New research from CAMRA shows that over a third of young people aged 18-24 have tried real ale and of those 87% would drink it again. The campaigning group says that interest in real ale is increasing year on year and more young people are being attracted to the joys of Britain’s national drink.

“It is fantastic to see more young people discovering and enjoying real ale – that old stereotype of real ale drinkers being in their dotage never was true, but now it’s dead and buried.” says CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide Editor, Roger Protz.

The research also shows that new real ale drinkers are far more likely to be in this 18-24 age bracket. 65% of 18-24s tried real ale for the first time within the last three years, compared to 11% across all ages. So it is clear that real ale is not only attracting new drinkers – as one in ten real ale drinkers tried it in the last three years – but these new recruits are far more likely to be young.

“It’s not just the demographic of real ale drinkers that is changing though, it’s the places you can drink it too. As well as traditional country pubs and back street boozers which offer excellent real ale, the guide now has a growing number of modern city centre beer bars such as Port Street Beer House in Manchester, Urban Tap House in Cardiff and Craft Beer Co in London.” Roger added.

According to CAMRA around 28% of real ale drinkers are now aged between 18 to 34, equivalent to 2.2 million people across the UK.

The survey was undertaken by TNS in June 2014; over 1000 people were surveyed.