I found a website named SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers). After scowling the site I realised they had no official numbers or statements on the amount of members year on year so I decided to e-mail them in hope for the information to be sent to me.
I was happy to receive a reply on Monday morning with a couple of links to the information I was after.
I also called up Companies House to see if they had information I could use. The man I spoke to said that the information I am looking for might not come down as narrow as "independent breweries" but I should be able to find something there.
He directed me to the SIC code list where I could look for the subject field I needed and then how to order data files for £30, the only problem was there is a notice saying they aren't compatible with Apple Mac computers.
I sent over an email asking if this data would help me with what I was looking for as well as how I would access it considering my computer operating system.
On European Beer Guide I found a table splitting off the brewery figures between 1985 - 1999 but nothing closer than that.
I spent a while going over the CAMRA website and found a small table hidden in the FAQ section with some info on amount of breweries over a series of years. This was so close to what I was after, having it go back to 2000 would of been perfect because I would of then had the data from 1985 to now.
I found this pdf on SIDA that goes into depth of the rise in sales of cask ales which are related directly to craft beers. This will help define the rise in popularity of this choice in drink.
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