Campaign for Real Ale

The CAMpaign for Real Ale (acronym CAMRA ) is an organization independent of consumers of Bière of the the United Kingdom.

Foundation

The CAMRA founded in 1971 by four was impassioned world of beer: Graham Lees, Bill To mix, Michael Hardman and Jim Makin under the name of “ Campaign for the Revitalization off Ale ”, which became most concise “ Campaign for Real Ale ” the following Année.
Cette organization gathers 80 000 members (April 2006), publishes each year a guide independent and without Publicité counting the best flows of traditional beers of the United Kingdom (the “ Good Beer Guide ”) and organizes the British Festival of the beer (“ Great British Beer Festival ” or GBBF) which is held each year with London in first half of the month of August, the “national Festival of beers of winter” (“ National Winter Ales festival ” or NWAF), which takes place with Manchester in second half of January like, via its local branches several tens of smaller local, very convivial festivals and good child, beating in breach the image that one in abroad of the “ Hooligan beer drinker”.

Objectives and campaigns

The raison d'être, and its main objective of the CAMRA is the defense and the promotion of the “ cask conditioned ale ”, so called “ cask ale ” or “ real ale ”. It is a question of the traditional manner of putting beer in was S. the term “ cask ” which indicated formerly the barrels in Bois, now indicates the metal drums with the convex sides, which one poses on the side, tilted using corners out of wooden, in opposition to the keg, the plunger metal drum intended for pulling by pressure of Carbonic gas, which is the standard on the Continent.

The principle of the cask ale is not to filter or to pasteurize the beer with the setting out of barrel, nor to add carbonic gas artificially to him. On the contrary, the beer of high Fermentation is put out of barrel with a yeast activates, in general that of primary fermentation. Which ensures the catch of foam (“ conditioning ” in English) and the maturation of beer.

On its arrival with the pub, the barrel must be set up, on its side, in the Cave (with 12-14°C), left at least two days so that the yeast settles (with the need with an addition for ichtyocolle). The barrel is then put in “ borer ”, a pint is drawn from it, which slackens the pressure inside the barrel and made there enter of the air. During 36 hours which follow, maturation will finish completely, and the beer still astringent Verte, and fuzzy with the palate, will be moulted quickly in a finished beer, absolutely limpid, with the Amertume and fruity perfectly the Nets. The cask ale is then served either by Gravité (direct pulling with a Robinet) or using traditional the Pompe S manual, simple Cylindre S with Piston, but no external Gaz is injected where that it or in the system. A cask of typical bitter (in the neighborhoods of 4%) must then be output in the 48 hours, without what the remaining beer will begin to oxidize, taking unpleasant notes, timbered, lactic or acetic.

The cask ales were still more or less the standard the shortly after the Second world war. But the technological Utopia of the glorious Thirty, which saw beer in keg, pasteurized, filtered and gasified artificially like more modern because practical and not requiring any effort on behalf of the owner of the pub, failed to sound the Glas definitively cask . When the CAMRA was founded in 1971, the beer famous brands in keg like the Watneys Red Barrel , are omnipresent on the British market, and the products traditional, more complex and subtle, less gas, are done rare.

In about fifteen years, the CAMRA will contribute largely to the inversion of the tendency, the return of number of breweries regional, even national, towards the production of cask ale , to the flowering of hundreds of microphone-breweries dedicated to the production of cask ales for a local public, to the sensitizing of the general public and owners of pubs to the care necessary as well as possible to present the cask ale of its form.

Moreover, the CAMRA defends the beer styles, which, within the family of the cask ales , are threatened of disappearance, like the mild or the to carry , and thus to ensure a larger diversity and choice for the consumer.

Accordingly, the CAMRA also fights since always so that the pubs under exclusive contracts with a brewery ( tied pubs ), pertaining to the breweries or with chains of pubs, have the possibility of serving at least a beer in cask resulting from another brewery, preferably a local microphone-brewery. A fight which is far from being finished.

Another historical claim is that of the “ full pint ”, namely that the been useful pints contain well the 20 ounce S (568 ml) regulatory of liquid, and not foam 5 or 10%. The solution lies in the equipment of the pubs with glasses of 22 or 24 ounces marked of a line at 20 ounces, instead of traditional glasses of a capacity of 20 ounces to the brim. But the practices have the hard life, and look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves, in particular for the national breweries or the chains of pubs, this countryside thus continues.

The concept of real ale covers also beers bottled on yeast, said “ bottle conditioned ” (which does not mean “not conditioned out of bottle”, but well “with catch of foam out of bottle”), category which knows a remarkable expansion since end of the year 90, because making it possible many microphone-breweries to diversify their outlets towards the retail business, even the Large distribution.

One of the current errors is to see the CAMRA like the champion of the microphone-breweries against the large industrial breweries. Reality is more complex: insofar as the regional or national industrial breweries produce cask ales of quality and make promotion of it, the CAMRA grants its support to them, which remains certainly critical.

The CAMRA is also interested moreover in the pub, place social par excellence, which allows the maintenance of many village communities. Among the solutions to ensure the maintenance of the minimal services even in moved back villages, let us mention the countryside “ Make the pub the hub ”, which encourages the creation of companies making pub, office of Poste and grocer in the same buildings, a manner of making which was a certain success.

In complement, the CAMRA made countryside on the political plan for the easing of the legislation over the opening hours of the pubs, which led in 2006. The idea not being inevitably that the pubs must remain longer, but although the pubs can fix their opening hours in way more flexible according to whether they are located in a district of dwelling, a small village, the center of a big city or a district of offices.

Lastly, on the tax level, the CAMRA made countryside on two files:

Firstly, the application of the European directive on the harmonization of the taxation of alcoholic drinks within the European Union. The Taxe S on beer are currently, on average, six times higher in Great Britain than in France, thing which caused, since the opening of the single European market in 1993 the installation of a lucrative beer traffic bought in France, brought back to Great Britain for personal consumption, but in resold under the coat. Beautiful a car-goal for the British tax department, it should be said in passing.

To note that certain British breweries found the parade by exporting their beers out of bottle towards the Supermarché S which less expensive accommodate the British in search of alcohol near the ports of the Manche such as Calais or Oostende.

Secondly, the installation of a scale of decreasing taxation ( sliding scale off duty ) supporting the small breweries, which do not benefit from the same economies of scale as the large breweries. This countryside ended in the beginning of the year 2000, the tax reduction being translated, in the facts, not by a fall in the prices of beers of microphone-breweries and regional breweries (which are already, supreme paradox, less expensive than the national famous brands, not needing to reflect an expensive marketing on the prices), but by a cleansing of the financial position of many regional microphone-breweries and breweries, which benefitted from it to refund their debts and to invest in a better production equipment.

Rewards

The CAMRA rewards for a price the best pub of the year (“ Pub off the year ”), allotted by 4.000 active members on the basis of their personal preference, as well as the famous price of best beer of Great Britain (“ Champion Beer off Britain ” or CBoB) which is allotted at the time of the British festival of beer.

See too

Beer
Microbrasserie
Pub

External bonds

CAMRA' S website