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What is real ale?
Real ale is beer in its natural state. Made from the key ingredients of malted barley, hops, yeast and water, with the addition of sugar, real ale takes considerable skill and time to produce and look after. Also known as 'cask conditioned' beer, real ale has a short shelf life, as it contains no preservatives. It is fermented twice: once in the brewery and then again in the cask (or barrel). Sugar is added to encourage further fermentation.
Hops are added to give flavour and aroma. In some real ales, extra hops are added before the casks are sealed, to give more aroma. The yeast ferments the sugars in the mixture, converting them to alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2). This gas is naturally present in real ale. Copyright: Dusan Gavenda, from stock.xchng.
The cask is placed in a cool cellar and left to settle for up to four days. The beer is then served at between 12 and 14 degrees celsius.
CAMRA
Real ale's resurgence is in large part due to the efforts of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). Since its campaign began in the 1970s, CAMRA has had some considerable success in raising public awareness of the decline of traditional beers, breweries and pubs. They argued that the British public was losing its choice of different varieties of beers and range of pubs, whilst the big breweries were pursuing profit at the cost of these valuable traditions.
The big breweries have tried to respond to pressure from CAMRA by targeting newly-enlightened drinkers with brand-named beers appealing to this sense of tradition. Changes in the law, designed to open the pub market to small breweries, have led to many pubs being allowed to serve one real ale. But real choice is still restricted in all but a tiny minority of pubs.
Look behind the bar in most pubs, say critics of the big breweries, and you'll see a desperate lack of choice of ales. Those you do see are pale imitiations of once proud brands, made into easily standardised profit vehicles for big business.
Generally, the big breweries produce what is known as 'keg beer'. This brew differs from cask conditioned beer in that it has a long shelf life and requires little skill to look after, once it has left the brewery. Keg beer is chilled, filtered and pasteurised to make it sterile. This process also removes the CO2, which has to be replaced so that the beer can be served.
Most keg beers replace the CO2 that is removed in the brewery with 75% nitrogen and 25% CO2, which produces a less fizzy, creamier beer. This also removes some of the ale's bitterness and flavour. Keg beer is served by connecting the keg to a gas cylinder. The beer is served at about 5 degrees celsius.
It's into the gap left by the big breweries' need to produce long-lasting, low-maintenance keg beer, that the smaller regional and smaller-still microbreweries have stepped.