Real ale drinkers are caricatured by their sandals, beards, and pot bellies. But landlords say that the image is outdated and that an eclectic group of drinkers, including women and young people, have acquired such a thirst for real ale that they are helping pubs to survive the recession.

The taste for craft beers has also brought a resurgence to the brewing industry, with more breweries in Britain now than at any other time since the Second World War.

There were 71 new brewery openings in the past 12 months, lifting the total to 711, of which 670 are micro-breweries. The popularity of real ale is helping the licensed trade to fight back despite a slump in overall beer sales and pubs closing at the rate of 52 a week. Real ale is singled out as an area of rapid growth, with 1,297 new entries in the Good Beer Guide, the directory for the Campaign for Real Ale, published today.

Many of the new generation of real ale pubs are also making their own beer having set up micro-breweries near by. Roger Protz, editor of the guide, is convinced that the trend is due to the attitude of beer drinkers, who he claims are “increasingly tired of ‘drinking the advertising’ that promotes bland global brands”. He said: “Beer is expensive and when people have to spend £3 or £3.50 for a pint they want a beer with quality not a global beer. They seek the rich, tempting aromas and flavours of locally brewed beers, made with fresh, wholesome ingredients.”

Younger drinkers in particular, he suggested, were attracted by real ales that had “a better, hoppier, character” than standard beers and lagers. Women also were no longer intimidated by real ale, especially as most pubs offered drinks in third-pint glasses and were offering appetising menus.

At the William IV pub, part of a small family chain, in Leyton, East London, James Brodie said that custom became so slow that the lager would go off. “For lager to go off is just unheard of and just shows how quiet we were. We got a trickle of 50 maximum throughout the day. Something had to be done quickly and so we decided to become a real ale pub.”

He also opened a micro-brewery behind the pub to launch Brodies beer, which is one of the new entries in the Good Beer Guide. Mr Brodie said: “I have made my own brew for years at home, driving my wife mad, but last August with my sister Lizzie we decided to set up our own micro-brewery. The pub has had a renaissance — it’s just taken off. We now supply real ale to our family pubs and local outlets.”

All Brodies ales are sold at £1.99 a pint in the pub and the bestseller is Brodie’s India Pale Ale.

Mr Protz said that Britain was now the undisputed top brewing country in the world. He also spoke of the counter-culture of real ale openings against the general decline in the pub business. In July, for example, the Thornbridge brewery in Derbyshire moved to a new £1.6 million custom-built plant with a production capacity of 30 million barrels a year.

Most new breweries are based in West Yorkshire, where another four are planned next year, bringing the total in the county to 38. This is followed closely by Norfolk with 31 new breweries this year and another two due in 2010. A further 22 are planned around the country.

These are bringing dividends. Greene King, the Suffolk brewer behind Abbot Ale, Greene King IPA and Old Speckled Hen, has had a 12 per cent jump in its own-brewed volumes in the 17 weeks to the end of August. This compares with the 6 per cent decline in the wider beer market in the three months to July, reported by the British Beer and Pub Association.

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