From: ufe@dlva.dl.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.beer
Subject: Re: Could someone tell me about the campaign for Real Ale
Date: 3 Sep 92 08:08:07 GMT
Reply-To: ufe@dlva.dl.ac.uk ()
Organization: SERC Daresbury Lab., Warrington, U.K.

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was born 21 years ago as the Campaign
for the Revitalisation of Ale. 4 journalists were on holiday in Ireland
and bemoaning the fact that the big brewers had saturated Britain in
national keg beer brands (Watney's Red Barrel, Ind Coope Double Diamond
and the like) and that distinctive, regional, cask beers were being
submerged. Indeed, the regionals were following the nationals down the
keg road.
NOTE : Cask Ale is draught beer which has not been filtered and
       pasteurised and undergoes a secondary fermentation in the
       cask in the pub cellar. Additionally it must not be served
       with any extraneous CO2 - ie pressure/blanket gas may not 
       be used. Traditionally service is via gravity or handpump.
       Keg beer undergoes some secondary conditioning at the
       brewery, is filtered and pasteurised and sealed in presuurised
       containers. The gas then forces the beer to the bar. The resultant
       beer (sic) is cold, gassey and horrible.
So, in 1971, CAMRA was born and soon attained 30K members and swung the
balance in favour of cask ale. It has been dubbed "the most successful
consumer organisation in Europe" and from it followed campaigns for
real bread, real cheese etc etc. 
While we killed off the likes of Red Barrel ("avoid like the plague"),
the brewers turned to esatz lagers which soon rose to 50% of the
market on the back of massive advertising. However, real ale availability
rose (at the expense of keg ales) and membership slumped since people
believed the battle had been won. However, the brewers, realising that
real ale was marketable, started developing bland national brands and
also tried (and often succeeded) to acquire ready made brands by taking
over successful regionals. The new onslaught of brewery closures has 
revived membership which is now 35K and rising.
While CAMRA has basically concerned itself with UK real ale ( notably
through the Good Beer Guide and the Great British Beer Festival), the
remit has been widened to protect the interests of the pub-goer as a
whole and now we cover pub preservation, prices, licensing, trad cider
foreign beer etc etc.
Still run by a small paid staff and hundreds of volunteers, we are now
linking up with other organisations across the world. The European Beer
Consumers Organisation links Belgium, Holland and other European Countries.
There is also a CAMRA(Canada) organisation. 
The threat to good quality beer has never been greater, as the multi-nationals
move into newly opened up markets. Even the EC is threatening the
Reinheitsgebot !
Hope this brief note goes someway to answering your question.
Cheers
Mark Enderby
CAMRA Regional Director (Merseyside & the Marches)
and sometime System Manager !
PS There are quite a few books on Beer history here in the UK (but names
escape me). Usually, though, beer history forms the first few chapters
of other beer books. In any case, these will not cover US terms such
as "cold-filtered" etc which are basically brewery marketing hype !
Millers (or is it Coors ?) are selling a bottled beer here called
"genuine draft" - or is it daft :-). Several brewers are selling
draught beer in cans in the UK (sometimes calling it traditional
as well). Not to mention "dry" beer !!!! Basically its an attempt
to sell beer that no one would drink for enjoyment - ie crap.
In the UK they've also found that by taking a crap beer, shoving some
N2 in and a plastic widget at the bottom of the can and calling it draught,
not only can they increase the price by 40-50%, but the result costs
more that the euivalent real draught product in the pub. CAMRA has a
lot of campaigning left to do ! 
Cheers,
	Mark
========================================================================
Mark Enderby			   JANET - ENDERBY@UK.AC.DARESBURY
Systems Manager		  	   EARN/Bitnet - ENDERBY@DARESBURY.AC.UK
SERC Daresbury Laboratory
Keckwick Lane						
Daresbury
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