Tuesday 16 March 2010

Keg is no longer the devil that I was frightened by for years



Just the other day someone asked me what I thought about CAMRA and I said that I no opinion (10 years ago I would have ranted on for ages about defending cask beer, promoting world beers etc). After a brief moment of contemplative silence I then went on for 10 minutes, arguing that CAMRA, one day, will have to seize the chance to celebrate all British craft beer, not just cask; that they needed their Clause Four moment, that they needed to ‘modernise’. What it came down to was that one fine day they will have to acknowledge a well-crafted British beer that isn’t cask is just as valid as one that has mellowed and matured in a cask. Thoughts along this way have been swirling about in my head for years, the result of late night conversations held at various booze-ups and events (I remember being quite shocked when someone at a beer dinner said that the second part of CAMRA’s name, ie Real Ale, was a bit of a prison; this person then went onto to point out that CAMRA had changed its name once before so it could do it again).

I think another catalyst for me was Meantime’s beers, which you never seem to see at the Great British Beer Festival; then there were the lagers produced by the likes of Cotswold and Freedom, once again missing from the bash. Will it be the same with BrewDog (though their cask versions of 77 and Trashy Blonde have turned up here in the Bridge in Dulvie)? It would feel strange to go to one of the greatest beer festivals in the world and not see a BrewDog (maybe they wouldn’t want to be there anyway?). After all, there’s a load of great beers from Germany, the Czech Republic and the US on draft — do they all meet the CAMRA criteria? I am told that they do, but is this the way they are served back home? Anyway, this isn’t a gripe about CAMRA — they seem more of a trade body dealing with such esoteric subjects as minimum pricing (which I don’t have an opinion) and OFT (whoever they are), rather than beer but then they are a pressure and campaigning group, so can you blame them?

What I wanted to write about has been covered by some but it’s also been buzzing about in my head for a while, helped on its way by conversations with brewers. The subject is: keg isn’t the devil, it’s bad keg that’s the frightener. I’ve chatted with SIBA members who don’t do cask beer (or do very little of it) and they have wondered what membership has to do with them, given that the vast majority of members are cask ale people. More recently though I hear that SIBA are looking at a category in their competitions for keg beer, though they will be calling it brewery conditioned. I think it’s a great idea (think the name needs tinkering with though). Jeff Rosenmeier at Lovibond’s producing some cracking beers but they are not cask; Freedom had that much reported ding-dong with CAMRA when they had to withdraw their beer from the Burton festival; Meantime’s Helles is a splendid beer but it’s not cask or bottle conditioned. I interviewed BrewDog’s James Watt recently and he reckoned that an IPA was better served brewery conditioned (filtered but not pasteurized I believe), the first time I heard someone say this. This is not an anti-cask post, god knows I drink enough of it in my local and on my travels, but I also adore  Meantime IPA (and any of their beers) from the keg and would like BrewDog’s lagers from the keg; meanwhile I drink filtered beer at home (unless it’s a bottle-conditioned beer that I have grown to trust through long experience) — they are all good beers. 

I guess CAMRA will pooh-pooh the need for them to accept what is fast becoming a pluralist beer system (especially as cask is doing well but who knows how fragile this growth is), but I would like to think that sometime in the near future good cask (there’s crap cask lest us not forget) and good keg (for want of a better name) will co-exist in a beneficial spirit of mutual love at the bar and we will all gain something from this.

22 comments:

  1. Labour had a clause 4 moment in order to become electable. The Tory's have struggled to find one in an attempt to shed their old image. Why would CAMRA want one? The beardies are growing in number according to their website. Maybe beards and sandals are the new trend, but I doubt they will need a clause 4 until their membership dwindles and they ask themselves what beer drinkers are drinking. Maybe after the spoons stop giving them all £20 of tokens.

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  2. You can have massive army of members but a campaigning organisation needs them to get involved on a larger scale than they are at the moment, I know of a couple of branches where it’s the same old faces year after year and someone under 40 is profusely welcomed to the extent it’s too creepy and drives them away; it’s a bit like collecting obsolete banknotes, it doesn’t make you any richer, you’ve just got more of them and it looks good to other banknote collectors. Clause 4 made labour electable and the architect of its destruction Blair attracted lots of new members, until these they decided that whatever the yearly sub was wasn’t going to make them any happier (and they probably went to a branch meeting and thought I’m outta here).

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  3. Cookie- CAMRA a re notoriously so short of beardy stereotypes that they have to source some from abroad. I'm the living proof.

    Not that I'm anti-keg by any means, mind you.

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  4. I've spotted BrewDog at the Winter Ales festival and that was definitely run by CAMRA so I wouldn't worry about them not sending beers, they'll be there if there's money to be made.

    I'm completely behind for a wider appreciation of well crafted beer, not just cask and that's always my response when asked about CAMRA. I'm a member but I have a much wider appreciation of beer and wish that they did.

    And sometimes keg/filtered is better than cask/bottle conditioned. And more practical in many situations. What's wrong with that? Nothing.

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  5. "I'm a member but I have a much wider appreciation of beer and wish that they did."

    Most of us do Mark. Your wish probably came true long before it was a wish. Most CAMRA people like and appreciate most kinds of beer I have found. But they prefer cask.

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  6. I've not really come across anyone in the "beer blogosphere" who subscribes to the simplistic view of "real ale good, keg beer bad" - but there are many CAMRA members on the ground who still seem to take that approach and it still seems to inform much of its publicity material, which continues to bang on about "converting people from lager" and similar nonsense.

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  7. Some types of beer do work better as keg (wheat beers for example). But generally the types of beer I like to drink are cask.

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  8. An excellent post and one that I couldn't agree with more. As a CAMRA member, of over 30 years standing, I think there is a sea change (albeit a slow one) within the organisation towards recognising other types of beer. This is probably more the case at grass roots level than within the upper echelons of the campaign.

    I'm not certain why beers such as Budvar, which appear to be dispensed by a pressurised system (possibly air-pressure is used, rather than C02?), are allowed at GBBF when beers from Freedom and Meantinme are not. (The latter btw, produce some cracking beers, even if they are brewery conditioned).

    I will continue to drink with my tastebuds, rather than confine myself to a narrowly restricted view of what is right and what is wrong. I'm certain that I am not alone in this view amongst CAMRA members.

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  9. There is absolutely nothing to stop Freedom and Meantime's beers being dispensed by gravity or air pressure at CAMRA festivals the way the German and Czech lagers are. I don't see the problem.

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  10. Peter, I may well stand corrected and I know you like lots of beers beyond English cask ales, but many cask ale aficionados that I've met don't (I'm sure you've met more than me though!). Thing is, cask isn't always better - it is sometimes, and it isn't others - but many CAMRA members I've met out and about subscribe to the 'cask is always better' mantra, and that's where I don't agree.

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  11. Sorry to be a stick in the mud but if Camra were to water down their stance to accept keg (however good) I think it would be the thin end of a wedge. It all smacks of lap-dogism; let’s do what the yanks do (using that tacky term ‘craft beer’) as it must be better. If keg is so brilliant let it stand on its own two feet.

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  12. Barm
    that’s the issue that scuppered Freedom at Burton, as I’m not a brewer I don’t feel qualified to really comment but I spoke with Ed Hayman at Freedom about it a few days ago and part of his quote went thus: ‘we (Freedom, CAMRA, the majority of microbrewers..) all want to offer a quality crafted product that has been produced using the best ingredients, correct procedure and necessary skill?’ Correct procedure is the word there.
    Paul
    It’s not about CAMRA watering down their stance, in my opinion it is about them talking for all good British craft beer regardless of how it is dispensed (they are the people the media go to when they want a vision of British beer and a minority are beign excluded, brewing I like to think is a brotherhood).
    ‘Thin end of the wedge’ — cask is in growth, all sorts are drinking it, so it’s not going to be undermined, it often seems to me that CAMRA thrives on a backs to the wall mentality, times have moved on.
    Good keg already stands on its own two feet, but maybe the word keg has yet to be detoxified. And what’s wrong with American beers, they are some of the best on the planet, unless it’s the fact that they’re American that riles (that’s something I’ve often wondered with some beer bloggers), which then takes us onto another malt sack of hot potatoes. ;-)

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  13. Proper Real Keg gaining ground! I knew it was just a matter of time!

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  14. For the first few years of my beer drinking career I too subscribed to keg bad cask good - then I started to taste American beers, and Bitter & Twisted on keg and others and changed my mind.

    The Campaign for Real Ale cannot remain named that if they change their stance so I can't see it happening in the near future - but then I'd hope in 10 years time there'd be no need for the organisation full stop (ahh, dreams are good!).

    What I would suggest would be a good idea is that they address the issue more carefully when giving quotes - the weird naked aggression that this subject is greeted with, when you make even the politest of enquiries, is possibly not helpful to CAMRA's image.

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  15. I don't really understand why a "craft" rather than accountant-led brewer would want to produce keg: isn't it a generic, lowest common denominator,(dull) apology for a beer? I'm old enough to remember how dire most kegs were in the 70's.
    I've never come across beers (keg or real) from Meantime or Freedom:I'd try them in the spirit of research, but I fear I'll need a great deal of persuasion.
    I'm a lapsed Camra member (from '74 to a few years back), but agree that they seem perhaps unduly narrow minded.

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  16. Wittenden
    Before keg in the 70s, cask wasn’t that brilliant I am told and I happily agree that 70s keg was the devil’s piss, hence the title of this post — my post is not about some great barbarian horde of kegs trampling across the plains of caskland and laying waste all about it, it was about the fact that beers from Meantime, Cotswold, BrewDog, Lovibond’s, Freedom and West are pretty excellent but they’re not cask.
    I’m arguing for plurality, I think cask ale has enough maturity to be able to share the bar with a Meantime Helles or IPA without throwing its hands up in ideological despair. I also think you are falling into the Dave Spart trap of thinking that a craft brewer who produces kegged beer is some evil ‘accountant-led’ brewer; I mean, Greene King and Marston’s are hardly co-operatives.

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  17. One thing's for sure, the best pubs and bars are now offering good cask AND good keg.

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  18. I really hate the term "craft beer". What does it really mean? At least cask beer is well defined and means something.

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  19. Ron
    why do you hate it? Nothing to do with it originating in the US is it? ;-)
    That said, I prefer cask beer to real ale, cause if you were going to be philosophical all ale is real unless it’s a hologram or virtual and ale to me is just so ‘privvy a pint of your finest ale my good man’

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  20. Because plenty of good beer is produced on an industrial scale. "Craft" makes it sound like a bunch of hippies on a commune are brewing it. You ever heard anyone talk of "craft wine" or "craft whisky"?

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  21. no, but I have heard of craft cheese-makers? As opposed to Kraft obviously.
    I agree with you on the industrial thing BTW, but I think the craft word has been detoxified especially for those to whom hippies are something you see in history books, I also quite like artisanal.

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  22. I was just arguing on someone else's blog about this. Craft beer means something in the US because it has a context there and it hasn't reached its limits yet (once Sierra Nevada reach the x million barrels, will they still be "craft"?) But in Europe, it doesn't have any context and doesn't mean anything. Which British brewers are "craft"? Do Fullers count? Marstons? Greene King? If not, why not?

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