Beer News: Analysis

The increasingly heated cask v keg debate has put CAMRA in an uncomfortable position, says Ben McFarland

Not content with Western economic stagnation and the fear of global terrorism, we now have another problem on our hands: the cask versus keg debate, currently brewing up a storm in the dimpled mug of the brewing world.

In one corner, there’s the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the biggest consumer organisation in the country and champion of cask ale in its most traditional, purest form. In the other, a host of newly-emerged small nonconformist ‘new world’ craft brewers, whose beer is dispensed from a keg instead of – or as well as – a cask.

CAMRA can be found defending the same corner it has been expertly defending for more than 40 years: a beer must undergo secondary fermentation in a cask and under no circumstances be dispensed using carbon dioxide or nitrogen. Even cask breathers, a device that can help publicans keep cask ale fresh for longer, is dismissed in its doctrine.

Unwavering

It’s a staunch stance dismissed by small brewers as out-dated and out-of-touch with the vast majority of drinkers. With more than 100,000 members, and as the organiser of the Great British Beer Festival, CAMRA should, argue its critics, now be championing all good beer regardless of the way it’s dispensed.

On Channel 4 News recently, both BrewDog in Scotland and Camden Town Brewery in north London lambasted CAMRA for not supporting small brewers who didn’t comply with the cask criteria. In part, it was a response to a speech given by CAMRA chairman, Colin Valentine, recently in which he accused beer bloggers of cooking up a keg conspiracy.

His comments did little to challenge the prevailing, clichéd view of CAMRA as a bit old-fashioned and anti-change.

‘I have a definition,’ said Valentine. ‘As long as everything is clean, it changes not a jot between the brewery and going into the glass, and is served using CO2 and or nitrogen, it is keg beer. It may have hops in it, but it is keg.

Rather than redirecting its focus, camra has dug its heels in further

‘We are the Campaign for Real Ale. Which one of those four words do the bloggerati not understand? It’s funny how all these people want us to change and adopt their latest idea and not start their own movement. We decide what we will campaign for and while I have anything to do with it, we will remain the Campaign for Real Ale.’

However, when it was founded, the last two letters in the CAMRA acronym stood for the ‘revitalisation of ale’. ‘Real ale’ was not a term anyone really used. Its aim was to simply fight the good fight against rubbish beer. That the majority of this was keg, led to the campaign replacing the word ‘revitalisation’ with the word ‘real’. So, to answer Valentine’s question – it’s the third word that people take issue with.

The gospel

It’s worth remembering that, back then, keg beer was properly and consistently awful. By the mid-90s, at the height of the smoothflow craze, keg beer was better but, essentially, still rubbish in comparison with a well-kept cask beer brewed with integrity and good ingredients.

Today, however, this is not the case. There are loads of incredible keg beers being brewed by some extremely innovative brewers. Some keg beers, one could easily argue, are far more flavoursome and full of character than some cask ales and, what’s more, keg is
a more reliable missionary for spreading the great beer gospel, as cask is harder work for restaurants and bars – especially if space and throughput are concerns.

So if, as it claims, CAMRA really is ‘the consumer’s champion’, then surely it should be championing all beer and not just ‘real’ ale? Perhaps, but you can see why it hasn’t yet. Like fervent religious devotees, as soon as one concedes on a key point and subsequently dilutes the core doctrine then, well, you may as well give up. It’s the beginning of the end and all that campaigning – a lot of it brilliant campaigning, for which we should be grateful – is undermined.

But with sales of cask ale now soaring, the big beer battle is over. Thanks in part
to CAMRA’s unwavering principles, cask is here to stay and the movement has won the battle. But rather than choosing a new purpose and redirecting its focus, CAMRA has dug its heels in further. The soldier is deaf, and if CAMRA doesn’t embrace a more enlightened approach to keg beer, then the soldier may as well be mute too; because, sooner rather than later, people will stop listening or caring about what it has to say.

Editorial feature from Imbibe Magazine – November/December 2011

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