Beer Styles

Beer styles are used to group beers for tasting and judging in competitions. There is no nationally agreed set of beer styles. Many breweries have their own set of styles and allocate their beers accordingly. Several organisations have style guidelines, including the European Beer Consumers Union and SIBA. So that CAMRA can operate a national Champion Beer of Britain competition, it is necessary to have one consistent set of styles that is applied to all beers from all breweries.

CAMRA defines 25 styles covering all the live beer (real ale) styles commonly available in the UK in cask, bottle, can, keykeg and bag-in-box. To enable CAMRA to operate a manageable competition, these 25 styles are grouped into 12 judging categories for cask beers, where each category contains styles with some similarity. There are two categories for bottled beers in two strength bands, up to 4.3% ABV and 4.4% and above, each including beers of all styles.

The following link will take you to the current list of CAMRA beer styles CAMRA Beer Styles 2025