quote: Originally posted by Brett

The real story about the current rise in real ale production is whether it's too little too late. Real Ale's flat-out nose-dive just a few short years ago startled many Britons and beer lovers around the world. What if the next generation, enticed by cheap prices and sexy advertising, abandoned the local wooden ale cask in favor of the national aluminum lager keg? Thus, the Campaign for Real Ale, the aggressive counter-ad campaign, the fights to save local pubs and tied houses, the real ale festivals, etc. Real Ale on the rise? More like fighting its way back up from near extinction. When you get to the bottom, you can only go up--or out. The key, of course, is whether the next generation of beer drinkers will pay a bit more for local quality over national swill. And it looks like there is reason to be positive. To repeat the article's quotation from Roger Protz, editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide: "Beer lovers are tired of over-hyped national brands and avoid like the plague the bland apologies for lager and the cold tasteless keg beers produced by the national giants." The situation in America is similar in only superficial ways. We have the craft brewers pitted against the over-hyped, cheaply priced national swills. We even have a sympathetic real ale movement that is also growing. But that's where the similarities end. In Britain, mass-produced lager is a threat to real ale, and indeed to a culture built around the local pub. The average pub-goer is a retirement-aged pensioner, while young people go to clubs and try the "new" stuff. In America, craft brewers are the David to BMC's Goliath. Only the big dogs survived Prohibition. Small, craft brewers went under. Vets returning from WWII fueled the rapid production of mass produced swill. We have three or four generations of BMC drinkers walking around. But the young people are interested in the "new" stuff, which, paradoxically, is Britain's old. Real Ale is growing in America and in Great Britain--But the reasons and social implications are different. In either case, I sincerely hope sites such as BeerPal help educate people around the world about the incredible variety of BEER: where to find it, how to enjoy it, how to describe what you like and don't like about it, even how to make your own. Real ale is an antidote to globalization's ills. Support your local publican! If you don't HAVE a local publican, why not BECOME one!