Blog by Neville Grundy, Southport and West Lancs CAMRA
CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide is the UK’s best-selling beer and pub guide and it continues to represent the very best in the brewing and hospitality industry.
With 4,500 pubs, bars, and clubs selected by unpaid volunteers up and down the country, this is the best guide for pub-goers interested in being served a good pint of real ale as well as those who wish to find a local near them that is welcoming and has many other benefits that may appeal.
Each entry contains a short description of the pub, listing any special points of interest as well as giving details of the regular beers as well as some national favourites, and you can check the brewery section to find beers that are brewed locally to you. It also lists real cider and perry where these are available.
This guide is compiled by beer lovers for beer lovers and is the most independent and complete guide to find good beer. The 2024 edition has a foreword by Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of rock band Iron Maiden and the cover features the band’s mascot Eddie. Bruce is an avid drinker of real ale, so much so that his collaboration with Robinsons Brewery has produced one of the best-known beers in the UK – Trooper.
Southport and West Lancs CAMRA will be holding a local launch of the Guide on Thursday 28th September at 8pm.
It will be held in the only Robinson’s pub in Southport, the Masons Arms, Anchor Street, Southport town centre. They will be serving Trooper for the occasion.
Apologies for the very short notice of this event, but even if you can’t make it, the Masons is worth a visit at any time. It has six hand pumps and when I called in at the weekend, they were serving their regular beers, Unicorn and Dizzy Blonde, both from Robinson’s, and Titanic Plum Porter, along with Magpie Raven Stout, Weston’s Medium Dry Cider, with Robinson’s Trooper on the sixth handpump marked as coming soon.
The Masons is an unspoilt traditional pub with a small snug on the left as you enter with a real coal fire when the weather is cold. Two minutes walk from the station and from Lord Street.
You can buy the Good Beer Guide from good book shops or you can order it on-line at: https://shop1.camra.org.uk/product/the-good-beer-guide-2024/
► The national CAMRA website is at: camra.org.uk. The Southport & West Lancs Branch website is at southport.camra.org.uk.
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