A bit about me.
I grew up in a northern town, near Blackpool, a market town, that has always had many pubs, especially for its size.
My early drinking was as most teenagers do, drinking as much as possible as fast as possible and as cheap as possible, i didn't care whether it was beer, cider, spirits or wine, as long as it got me legless.
In my 20's i changed and got more fussy, drinking in the pubs i started drinking macro-brew lagers (which i occasionally still do drink if i'm broke or there is no choice in the pub), but this didn't satisfy me so i started mixing Stella Artois (don't judge me), with barley wine which gave the lager a better flavor similar to bitter, but again it wasn't enough. so then i tried Tetleys smooth bitter, which i drank for many years, before making the gradual progression onto real ale.
Now don't get me wrong i still enjoy drinking real ale, and supporting the small British breweries, but i found that often pubs don't keep the ale well, or at the wrong temperature, or when its on the turn or off, and some real ales just are not nice. I also found at the time, and to some degree still now, real ales, cater to the older generation, they use a lot more of the traditional noble hops, and tend to be malty instead of hoppy, although this has started to turn in recent years as they expand to new world hops, which if you read "whats brewing" from CAMRA, is a huge bone of contention among the older drinkers, (as is craft beer).
In my early 30's during a visit to the pub to try a few real ales, i saw an unusual bottle on sale, now i don't remember for the life of me, which beer it was, but when i asked what this beer was, i was informed it was a craft beer from the states. Intrigued i tried this bottle of beer, and it cost me an arm and a leg, i think at the time it cost me about £7. which shoked me but i was determined to try it, and when i did, the aroma knocked me back and reminded me of a certain relation to the common hop, and when i drank it it, it was like nothing i had ever tasted, it was bitter yet sweet, with an amazing after taste that lingered on the tongue and in the month, and coated the mouth really well. I of course had several more of these strong beers, (hence why i don't remember its name), and i was hooked, from then on wherever i found a craft beer i would try it. Each time id be surprised by a completely new taste to me, mostly good (some bad), and i could see it gaining popularity, and the selection and locations selling it expand.
About this time i started visiting places such as Lancaster, Crew, Preston and Manchester chasing new craft beers, while Blackpool remained and still is oblivious to the craft beer revolution.
I have noticed a growing resentment and hatred of craft beer, by CAMRA members, who having had never tried it, still spew bile against it with such things as "its not a real beer" or "its kegged not cask there is no place for it" I have noticed this mostly from older people 50+ and have often treated people to try craft beer and they have found 9 times out of 10 they like it. I believe this is more about them being set in their ways and refusing it because it is new and they see it as "if it aint broke don't fix it", and this is i believe part of what started the downfall of cask in the first place, and lead to its stagnation, leading to very samish beers using the same hops creating the same unremarkable brown liquid that caused CAMRA to form in the first place. I believe the Real Ale breweries have to move with the time, as do the drinkers, and embrace this new beer, and yes embrace the new kegging system, as i don't believe most drinkers could tell the difference now, just as cans and the canning system has improved and overtaken bottles in quality. They should see craft beer, not as the enemy, but as a way to introduce a new generation of young drinkers to small batch micro brews and away from the huge macro breweries, enjoying Taste and quality over fashion and low cost.
anyway, thats my 2 fingers worth.
keep drinking those microbrews,
Ash
