33 Years In The Mash Tun

On the eve of the Great British Beer Festival, I attended a remarkable gathering of beer lovers in London. The meeting was dubbed "the Camra Pioneers" and it took place in the historic Dirty Dicks pub opposite Liverpool Street Station.

Those of us present were either founder members of the Campaign for Real Ale in 1971 or joined soon afterwards. The gathering was generously hosted by John Young, chairman of Youngs Brewery, and was masterminded by Youngs indefatigable public relations man, Michael Hardman, still best known as the most high profile of Camras four founding fathers.

It was a remarkable and moving get-together. All four founding members - Graham Lees, Jim Makin, Bill Mellor as well as Hardman - were present. A photo call of Camra chairmen past and present filled a large area of the down stairs bar at Dirty Dicks.

When you consider what most of those present either do for a living, or as a hobby, or both - namely drinking cask beer - it was astonishing that so many of us were able to respond to Hardmans call to join him in the pub. Beer drinking gets a bad press these days and yet, with a few exceptions, most of the Camra pioneers are alive, well and active, and dont go on the rampage in town centres at weekends.

Surveying the throng, taking part in lively discussions and, as the pints went down, the sing-songs started, I was struck by what an astonishing organisation Camra is and how profound its impact has been.

It had to overcome deep hostility in its early days. The Morning Advertiser - different journalists, different owners - refused to even acknowledge its existence at first. When it did grudgingly report its activities, the paper frothed with rage at the temerity of consumers interfering in the way the brewing industry and pub trade operated.

How different things are today, with trade papers previewing the Great British Beer Festival and covering Camras reports to the British and European parliaments, as well as the vast number of beer festivals it stages as major shop windows for independent brewers. Back in the 1970s, Michael Young, who founded the Consumers Association, hailed Camra as the most successful consumers organisation in Europe. Today it has 72,000 members, and must surely be the biggest single-issue consumers movement in the world.

The brewing industry has changed out of all recognition since Camra was formed. The Big Six national brewers then seem as cuddly as the Easter Bunny when compared to the four global brewers that dominate the British industry today and account for close to 90% of beer production.

The grip of the globals doesnt mean Camra has failed in its mission. Governments, not pressure groups, can tackle and break up monopolies. The Tories attempted to do in the early 1990s, but the ham-fisted Beer Orders served only to intensify the domination of the national brewers. New Labour, with its love affair with big business - and the bigger the better - holds back from any criticism of the globals and axed the guest beer policy that gave independent brewers a route to market in the tied trade.

Camras greatest achievements have been to safeguard cask ale, which flourishes today despite the best efforts of the globals, and to create a climate in which family brewers can survive and around 450 micro-brewers can delight us with their products.

You have to be a Camra member to discover its finest side - the robust humour. Michael Hardman told the gathering in Dirty Dicks that one letter to a 1970s pioneer went to the wrong address in a particular street. The lady who lives there not only phoned Hardman but also told him the correct address.

When a second letter reached the pioneer, he wrote back to Hardman saying: "Please continue to send letters to the wrong address so I can pick them up personally as the lady who lives there is rather tasty."

That may not be politically correct. But then if Camra had been PC for the past 33 years it wouldnt have notched up so many remarkable achievements and saved Britains unique beer style for future generations to relish.