Wow ,, how do you come up with this stuff..Now that is downright funny... CAMRA says nothing at all about hops or no hops..
From CAMRA website..
All of these ales have hops in them....Also notice that it calls the ales, beer.
Again not mention of hops or no hops being the difference...And they do recognize ales and lagers, both of which are reffered to as beers....
Here is the CAMRA website. http://www.camra.org.uk/about-real-ale
Well, according to this site, my memory is in error so far as 18th & 19th centuries are concerned; http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/beerale.htm But there was a point where cask ales had no hops in them, but weren't gruits either. Anyway, under 18th century classifications, it says ales were lightly hopped compared to beers at that point.