About Us
We are a branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) covering the South-Eastern area of Berkshire.
Here are some of the things that we do
- Organise an active Events Diary of meetings and interesting socials.
- Beer Scoring the quality of beer served in the pubs in our area.
- Based upon our findings, select which local pubs feature in the Good Beer Guide and make Awards such as electing an annual Pub of the Year.
- Distribute a free quarterly Branch Magazine across pubs in the area.
- Campaign for and assist with Pub Protection of all pubs in our area under threat of closure.
- Organise the Ascot Beer Festival at Ascot Racecourse each year.
A brief history of CAMRA
CAMRA was formed in 1971 by a small group of beer drinkers who were becoming disgruntled with the continuing trend towards the bland fizzy keg beers produced by the large brewing companies. As a result a consumer backlash took place and proper British beer started reappearing in many of our pubs. Over forty years later, and despite many successes in saving traditional breweries, real British cask-conditioned beer, and more recently, the English pub, are under a greater threat than ever before. More and more people are becoming concerned about this threat to our traditional way of life and CAMRA membership now stands at a record level of over 150,000. If you would like to join CAMRA, you can come along to one of the socials listed in our Events Diary to meet us or Join CAMRA online now.
Berkshire South-East Branch
The Berkshire South-East Branch was formed in 2001, having previously been part of Reading and Mid-Berkshire Branch.
It covers the towns of Wokingham, Bracknell, Ascot and their surrounding areas as shown on the map, The area stretches from Winnersh in the West to Sunningdale in the East, and from Winkfield in the North to Sandhurst in the South, covering postcodes: RG12, RG40, RG41, RG42, RG45, SL5, GU47, GU17-8 and GU15-4. The pubs that fall within our boundaries are shown in the Branch Pub Guide.
As the acronym for our branch name is “B.S.E.”, we are known as the “Mad Cows”.
The branch has an active campaigning and social calendar (see Events Diary), which includes visits to pubs and breweries, selection and surveying of pubs for the best-selling Good Beer Guide, making Awards such as our Pub of the Year, and organising the annual Ascot Beer Festival held at Ascot Racecourse.
Other things we do include:
- Publishing a quarterly free Branch Magazine called the Mad Cow, which we distribute across local pubs.
- Perform Beer Scoring of the quality of beer served in the pubs in our area..
- Campaigning locally on issues such as Pub Protection.
- Accrediting pubs that regularly serve locally brewed ale for the LocAle scheme.
The other CAMRA branches in Berkshire are:
West Berkshire CAMRA
Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead CAMRA
We also share branch borders with North Surrey CAMRA and Surrey/Hants Borders CAMRA.
Our branch is part of the Central Southern CAMRA Region.
Public Transport
Public transport companies providing services in the Berkshire South-East area are as follows:
Great Western Railway
Reading Buses
Thames Valley Buses
White Bus Services
Assistance can be provided by our Branch Public Transport Coordinator.