Its Cask Ale Week and the Spectator has been opining on the matter. I’m not sure Spectator readers in the main are cask ale drinkers. Perhaps a fine wine, a G&T or a single malt whisky?
But then I’m guilty of the same stereotyping as the Spectator. The Viz cartoon Real Ale Twats is mentioned, beloved by my brother-in-law who I think self identifies as one. Of course no stereotype works without some basis in reality.
The reality is that CAMRA, over 50 years old (I’ve been a member since 1975) is a social movement and such things exist in a well understood framework. They get organised, they make an impact, and they get drawn into official structures, lobbying, committees etc. Nothing wrong with that as such but over time the activist base gets diminished. At the same time the campaigning element and the activism can reduce and that in turn attracts fewer adherents.
As with other long running social movements, think CND, that doesnt mean the issues have gone way. The world is still threatened by nuclear war and global big beer remains a threat to a decent pint.
It’s easy of course to be cynical but when it comes to keeping traditional beer going there is still work to do. Attracting and organising them is part of what Cask Ale Week is about.
The Spectator
Even Viz’s ‘Real Ale Twats’ strip, which is told with a certain amount of fondness, suggests drinking cask should be added to the diagnostic criteria for autism.
No doubt some of this is a fashionable disdain for men more broadly, as confirmed by many similar stereotypes attached to the James Watt impersonators who frequent craft beer taprooms. Previous attempts to broaden real ale’s appeal, for example by discouraging members from terms as problematic as ‘pub crawl’, also smack of misguided wokery rather than a considered strategy.
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