In the run up to the publication of the first edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Yearbook early next year, we whet the appetite with an extract from one of the included works, Jessica Mason’s Paean to Pubs.

“It’s a universally known fact that the first sip of beer in a pub after any kind of enforced hiatus is timelessly poignant. There is something dazzlingly bright, hopeful and joyous about seeing a pint of cask ale freshly pulled and placed on the bar in front of you.

If you’re not in a pub setting, it could be argued that you’re not getting the complete experience of what truly great beer has to offer. After all, we are such sensory creatures and there is so much more we can experience by accessing a setting like a pub. Beer in a pub doesn’t just satisfy our thirst, it goes further. Probing the inner corners of our most contented minds and lifting those points higher and amplifying the entire experience.

Why are pubs the best places to enjoy beer? Because beer itself is made with pubs in mind. Beer is so closely interlinked with lifestyle and socialising that it offers us more in the right place. In truth, we knew it to be a crucial element of what we were missing as soon as it became denied. 

We don’t want much; just conviviality and glee. So the uncontrived backdrop of the pub was the place we knew we would find it. A small space to relax. Somewhere all troubles crumble as we push through frosted glass to be greeted into that other world of ‘home-from-home’.

Good beer in a great pub can give us a sense of belonging and homeliness. It’s truly special. It’s a gentle nudge that reminds us we are people. And we are filled to the brim with gratitude for life. And it is in these moments that we know, without a doubt, that whatever day it is today, or what happens in the days to come, that we will appreciate it all. Every beer in every pub. For as long as we live. Each and every sip.”

The first edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Yearbook is out in February 2023 and available to pre-order here.