RICHARD James has the passion of the enthusiast and the cheeriness of somebody who knows he’s on the winning side.

Later this month, his Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) branch will welcome thousands of people to Steam over the course of three days.

There they will sample 130 ales from all over Britain.

Demand for the Friday evening session is expected to be so high that it’s a tickets-only affair.

Real ale is more popular here and around the country than it has been in decades.

There are more than 1,400 breweries, which is more than three times the number at the turn of the millennium.

Between them they make more than 11,000 varieties of real ale, and real ale fills one in every six pint glasses handed over bars to British pubgoers.

Richard puts the resurgence down to quality, variety – and a reduction in duty for small breweries in 2002.

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence that since 2002 we’ve seen a lot of new breweries coming along,” he said.

“Some just start in the back of a pub or somebody’s garage.

“It’s a virtuous circle because the more the variety of beers there are available, the more interesting real ale becomes.

“The more interesting real ale becomes, the more people are encouraged to start their own breweries.

“I remember in the eighties when Stella was sold as being something exotic and better than your average.

“They still try to advertise Stella in that way, but everybody knows you can find Stella at every supermarket and every corner shop.

“It’s no longer got that sort of cachet of being something a bit special, whereas real ale now has that cachet.

“There’s that element of discovery. You can feel like you’re making your own choices, you’ve found a new thing you can tell other people about.

“That makes you feel you’ve had a more interesting evening out than you would if you always had the same beer or the same wine or the same spirit you’ve always had.”

A real ale is defined as one which continues to mature in the cask.

They differ from keg ales, whose fermentation is ended by freezing at the brewery, and which are pumped with gas to create ‘fizz’ and a head.

Real ale enthusiasts say keeping their favourite tipple ‘alive’ makes for a more drinkable, more interesting pint.

Richard’s first taste of ale didn’t impress.

“It was a bottled beer – I think it might have been Newcastle Brown – when I was 15 or 16.

“My parents had some friends round and said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to try this.’ I didn’t like it, obviously – it didn’t taste how I expected.”

Richard is originally from Newport in South Wales, where his father was a solicitor. His mother worked in a bank before raising the three boys of which Richard is the eldest.

For his first real ale, he had to wait until his university days at Aberystwyth, although the choice was limited to Banks, Banks or Banks.

He much preferred it to the ‘dead’ brews he had tried before.

“It was easier to drink because it was less cold and less gassy, and I think it cost the princely sum of 22 pence a pint, but you could live on ten pounds a week in those days, so it’s all relative.

“But I wasn’t precious about it. If we went somewhere where there was just John Smith’s or whatever was around at the time, that was okay.”

Richard gradually tried other beers, but it wasn’t until a job with Nationwide job brought him to Swindon in 1989 that his interest really took off.

With two local breweries – Arkell’s and Archer’s – plus Wadworth and a wealth of pubs with guest ales, there was plenty of choice.

Richard still savours the memories of trying ales such as Archer’s Golden for the first time.

In 1990 he joined CAMRA. The local branch currently more than 760 members.

Over the years, Richard has seen the image of real ale and the people who drink it undergo a radical transformation.

“The ‘beard and sandals’ thing dates back to the eighties, really, when it was still quite a small thing.

“But from 2000 onwards there’s been a very rapid growth in real ales and CAMRA membership.

“I think it’s a lot more diverse now. We have younger members and not everyone has a beard!”

Some are beardless by choice, but an ever-growing number couldn’t grow one if they tried.

Recent figures show not only that over a fifth of CAMRA’s active members nationally are women, but also that real ale is more popular among women than ever before – another blow to the old-fashioned image.

Richard said: “I think the quality of real ale is also being recognised.

“That was one of the problems in the eighties and nineties – that in some cases the quality wasn’t there.”

He especially remembers drinking a major real ale brand in Newport, with no guarantee from evening to evening that it would be any good.

“Now all the breweries realise they’ve got to produce something that’s not only interesting but also of good quality, because otherwise people will try it once and then they’ve got 20 others to try.

“The real ale tradition never died out in Britain. You can trace it back, certainly, for hundreds of years.

“It’s gone a bit full circle, because small breweries brewing in the back of pubs is exactly how it would have started.

“Back in the days before reliable transport, big barrels of beer were the worst thing to transport. Beers were very local and tended to be brewed and consumed within quite a small area.”

According to Richard, real ale tastes best on draught, which means real ale drinkers are a boon to the troubled pub industry.

“The best place for real ale is in the pub and that’s probably what makes real ale drinkers more regular pubgoers.

“Other types of drink such as wine and lagers you could probably buy from a supermarket and I don’t think anybody could argue that you’d lost out on flavour by drinking it at home.

“Real ale is good for the pub and the pub is good for real ale – that’s why CAMRA’s keen on saving pubs from disappearing.”

Further information about CAMRA and the festival can be found at swindon.camra.org.uk