Real Ale

Where did you hear this?

In message , phil wrote

The National brands are trucked hundreds of miles in the UK - err, maybe you are correct - they don't travel well :)

CAMRA will be importing hundreds of casks of real ale from the USA for the Great British Beer Festival.

In message , cciaffone wrote

I have no idea but someone on the uk-cask (ale) mailing list assured us recently that _all_ the US ale on sale at the GBBF was real. I suggested it was keg and no different from the products of Brew Dog which have been banned.

Perhaps the people supporting the "foreign" beer bars at the GBBF have their own agenda and need to lie about what is being sold.

Right! Real Ale from the US. Not gonna happen!!

We had one real ale brewery just south of Raleigh North Carolina that supplied, countem, one ONE (1) British themed pub/restaurant. So when that pub died, so did the one (1) real ale here in the south.

So where you gett> CAMRA will be importing hundreds of casks of real ale from the USA for

There are a few making real ale, and any brewery can divert some of its beer into casks before it's pasteurized and filtered. For example, the Old Toad in Rochester gets real ale from several local brewers.

Andrew.

All US beer at GBBF was real ale.

In message , Brett... wrote

And was is served in _exactly_ the same way as all the British real ales at the festival?

Brewdog products were not banned - they simply failed to pay the upfront fee (I believe there was some disagreement about container size too) but they would like you to think they were banned so that they could make political capital out of it. Do you think they might court publicity? Can you think of another brewer who more strongly courts publicity? They do brew some very good beer though.

The U.S. beer was cask conditioned and dispensed by handpump when I attended the York beer festival and there was also some in the Pivni Bar in the centre of York, with the conventional traditional metal cask on show on stillage, settling and conditioning.

That is the essence of it. All outside businesses appearing at the festival pay for their pitch. All of those businesses are required to pay the fee a period before they arrive on site. Somewhere I have an electronic copy of the food & goods stall holders contract from the time that Christine and I were stalls liaison.

The requirement to pay up front is mainly due to the behaviour of certain businesses in the past - a well known smallish brewer of Liverpool origin* were famous for late (after the event) and even non-payment (they complained about the previous years bill being added to the new invoice)

Apparently, like the Liverpool brewer they wanted to bring in other (keg) brews.

I'm sure the working party have no inclination to repeat the experience(s)

*The name rhymes with the sensation you get when you drop things on you foot or otherwise injure yourself.

Yep, all on gravity dispense. This did lead to comments from some that some of these beers were not brewed to be served in that way and are better under gas!

Brian (who works on the foreign bar every year)