One of the things we do locally in CAMRA, when not imposing fantasy rules on what people should or shouldn't drink (we are pro choice Folks, remember that) is to have an active social side, with various tantalising trips out to this or that town, renowned for the quality of its watering holes. Sometimes even, we visit a brewery to see if we can organise a piss up in one. Such an event happens tomorrow when we visit (snow permitting) Magic Rock.I am expecting that along with cask beer, we'll be offered some keg. Do I care about that? No, of course not and hopefully my colleagues won't either. Of course we believe in cask beer and always will do, but you know, sometimes it is good to get outside your comfort zone.
As I said, I am looking forward to it. It's Magic Rock* after all
Of course, keg is sipping beer and cask supping beer. That's a given. An easy little aide memoire, brought to you by this blog, as a public service.
* I'm told we'll get to taste their new lager. Yum yum. I like lager.
"Fantasy rules on what people should or shouldn't drink (we are pro choice Folks, remember that)". Absolutely right, but I sometimes see non-real beers are slagged off in local CAMRA magazines. One in the North West routinely refers to beers that aren't real as "zombeers", which is simultaneously juvenile and bad mannered.
ReplyDeleteWe're off tomorrow on a trip to Lytham Brewery, as their Berry Blonde won Beer of the festival last October. We left the trip until March when we knew the weather would be better.
I take it you chaps won't be voting in favour of motion 4 then?
ReplyDelete“I must point out that we’re not fighting against anything, we’re fighting for something, There may be some members who give a different impression and I apologise to the general drinking public for the fact that we’ve recruited those people.”
ReplyDeleteHave a guess who said that. Seems more an acknowledgement than a fantasy, fellas, but if anyone can overcome the nutters, it's you two.
I hope it's good. I'm a huge fan of MR generally, but the one time I had one of theirs on keg it was... adequate. Perfectly fine. (In other words, a huge disappointment by their standards!)
ReplyDeleteShame about the weather! I was looking forward to the visit.
ReplyDeleteI've had to go into Sheffield to drink a load of High Wire instead.... (keg) ;-)
"One in the North West routinely refers to beers that aren't real as "zombeers", which is simultaneously juvenile and bad mannered."
ReplyDeleteGood old Central Lancs CAMRA. I took their quarterly mag to a craft beer place in Lancaster and the manager's face was a picture when he read it.
Don't blame me, I just live here. The fact my local branch are still fighting the 1970s Keg Wars are one of the reasons I'm not involved in what they do.
M Lawrenson: that's the one! As a CAMRA mag editor myself, I wasn't going to name it. As TM says, CAMRA is about choice, so I'd argue that such an attitude is not consistent with CAMRA policy.
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ReplyDeleteIn answer to PYO, no I won't be voting for motion 4. Recognising and respecting other people's choices of drinks doesn't mean that CAMRA has to change its definition of real ale. People who like craft keg are free to set up their own group, rather than change the aims of a campaign for a different type of beer. I similarly won't be demanding that the Cats Protection League starts taking in dogs.
ReplyDeleteRed Nev : You should read the latest edition of Ale Cry. One of the members is putting himself up for the NE saying, basically, CAMRA is slipping.
ReplyDeleteAs evidence, he uses a photo of the continental beers stand at the Wigan Beer Festival. This is proof that Evil Keg is infiltrating CAMRA. Apparently, the likes of Schneider Weisse are the enemy these days.
I must let my friends in Wigan CAMRA know about this!
ReplyDelete'Pro choice' is absolutely right.
ReplyDelete'Pro *restricted* choice' is, however, dangerous and wrong. And for that reason I do think CAMRA should actively campaign against breweries making good beers (or any beers for that matter) keg only.
I drink mostly cask with a little bit of keg, and I'm worried that we're starting to see a situation where pro-keg brewers are doing their blandest beers in cask and their best beers in keg in an attempt to manipulate the market and perpetuate myths about cask beer which are just as damaging as some of the prevailing myths about keg.
Should CAMRA care if brewers are doing keg? It's not an issue in itself, but when it's keg *at the expense of cask* then it becomes a campaigning issue in my view.
I think the Cask Fundamentalist wing of CAMRA do more harm than good sometimes. Beer drinkers of my age (37), didn't go through the battles of the 70s, trying to part the seas of Red Barrel and Trophy Bitter in order to get some decent beer on sale. Fighting against Punk IPA simply because it comes in the same containers Watney and Whitbread used in 1971 will baffle many of the younger generation.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing my local CAMRA do is praise any place that starts doing cask. Many's the time I've read in Ale Cry a news item saying "[such and such a bar] has put two handpumps on, serving Greene King IPA and Marstons Pedigree", as if another place doing nationally available brands is some kind of triumph.
I hope that one day they'll be an organisation called "The Campaign For Interesting Beer".
m.lawrenson - How about the "Campaign for Revitalisation of Ale" or "CAMRA" for short? Basically means the same thing as "The Campaign for Interesting Beer".
ReplyDelete'Revitalisation' originally rejected in 1973 for being too hard to say while drunk...
ReplyDeleteThose who wish to amend CAMRA's aims and policies should put motions to the 2014 AGM (you're too late for this year). If you want the campaign to change, that is your only option; comments on blogs, letters to What's Brewing, resigning from CAMRA in disgust or not joining on principle will not change anything.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the CAMRA campaign for cask beer could become more relevant in the future if more do follow Brew Dogs lead , which may or maynot happen , although I expect it will. Campaigning for interesting beer would be ridiculous as who defines it, an elected God of Beer each decade ? (maybe Tandleman)
ReplyDeleteThis week surely the benefit of CAMRA has been shown to all who like a good cask or any beer in a pub.
Saying that I do see that it has an image problem which needs to be dealt with, but hey youngsters do seem to be watching Game of Thrones in their droves so maybe Nerdy is the new King.
Me? God of beer? I just know what I like.
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