BADRAG - What's That?

BADRAG, the Bristol and District Rare Ales Group, is an award-winning campaigning group within the local branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. Our aim is to promote the rarer styles of real ale to brewers, publicans and drinkers, in particular - but not exclusively - dark beers such as milds, stouts and porters, plus the even rarer old ales and barley wines.

The group was launched at the 2007 Bristol Beer Festival.

NEWS! Mild Time 1-10 November 2024

BADRAG once again organised a dedicated series of socials and pub walks to celebrate Mild Time 1-10 November 2024. Thanks to all the breweries, pubs and more than 40 eager drinkers who participated. If you missed out, details are on the Mild Time page.

Brew, stock, drink them or lose them!

You may think that these styles aren’t really rare; BADRAG's campaigning over the years has helped them become less so, but there are still parts of the Bristol & District branch area where they are hard to find. You could help with this vital campaign …

As a customer please keep asking for milds, porters, stouts and other ‘rare’ styles of real ale to show licensees that there is a demand.

As a licensee introduce one of these styles and see what your customers think. There is a wide range of strengths and flavours to complement the rest of your beer range. Ask your local suppliers or brewery contacts what they can offer (and let us know so we can promote your pub to our members).

As a brewer let us know if you brew one or more of these styles and where we might be able to drink them.

If we know about them, we’re more than happy to encourage members and others to visit pubs, brewery taps and beer festivals serving these styles of real ales via:

• Our dedicated BADRAG WhatsApp group.
• Our Bristol CAMRA Chat on Facebook (you will need to ask to join this private Facebook group if not already a member)
• Articles in the local branch magazine Pints West
• Organised walks, socials or mini-bus tours as part of our branch social diary.

Find out more ...

... about different beer styles at CAMRA's national website's Breweries and beers page - scroll down and click on a style, eg Porters, to see which beers of that style are brewed and by whom.

You may also be interested in the following, but these legacy pages are no longer kept up to date.

In the past we maintained a list of bars that support BADRAG by stocking these kind of ales. If you can't get out to the pub, try At Home with Our Kind of Beer for a take-away.

You can also see details of current and previous Mild Ale Promotion Campaigns, Mild Time.