Right then. I suppose I better stop drinking this Meantime Chocolate. I guess I shouldn't have given Real Ale Husband a bottle of Camden Wheat Beer for his birthday. Maybe I shouldn't have had that Cerveza Artesanal on my trip to Barcelona last week. In fact while we are at it, I better ban myself from drinking wine, vodka, maybe orange squash. Oh and what about tea?
I suppose I need to do all this because I call myself The Real Ale Girl. And I'm a member of CAMRA. So therefore, I must only enjoy Real Ale.
Or so it would seem. The grand caskkegcraftbloggerattiCAMRAnoisesomebloggersblahblahblah debate. I've had enough, to be frank. I think I might take a couple of years off reading blogs on the topic until its all blown over. As if this issue will ever actually be resolved.
I joined CAMRA in 2004 as I wanted to find out more about this lovely liquid that I'd just been introduced to. I had enjoyed going to a few CAMRA beer festivals and was attracted by the prospect of reduced entry, copies of their publications in the post and meeting other people who might be able to introduce me to more ales. While I recognised that CAMRA was founded at a time when keg was king and cask on the way out, I was also aware that it British brewing was on the way up and I was excited to be drinking beer at a time when it was all getting interesting.
I want to drink beer. I want other people to drink beer. I want other people to enjoy drinking new beers, exciting beers, beers with flavour and character and oomph. It may well be that many of those beers in the UK are served in cask form, but we can all think of some bloody good beers that aren't. And to tell you the truth, I like beer too much to deny myself a new one just because I can't tick it off in my Good Beer Guide.
Campaining for Real Ale, enjoying Real Ale, writing about Real Ale, should not mean demonizing every other beer around. It just means Campainging for Real Ale. That's it. In some circles, Real Ale enthusiasts are inadvertently making Real Ale (or its drinkers at least) the demons. I have never been embarrassed of my writing name, I just hope that we can keep it that way.
