The Campaign for Real Beer

I am going to preface this entry with the fact that I am a bit of a beer snob.  When I was in college,  I never really drank beer until after my 22nd birthday.  I just was not a big fan of it. It was because of my friend Iggy that I started drinking beer and it it all started with Watney’s Red Barrel, a pale lager that was put out by Sleeman Brewery from Canada in the early to mid 90’s.  It was rather sweet and a bit unexpectedly refreshing, where the other beer I remember from keg parties or growing up was crap like Natural Light or Busch, which looked like urine, smelled like urine and pretty much tasted like I imagined urine would taste.

From there I branched out to Newcastle Brown Ale, other ales and stouts and ciders, such as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Samuel Smith and Guinness.  So, I have actually looked forward to living in England for that reason.  I also like wine and spirits a lot, but, I never get totally wasted or pissed when I drink beer as I usually get too full before that happens.  Anyway, I digress.

I talked earlier on this blog about the fresh ale pub that my friend David and I visited when walking about London two weekends ago.  There is a consumer advocacy group here called CAMRA, which runs the Campaign for Real Ale.  Forty years ago this year, the organization was founded to protect consumers from the overcommercialization and vertical integration of the large breweries invading every pub in England, which had the potential to completely eliminate traditional and craft beers, ales and ciders from the market.  Historically, small breweries would partner with local pubs in their towns to ensure there was fresh beer, locally brewed and at the peak of freshness.  It was the sign of a well run local pub when there was community involvement from the brewer in the neighborhood.

Most pubs do have a hand pumped ale or bitter on tap now, thanks to the efforts of this group.  Most of them are cask-conditioned, some are unpasteurized and lots of them have a much higher alcohol content than the Stella Artois’ and Carling’s of the world.  In a sense, it is very similar to the microbrewery trend in the states, even though none of the beers are brewed onsite like the brewpub concept in the States.

Most times I go out, I do try to sample these local beers, to keep ensuring their production continues.  Not that there is anything wrong with a nice Ice Cold Lager.  In most case, British beer is served warm, but, thanks to the pressure of American and other expatriates, most pubs offer an Extra Cold option for staples like Guinness, Stella Artois and Carling.  Otherwise, the temparature takes a while to get used to.  If you don’t drink your beer quickly, it will get warm.  As in room temperature warm.  Guaranteed.  Frankly, the ales and stouts taste better at that temperature.  Both of them are pretty tannic and the colder they are, the more bitter they taste.

Also, British Round culture is staggering.  It is a binge drinking culture that requires you to keep pace with everyone else in your party.  If there are eight of you, you buy eight beers or ones for whoever is ready.  And, that continues throughout the night.  In some cases, I have not drank that much beer since right after college when I was trying to keep up with my significantly larger roommates.  It is not for the faint of heart or liver for that matter, but, rugby may have trained me for this, no?