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The Good Beer Guide includes 42 new Kent pubs
Despite reports a dozen pubs are closing across Britain every week, it seems real ale is booming in Kent.
The latest Good Beer Guide, produced by the Campaign for Real Ale, features 146 county pubs - including 42 that were not included last year.
And the 40th anniversary edition out today reveals five more independent breweries have been added to the beer-lovers' bible.
Writing in the guide's introduction, editor Roger Protz describes the revival of real ale as "nothing short of miraculous".
There are now 1,008 breweries in the UK and CAMRA membership has reached more than 140,000 - the highest in the organisation's history.
Mr Protz says: "While around 12 pubs a week are closing, the rate of closure is slowing. There are encouraging signs that people are returning to pubs, not only to enjoy good beer but also because they recognise them as an important community resource that needs to be recognised."
Mr Protz, who has a world-wide reputation as a champion of real ale, is strongly critical of the government which, he says, has done nothing "to tackle the market-distorting power of the supermarkets".
The 42 Kent pubs new to the 2013 Good Beer Guide:
Kent has 25 independent breweries, five of which are new:
