CAMRA Obscura
Search for the Campaign for Real Ale in the Freaky Trigger archives and you’ll find a history of mockery and frustration tinged with occasional praise as the lumbering beast moves in what we think is the right direction. When Pete started the Publog back in 2000 CAMRA were something to be defined against: warriors for the ale cause stuck firmly in the 1980s, with a suspicion verging on contempt for a mass public that had betrayed real ale, and with no consideration of – say – pub atmosphere, which you’d think would be fairly essential to enjoying ale regardless of beer quality.
I very much doubt anyone from CAMRA follows the publog – not even the much-derided Chairman Mick – but in many ways 2006 CAMRA, as seen at the GBBF, is a different creature. It’s been campaigning on behalf of pub interiors, pub games, getting more women into pubs, and has now launched Cyclops, an easy-read taste guide to beers, like the little glasses with numbers on you get on wine bottles. The actual execution of these campaigns has often been limited or laughable – who can forget the woman with a foaming pint head – but definitely these are laudable aims (Jukebox preservation next please!).
The gleeful range of beer on sale at the GBBF is a reminder of how vital CAMRA has been in preserving and encouraging ale drinking and brewing: the love of beer on display is heartwarming. But it’s really noticeable how narrow the aesthetic of real ale still is. Beer after beer, stall after stall, uses the same fonts, the same illustration styles, the same anthropomorphic bulls, rams and bulldogs making feeble puns. The feel is midway between a Spectator cartoons page and 80s White Dwarf. It’s all a bit….sad.
Now I’m not saying our particular posse didn’t fit right in. But think about a country like Belgium, famous for its variety of beers across the world: it is noticeable that Belgian beers somehow manage to sell themselves without a huge amount of puns, goblins and cartoon foxes getting in the way. Microbreweries in the USA, judging by the beers I saw on my trip to Seattle last year, seem comfortable with modernism, innovation and elegance in label and bottle design in ways that would be entirely alien at the GBBF.
CAMRA was founded to defend a sector under siege, and it’s done so admirably. But its method of defense has too often involved strengthening the walls, creating a dogged microculture of stout-hearted ale yeomans, making the GBBF take on something of the vibe of a gigantic potting shed. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a Campaign for Cool Ale.
Tom in FT /Pumpkin Publog • 693 views
as a counter-point to this though, both Youngs and Adnams re-branding of their pump-heads, logos etc of the last year or so have been RUBBISH. Youngs in particular had a lovely design and replaced it with dreadful one.
Perhaps if they rebranded as ‘alerismo’ or ‘beereria’.
this is going to be one of those memes isn’t it? ;)
alea iacta est!
What has to be noticed is that
a) There were less beards than expected
b) most of the beards were on the faces of our party!
More beer fest related trouble to come, including the most selfish man in Christendom, and Beer Festival Chair Ettiquette.
FT archive promo – Tom on the awful aesthetics of Real Ale
Nice bump Alan, were you reading Jeff Pickthall‘s piece in yesterday’s Guardian by any chance? Jeff frequents the same “local”{1} that I do and we’ve crossed swords a couple of times on this issue.
I’ve been a member of Camra ever since shortly after the 1974 Student Journalist Conference in Salford, where a fringe pub-crawl around long-gone parts of that district opened my eyes. One place the infant Camra led me to was the White Horse in Hertford, a room not much bigger than my bathroom where an elderly lady could be summoned to a hatch when needed to serve Youngs Special and Winter Warmer straight from the barrel. You made yer own pub atmosphere in them days (and pub atmosphere is something no marketing executive has ever managed to create. I can take or leave my local Camra branch but what the movement does can only be admirable. In a month or so I shall be pulling pints at the Ulverston Beer Festival.
Those “microbreweries” in the US are all pretty substantial operations who can well afford getting the professionals in to do their design work. Not to be compared with some of the two-person-and-a-cat{2} operations like our own dear Ulverston Brewery or Cumbrian Legendary Ales. CLA is actually quite traditional in its marketing although I suppose the Croglin Vampire (to be recommended, by the way, and named from a local legend) is fuel for his argument.
I’m not sure, either, that I like the idea of ‘cool’ Ale, somebody else’s idea of what I ought to find acceptable. Being old-fashioned I firmly believe that quality endures and needs no marketing. But then from what I read what the FT gatherings drink and where they meet seem to be in tune with my own view.
For what it’s worth, the most atmospheric pub I know anywhere is this one; completely spontaneous and no marketing consultant has been anywhere near it.
{1} About ten minutes as the gull flies, over an hour to walk, bus only part of the way, but what a walk!
{2} To keep rats and mice from the grain store, silly!
*busted* Here’s a linky to http://pumpclipparade.blogspot.com/
I am on the side of rubbishing the naff LOLZ names and marketing of real ale. Having said that I’m just back from the GBBF and my fave booze of the night was a Kentish perry called ‘Im-pear-ed Vision’. My Mum, partially sighted since her 20s, will be very proud.
Oh I also had a 1/3 of White Dwarf