How Does CAMGB Sound?

Last week saw London breweries, industry insiders and good beer drinkers unite for London Beer City, a celebration of great beer across the city. The week-long celebration included daily events held at breweries, bars and pubs such as food and beer matching evenings, beer talks, brewing collaborations, t-shirt printing and bottle label designing. However, the undoubted star attractions were the two beer festivals: The Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) held at London Olympia and London Craft Beer Festival (LCBF) held at Oval Space. GBBF, now in its 38^th year is the world’s largest cask ale festival, showcasing over 900 beers predominantly cask ales from around the British Isles but also from around the globe including German and Czech lagers and bottled beers from Belgian and the US amongst others. Now into its 3^rd year LCBF is (in some respect) the polar opposite to GBBF, serving up an array of what we know as ‘craft beer’ from 19 UK craft breweries as well as European brewers such as Edge Brewing from Spain, Omnipollo from Sweden and US craft kings Stone Brewing and Founders. Being a ‘craft beer’ festival almost all beers are served from keg with Redemption Brewery serving cask being the only exception (Okay, Stone did have a few bottles of barrel aged beers too).

Before I give any opinion I may have on either festival it is worth me mentioning that I am a CAMRA member, have been for years, I drink cask beer on a regular basis and it was very much the route I took into drinking good beers before there was any craft beer revolution. I also drink more than my fair share of keg beers and of course bottled beers when at home. For me it is about the quality of the beer itself more than how it is served. Some beers are better on cask whereas others are better keg. Some are even better from the bottle or can. I believe you have to trust the brewer to do his/her job and serve the beer how he/she would want it enjoyed.

Starting with GBBF, I went along to the trade session on Tuesday. I have been to many CAMRA organised festivals in the past but this was actually my time attending GBBF. I had always been put off by stories of the beers running out come the weekend sessions so hoped by being there on the Tuesday I wouldn’t have any issue of beers running out. Divided by location, the vast array of beers on offer can be very overwhelming. Due to the intense heat on that day I opted to start with some refreshing German lagers. I had been told very good tales of how good some of the lagers on offer are and I was not disappointed. So good was my first that I had to go back for a second and then a third. Despite the temperature increasing inside the vast building, it was time to put the wide variety of cask ales to the test. This was a CAMRA festival after all. This is where my issues began. Wanting to try some beers that are not widely available in my local pubs I began by trying some ales from Yorkshire, the midlands and Cornwall. While the taste of these beers was mostly pleasant each was served warm and flat. Concerned that maybe it was just the UK beers that had an issue I then tried a US beer on cask. Again, very tasty beer but again warm and almost completely flat. In one last attempt to save the day I went for a fairly local beer that is very highly regarded and I have enjoyed many times in local pubs. This was the worst beer of the day. Warm, flat and tasting of almost nothing but paper. This was also confirmed by the friend I was with who just happens to be a brewer from a very well established London brewery. Enough was enough, it was now time to send the beer back. When explaining that the beer was dead, warm and completely flat the response was ‘well this is English beer, its meant to be warm and flat’. Unbelievable. I don’t like to make presumptions but the look I was given is the look I’ve been given so many times before by elder beer drinkers that implies ‘you youngsters couldn’t possible know anything about beer, now take your silly haircut somewhere else’. Most of the service I had had up to this point in the day had been quite rude and unhelpful but this shocked me. The misconception that cask ales are warm and flat would only be fueled when it is served in this way. By this time I had now given up on the cask and was more than happy to pay £10+ for a bottle for imported US IPA. This experience really bothered me though. If I was having this struggle than surely everyone else was too? Those coming from all around the country and from abroad to experience good beer. From what I had seen and tasted this was not an example of that.

Up to now I have not given the names of the beers that I was drinking as I do not believe the poor quality was down to the beer itself but simply how it was being stored and served. However, I must say that the Fullers bar was the only exception of the day (for me at least). While they may not have been perfect nor as good as the pint I get served at my local Fullers pub, they were at least served below room temperature and lightly carbonated. So what was the issue with all these beers? Had I managed to find the only 8 or so beers amongst the hundreds that were being badly served? While the (Olympia) building is an impressive sight, with its glass roof it was extremely hot inside. No doubt attempting to keep the beers chilled in this heat is a struggle but this is the largest cask ale festival in the world…surely more effort needs to be made?

Come Friday and I was attending the trade day of LCBF. This was my second year attending and after the disappointment of GBBF I was extremely excited for this and overall it did not disappoint. The organisers had made the good decision of ditching the beer tokens of previous years and opting for unlimited 90ml pours of any beer you wanted. While there were times when you would have preferred a larger pour than this to really get stuck in and there was times when the beers were so good that the 90ml seemed to only last a few seconds leading you to return to a stand for a top-up before you had a chance to update you Untappd, I personally like this set-up. It is a great opportunity to try as many different beers as is possible in 5 hours. Overall the quality of the beers on offer was brilliant. Almost all being keg beers they were being served perfectly chilled and carbonated. For the style of beers on offer it worked perfectly. Redemption Brewery was the exception to this, serving cask beer. Unlike earlier in the week their beers were not flat, tasteless nor warm. CAMRA take note. In addition to the flawless beers on offer, the staff working each stand were friendly, informative and served the beer with a smile on their face. Dare I say it, they seemed to be enjoying themselves! Everyone that I spoke to was happy to discuss the beers, brewery, the event itself and even recommend beers to try from other breweries. Isn’t this what the beer community should be like?

LCBF is still a small beer festival in comparison to the likes of GBBF but they seemed to have laid good foundations. As it expands it would be great to see more cask on offer. Maybe the likes of Five Points Brewing Co and Sambrooks Brewery hosting stands that offer both keg and cask beers? We can but dream. With this may come more mid-strength, milder beers. As one notable style missing from the beers on offer (and in the craft beer scene in general…sometimes) is that. As I have mentioned those diehard CAMRA folk that exclude the new wave of craft beer drinkers it is only right to recognise that maybe the reverse is happening to the smaller extend too. It is important to remember that there are those who have been drinking beers since before many of us were in diapers. Many of these enjoy a smooth bitter or a light pale rather than the hopped forward, astronomical ABV beers that dominate the beer scene now. Some craft beer wankers need to remember that great tasting beers isn’t something that only happened in the last few years.  

Comparing these two festivals may not be a fair comparison. One is a huge, committee run festival with an even bigger legacy. The other is the new guy just trying to get himself heard.  Both represent the growing popularity of good beer which is a great thing. But they also demonstrate the division that is within the beer community. Why are CAMRA happy to showcase lagers from Germany and Czech Rep served on keg but not those brewed on home soil? Why do they have Belgian and U.S. stands with bottled beers but not one bottle from breweries less than one mile down the road? What is CAMRA’s issue with ‘craft beer’? Moreover, they are even happy for certain large brewers to be present that definitely do not make good quality ale *cough-Green King-cough*. It is understandable that when CAMRA was founded any beer on tap tended to be watery swirl and for a decent pint you had to opt for real ale and they wanted to protect this, hence their name. But times have changed. Some of the most exciting, flavourful beers are coming out of kegs. This takes nothing away from cask beers. There will always be a place for cask beers (when served correctly) and I for one will remain a member of CAMRA in support of what they continue to do for it.         

In the same respect, the craft beer community would do well to remember that not everybody wants their heads blown off by hops. Some just want an easy drinking yet flavourful experience.

Earlier this year we saw the birth of the Brewers Association. With this I hope comes the blurring of the line between ‘Craft’ and ‘CAMRA’. If beer is going to be defined surely it should only be on whether it is good or bad? Beer should unite people not divide them. CAMRA saved good beer is Britain, helped inspire the US craft beer scene which in turn inspired the UK craft beer scene. There would not be this craft beer revolution without CAMRA. Roll on the day when we see all beer styles at GBBF. But as the wise man Roger Protz once said ‘CAMRA is like a big oil tanker. It takes a long time to turn it around’. Change will take time. Is it time for Campaign for Great Beer?