What HAVE CAMRA ever done for US?

I was thinking of doing a complete parody of the Monty Python sketch. Replacing The Romans with CAMRA and having a fictitious Peoples Beer Front questioning what CAMRA has actually done for British beer. I don't think I could carry it off, so I'll just leave the reader with the concept.

It's been an interesting few days. Alongside finding myself in a Hairy Bikers kitchen on Saturday, there seemed to be some need for shuttle diplomacy in the beer blogging world, which is not quite over yet. Hopefully this might round things off. I like to remain friends with everybody and what would be even better would be for everybody else to be friends with each other too. Perhaps a big global blogging group hug might be asking too much, but I can hope.

After all, the Romans, according to Monty Python, who we all know have history correctly documented, did bring peace to Judea. Besides, I'm going to the GBBF next week and I might bump into people in real life. For sure, I'm looking forward to the beers on the BSF bar, it sounds too exciting. I'd hope to be able to have a chat with the staff without the spectre of an "entertainingly demented" Sausage, who despite being technically correct and not sounding at all demented on the telephone, has given some grief to a well known blogger recently. OK guys, I know some of you found it hilarious, but some didn't get the joke - OK?

There are issues I have with CAMRA, it's too late for me to try and hide that one. I am for instance concerned that there might be too much pallyness between CAMRA and the regional breweries. This background came out subliminally in my previous post about regionals, in a dumb side dig at CAMRA that was not really relevant to the post. Tandleman commented as much and that was a good call.

The point of this post though, is to highlight the things that I think CAMRA really do that are good. After all, there has to be some good in everything. Hopefully, there might be some bridges built as a result.

They saved cask ale. I can already hear my CAMRA sceptic friends screaming at their computer screens. It is true that cask ale might just have found a renaissance via other routes without CAMRA. After all, quality baked bread has not died out despite the onslaught of Sunblest. But still, the cask ale scene would be quite different without CAMRA. Is that good or bad? You choose.

The Good Beer Guide. Now come on sceptic people, despite the occasional quirky choices, it's a generally good guide to where the best beer driven pubs are if you travel to a strange part of the country. It's better than the pay-for-entry guides out there when it comes to impartiality. We always use it.

Pub and Brewery Awards. Restaurants can get rosettes or Michelin Stars or be listed by Egon Ronay. Pubs would have no real recognition without the CAMRA schemes. For me, I cannot overstate how much of a boost it is, when you are down, to be told you've just got in the GBG or got pub of the season or some other CAMRA award. Tandleman reminded us of this only today.

Beer Festivals. It's true that they might not always be in the greatest of venues. But then what venue can you get hundreds of different beers into and it not be like a big drafty hall? They are a chance to try beers that are rarely found in pubs and a chance for breweries to get their name out there.

Resurgence of Micro Brewing. Although I think that the resurgence of demand for artisan products by the general public would have generated expansion of this sector, there is no doubt that the small brewery discount of beer duty has helped, and this is largely due to CAMRA.

Brought peace to the beer world. OK, maybe not, but it's a concept.

Now, I just hope I haven't dug myself an even bigger hole.

Guide me

My pub is, at least for now, in the Good Beer Guide. It might come out after this little tirade, but for now we are very proud to be in it. We also understand how difficult it is for every branch to make the selections each year. Although it is very difficult to be sure how important it is to my business overall, it certainly brings in some custom. When we get customers who choose the pubs they visit from the Guide, they sometimes ask how the selection is made. It is often commented that pub x just does not deserve to be in and pub y is much better and should be in. "Why is this so?" they ask.

In a pub last night along with some other CAMRA colleagues, there was a discussion of the relative merits of various pubs. I ventured that pubs that are selling exclusively beer from one large brewery are not as good as a pub that sells a variety of beers from many different breweries. "After all Jennings is a national brand" I, perhaps foolishly, threw in.

Well I was firmly rebuffed. Apparently it is not a national brand but a local beer to Cumbria. You can barely get it outside Cumbria, I was told. We have some very staunch local support for Jennings and this is good. I like most of their beers and last night I particularly enjoyed the Cocker Hoop with it's good hoppy aromas. The Cross Buttocks I thought was not so nice, although I don't know why.

I don't know about the readers experience, but since Marstons bought Jennings their beer seems to have been turning up all over the place. I believe that the Cockermouth plant has been expanded because of the increase of sales of the beers and of course I'm not complaining about that.

Then there is Robinsons, who frankly make some of the most uninspiring beers I have ever come across. They seem to be working their way into the Lake District and competing with Jennings. There are even some Robinsons pubs in the Good Beer Guide, although I can't understand why.

The reason in my mind for the Good Beer Guide is to inform visitors to an area about the very best real ale pubs. Locals don't need to be told because they already know. For me, being in the guide is important and it is important that there is a standard. There seems to be a pattern of pubs going into the guide because they are close to someone's house and it's their favourite local, not because they are superb pubs and have a well kept selection of exciting beers. Putting pubs in the guide so as to spread out the geography seems barmy. If there is a concentration of good pubs in an area then put them all in the guide and the barren areas will show up as such.

I cannot understand why a competitor of mine is not in the guide when they have a selection of well kept ales that are not determined by some bean counting suit somewhere. Why can good pubs like this get overlooked when others get put on a pedestal for providing the same thing that is provided the country over leaving the real ale tourist feeling cheated?

Of course the main thing is, if you do disagree with the choices locally to you, then join CAMRA and attend the meetings.