CAMRA vote on craft beer

I’ve never heard CAMRA mentioned on here, but I guess a few people are members. Interested on what people think about the vote on whether CAMRA should support craft beer instead of just Cask.

It’s being turned into a cask versus keg debate, it seems.

I’m pretty new to this but I’ve thought for a while that CAMRA is missing the biggest thing going on right now by not embracing craft beer, although always pleased with the USA stalls at GBBF.

As a novice here’s a few questions for you chaps. How much craft beer is keg? Most American craft beers are bottle conditioned right?

Can someone enlighten me a bit about what the issues are from the craft beer scene point of view on this debate?

Wasn’t aware there had been a vote. Source?

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Sorry, I’m wrong. There is no vote. It’s a debate going on and there’s an article in CAMRA’s ’Beer’ magazine where proponents and opposers are discussing it.

There was no cask/keg vote at AGM. There is debate within/out of CAMRA about keg beer, heightened since Roger Protz’s article in April’s What’s Brewing.

There’s no such thing as craft beer in the UK. It’s just another pointless marketing term.

Brewers can say they brew it, bars can say they serve it, drinkers can say they drink it. But it’s just beer.

Originally posted by haddonsman
There’s no such thing as craft beer in the UK. It’s just another pointless marketing term.

Originally posted by haddonsman
Brewers can say they brew it, bars can say they serve it, drinkers can say they drink it. But it’s just beer.

Then how do we describe what Brewdog and Kernel are doing which is clearly very different to the status quo in this country? What to we call beer making that breaks traditional conventions? Craft beer?

Since CAMRA is the Campaign For Real Ale, I don’t imagine there will be any prospect of actively promoting anything that that doesn’t fit the definition of "real ale" until such time as there is a vote in favour of that policy at the AGM.

Of course, if there were to be a change of policy, one would first have to set about defining what "craft beer" is - not an easy task. I don’t really like the term either.

Perhaps CAMRA should really be supporting good beer. But then it would have to stop promoting much of the brown mediocrity (IMHO) churned out by the regional brewers (and "new national" brewers) that it has been in love with for so long.

I almost applaud the sentiment of those brewers / bars who want to differentiate themselves from the mass blandness. But ’craft’ is already a misnomer in the US - it’s effectively what the Boston Beer Company want it to be - so I feel forward-thinking brewers and bars in the UK are just thinking lazily when they appropriate the term.

What Kernel are doing isn’t craft or artisinal or boutique. It’s called brewing good beer and understanding how to bottle it.

What Brewdog are doing is called shitting in their own basket. If they’re the vanguard of the craft beer revolution, then the craft beer revolution is already fucked into a cocked hat.

Originally posted by haddonsman
But ’craft’ is already a misnomer in the US - it’s effectively what the Boston Beer Company want it to be - so I feel forward-thinking brewers and bars in the UK are just thinking lazily when they appropriate the term.

Originally posted by haddonsman
What Kernel are doing isn’t craft or artisinal or boutique. It’s called brewing good beer and understanding how to bottle it.

Originally posted by haddonsman
What Brewdog are doing is called shitting in their own basket. If they’re the vanguard of the craft beer revolution, then the craft beer revolution is already fucked into a cocked hat.

Brewdog comments. Please explain further...