A cheer for great British beer

The 31st Great British Beer Festival, organised by CAMRA, has taken over London’s Earls Court this week, showcasing over 450 beers. Although UK beer sales are at their lowest level since the Great Depression, GBBF’s organisers have a more cheerful take on the industry’s health.

Their message is that microbreweries, of which there 600 in the UK, may prove to be the saviour of the famous British pint – even if it now comes served in continental style third glasses in a ploy to attract women drinkers.

Although sales of cask ale declined 1.3% in 2007 this was a relatively modest fall and a number of small breweries, such as Evan-Evans in Llandeilo, have reported strong demand for their beers. Credit crunch notwithstanding the connoisseurs at GBBF are still interested in provenance and quality, possibly organic, ingredients, concerns that are often best addressed by smaller brewers.

The call for local beers may be one area in which supermarkets, often blamed for the droop in on-trade beer sales, and small brewers can co-operate. Alton Pride, brewed in Hampshire and named this year’s CBOB or Champion Beer of Britain may be hoping they can emulate the success of Rutland Panther, runner-up CBOB in 2005 and now stocked by Tesco across the Midlands.  

GBBR will also feature a book launch; ‘A Beer a Day’ looks at beer’s social and cultural significance. Author Jeff Evans calls it a ‘celebration of high days, holidays and the otherwise gentle passage of the seasons’ which sounds a lot more fun than the Great Depression.

Brigitte Istim, 08.08.08