Keg Beer

So yes, I aim to be blogging a little more this year. Yes I know, it's May already and there's only been one post but I've changed jobs and life has generally got in the way. Beer has not got in the way though. Well, I suppose it has actually but I don't really mind that. It was good to meet Wee Beefy in person the other week even if our initial handshake had disastrous consequences for my colleagues drink, and the dryness of his crotch! Having a chat with him made me realise I need to be on here more, spouting my irrelevant thoughts about the beer world.

And so... kegged beer. Sorry if I just swore at you then but its rise on the bar cannot be denied no matter how you feel about it. I must admit I was less than enthused about the concept when I came across it but I am slowly being won over. Now as a member of CAMRA I am aware of course that their organisation is duty bound to have a problem with beer that comes out of a keg and is chilled to a greater extent than cask beer. After all it is the very foundation upon which they built their cause. So I therefore appreciate that many members will most likely shun keg beer on principle. And it is a fine principle but the times they are a-changing. CAMRA does its upmost to attract younger drinkers, in order to challenge the middle aged bearded man reputation which they have been saddled with. And yes, many different types of people drink and enjoy ale, real or otherwise. But middles aged bearded men in particular enjoy and drink ale. And the problem with kegged beer is that it is somehow a little bit sexier than cask beer and therefore is consumed largely (I suspect, from what I have observed) by younger drinkers.

Are CAMRA shooting themselves in the foot here? Well I'm not going to go that far but I will say that every organistion reaches a point where it has to move with the times or risk becoming obsolete. The church for instance. So we will just have to see how it all pans out; they certainly can't just ignore the trend. But I suppose kegged beer needs to have more going for it than simply being a trend before it gets acknowledgment.

So why have I come around to keg beer? Well... it's beer. Why would I ignore it? It may not be drawn by a hand pump from a horizontal vessel but to me it is still beer. Yes, I can hear the howls of derision as I type this but that it is my opinion as it stands at the moment. For me it means greater choice on the bar. But I will not call it real ale, we can have the debate about what should or shouldn't be real some other time. I don't mind that it is colder and fizzier, that makes it refreshing to me. It is fair to say that many ale drinkers (perhaps not the serious ones) will switch to lager on a hot sunny day (remember those?) and lager drinkers may switch to cider. Yes, some real ale drinkers will switch to real cider but they will be the serious ones. So perhaps some of these 'sunny switchers' will now switch to a kegged ale instead of a lager, And that's a win surely? One less person swigging Carling is definitely a good thing in my book. And as I've said before, it offers a greater choice. Many breweries now have a keg beer among their portfolio and so there is even more to choose from. Now, not everything produced is going to be original and great but the same can be said of cask beer. If breweries are simply kegging one of their cask beers then I may frown slightly as that is rather a case of jumping lazily on the beer wagon. But it would be a start at least and there are plenty of brewers who take keg beers seriously and are designing beers specifically for that medium. Abbeydale for instance; their Pale Ale #2 appears to be a roaring success, and with good reason. I think it also allows for more experimentation with novelty beers, especially higher percentage ones as kegged beer should last longer (so I am led to believe).

But anyway, I have no more time to expand my reasoning as I'm off to a wedding reception where I hope to find some ale, real or otherwise. So next time you see a kegged beer from a reputable brewery, give it a shot. You just might surprise yourself.