Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihuxm.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!ihuxm!nxn
From: nxn@ihuxm.UUCP (Dave Nixon)
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: Re: English Beer--Real Ale campaign
Message-ID: <1285@ihuxm.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Jul-85 18:40:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxm.1285
Posted: Thu Jul 18 18:40:22 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jul-85 07:34:07 EDT
References: <4004@alice.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 42

> [....]
> A friend of mine commented that there was something called the
> "Campaign for Real Ale" in the UK.  Does anyone know about it.
> [....]
> (ihnp4/allegra)!alice!jj

Real Ale: nasty warm sticky stuff with various forms of pond life in it.
			John "still looking for a better slogan" Cleese.

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) took off in the early '70s as a grass
roots style backlash against the large brewing conglomerates.
Many years ago, all beer was brewed locally, and was delivered to pubs in
wooden barrels. The publican then conditioned the beer in the cellar, a
tricky process that took several days, before serving it.
Along comes big business, and figures that it would save a lot of
money if the beer were ready to serve immediately it was delivered
to the pub, and didn't spoil even if kept by the veriest idiot.
So they pasteurize it and filter it and kill off the yeast and do other 
unmentionable things to it so that it's stable. They also figure that
it's silly to use the traditional hand pumps to move the beer from barrel
to glass when they can use carbon dioxide inside the barrel to propel it.
The result is keg beer, which tastes like chemical stew, and bloats the
most well trained stomach after as little as two pints.
As businesses will, the breweries gradually got fewer and larger,
and keg beer became the rule.
At some point, a few beer enthusiasts got together and formed CAMRA,
which supported small independent breweries that used traditional methods.
Various activities ensued, all involving consumption of liberal
quantities of the right stuff, and slowly the word got around.
They published the real ale guide, listing pubs that had seen the light,
and soon pubs all over the land sprouted "Real Ale Served Here" signs.
The phrase "original gravity" reappeared in the dictionaries, and
eventually, the big brewers were forced into producing traditional brews.

   ----
 /    / \
 |  C/O |
 |  /  2|
 \ /    /
   ----

Dave Nixon	AT&T, Naperville, IL	ihnp4!ihuxm!nxn