Activities & Campaigns
We do both but what is the difference?
Activities
These are mainly things you can do as a member of the Branch. Many of the activities are highly social, not least because they take place in pubs, bars, inns and taverns. They range from branch meetings each month to occasional brewery visits and the all important regular visits to real ale drinking places to build up the annual scores for the widely acclaimed
Good Beer Guide. To keep you fit there are guided walks with a theme visiting a selection of licensed establishments.
Real Ale Guides
Both new and established real ale drinkers need to know where to find their drink of choice. That is why CAMRA produces real ale guides, ranging from the UK wide
Good Beer Guide to branch wide local beer guides. No outlet appears in a guide without being visited. Find out more in
Publications.
Pub Visits
Unobtrusive - but essential. As far as CAMRA is concerned, the number one issue is the availability of real ale of good quality in public houses, bars, taverns, inns and hotels. Branch members score the quality of the real ale available. Of course, many of us are very experienced in this activity, and some of us have even been trained at tasting panels. Outlets cannot pay to have an entry in our guides.
Beer Scoring
The National Beer Scoring Scheme (NBSS) is a 0-5 point scale for judging beer quality in pubs. It is an easy to use system that has been designed to assist CAMRA branches in selecting pubs for the
Good Beer Guide by encouraging members to report beer quality in any pub in the UK. The NBSS website can be found at
http://www.beerscoring.org.uk.
Awards
Particularly for entry into the
Good Beer Guide the quality threshold is high. Each year a database of entries is formed. Through a series of meetings, and with the active participation of branch members, Pub of the Year awards are made. Within our overall branch region awards are made for three areas - Edinburgh, the Lothians and the Borders. To read about all the 2011 winners, including the overall branch pub of the year, see
Awards.
Campaigns
Our branch is often involved in UK wide campaigns organised by CAMRA, as well as local or Scotland wide national campaigns. These often involve matters close to the heart and pocket of real ale drinkers. They can be either one-off efforts or annual events. They can range from actions against the threatened closure of a brewery to continuing protests at the often seemingly unfair taxes suffered by real beer drinkers.
Click here to find out more.
