Nearly 15,000 visitors this year told us that it's also one of the best! Come along to King's Meadow in Reading every May Day Bank Holiday Weekend (the first weekend in May) to enjoy the best range in the area. We have some 450 different cask beers from all around the UK, 160 ciders and perries, over 140 foreign beers (bottled and draught) and a fine selection of English wines. We believe that the people of Reading deserve the best, and we insist on quality in everything we sell. If you believe that too, and want to join the more than 300 people who help out at the Festival, then please get in touch. You can contact the Festival team on this e-mail address.

Ale Trail

Our annual Ale Trail every spring has become famous with hundreds of people enjoying visiting the pubs, collecting stickers and enjoying plenty of good beer. This year 24 pubs spread across Reading and Mid Berkshire took part. Visit the Pubs section of this website for more details, and look out for next year's trail.

How the Branch Works

All members of CAMRA living in the area are automatically members of Reading and Mid Berkshire branch - there are no additional subs to pay! You can also choose to belong to the branch if, for instance, you live elsewhere but work in the area. In fact, as a CAMRA member you can choose to belong to whichever branch you want.

We have about 800 members and a full social diary which you can find here.
The branch elects a committee to oversee the inner workings of the branch so that the members can just turn up and enjoy the events laid on. Our regular business meetings are held at pubs that are sympathetic to CAMRA's aims. That's a good way to show our support for those pubs, and also means we're guaranteed good beer while we're discussing all the procedural and official stuff.

Good Beer Guide

Every year branch members have the enjoyable task of selecting which pubs go into the best selling Good Beer Guide. Fortunately the selection process involves a lot of first-hand research! The Good Beer Guide is an essential publication for all beer lovers as it is the only truly independent guide to the best pubs selling the best beer. As a CAMRA member you can buy the Guide at a discounted price at branch events.