TOPIC:

Your article says: "Camra has decided not to support non-real ale of any kind in the UK"

That's not quite right - Camra has decided not to support non-real ale of any kind *from* the UK.
Foreign craft beer that's not real ale is OK. (There were plenty of non-conditioned bottles of foreign craft beer at the GBBF.)

And that's where it all falls apart for me. It's almost like admitting that the most important criteria for British beer is not quality. That's a strange position for any consumer advocacy group.

Of course, Zythophile said it better[/url:1movh67k] than I did here.

"sbillings":2r93nh0p wrote: The term "Real Ale" annoys me, as it implies that the beer coming out of my taps is in some wake fake. [/quote:2r93nh0p]
Me too. I agree. Real Ale to me has become more of just a term to describe a particular type of beer as defined by CAMRA.

"Tube":2r93nh0p wrote: CAMRA are free to do as they please with the GBBF. It's their festival, they make the rules. If others don't like it, they can organise their own festival.[/quote:2r93nh0p]
Absolutely. But that's no easy feat.

"sbillings":2exfpmyy wrote: Are you sure your beer is real ale? Do you use cornies? If you serve on top pressure from a cornie, or even top up the co2 in a pressure barrel, your beer magically ceases to be "real ale", even if the co2 in the beer was generated in the serving vessel, by fermentation.

Either of these practices count as adding "extraneous carbon dioxide".[/quote:2exfpmyy]

I don't use cornies. So, I'm sure it fits the bill.

The processes you describe, while not technically real ale by their narrow definition, look like they ought to be exceptions to the definition. The use of extraneous CO2 to dispense beer conditioned in the corny would prevent off flavours from oxidisation.

"sbillings":2efvvt12 wrote: The term "Real Ale" annoys me, as it implies that the beer coming out of my taps is in some wake fake. The type of beer it refers to is either Cask Conditioned or Bottle Conditioned beer and those are the terms we should be using.
[/quote:2efvvt12]

I totally agree. It's like building a marketing slogan right into the name. Names should be non-evaluative.

"UpsidedownA":206gtek8 wrote:

"sbillings":206gtek8 wrote: Are you sure your beer is real ale? Do you use cornies? If you serve on top pressure from a cornie, or even top up the co2 in a pressure barrel, your beer magically ceases to be "real ale", even if the co2 in the beer was generated in the serving vessel, by fermentation.

Either of these practices count as adding "extraneous carbon dioxide".[/quote:206gtek8]

I don't use cornies. So, I'm sure it fits the bill.

The processes you describe, while not technically real ale by their narrow definition, look like they ought to be exceptions to the definition. The use of extraneous CO2 to dispense beer conditioned in the corny would prevent off flavours from oxidisation.[/quote:206gtek8]

Welcome to the controversy.

CAMRA's own side-by-side taste test revealed that 3 day old cask ale served with out top pressure but with a cask breather adding CO2 vs. air resulted in a cask ale that tasted better than "real ale" where natural air was pulled into the cask, but they then tossed the results in the bin in favour of the more stringent rules. (There is a second side to this though and CAMRA's stance is not without merit.) -I'll post it when I get the chance to directly quote it from the Cellarmanship book.


Adam

"KeeganAles":yy8jumot wrote: Your article says: "Camra has decided not to support non-real ale of any kind in the UK"

That's not quite right - Camra has decided not to support non-real ale of any kind *from* the UK.
Foreign craft beer that's not real ale is OK. (There were plenty of non-conditioned bottles of foreign craft beer at the GBBF.) [/quote:yy8jumot]
Thanks, that's what I meant to say.

"KeeganAles":yy8jumot wrote: And that's where it all falls apart for me. It's almost like admitting that the most important criteria for British beer is not quality. That's a strange position for any consumer advocacy group.
[/quote:yy8jumot]
But 'quality' is by definition good, that makes it empty as a principle of action. Consumer groups will always have to choose some more particular goal as a means to quality.