Fiery Sword
Well-Known Member
I spent some time browsing through the CAMRA web page earlier today. Admittedly, I had never heard of this organization before though I am familiar with the cask-conditioned process. What struck me about CAMRA is what I perceive to be a condescending, arrogant and overly political set of beliefs that do not seem to jive with the beer / homebrewing community that I am familiar with.
First off, CAMRA lost me at first glance with this whole Real Ale name. It is simply absurd. They could have chosen to simply call the beer that they cherish cask conditioned ale which is what it is. A simple, descriptive and accurate name. Instead, they needed to call is Real. They induced opinion into a name. (You could say that they, in effect, force carbonated the name for their beer. They did not let it naturally ferment. ) Regardless, this is so arrogant that it amazes me that people are willing to buy into this! Do they really believe that they alone have the authority to deem what beer is real and what beer is fake? I mean, if I cook up a 5 gallon batch of beer, bottle condition half of it and keg half (force carbonating it) then I only got 2.5 gallons of REAL BEER? It is just a stupid, divisive point. And where do they draw the line with evolving methods of production and technology? As I mentioned in a previous post, do they practice Real Medicine (no anesthesia, sanitization, modern equipment pushed on the doctors by the big insurance corporations), Real Transportation (animals) and Real Communication (no telephones, no email, no internet that The Man could control)?
To me, this is a direct parallel to the all grain VS. extract brewing eternal argument. There are definitely arrogant people out there who insist that extract brewing is not brewing (it is, therefore, FAKE). I believe it was The Bird who said, in response to this claim in a recent thread, Homebrewers arent elitists. I thought that was a great response, and an accurate one. What makes this CAMRA organization so, well, elitist? And militant. Their web page makes them come across like the NRA.
Dont get me wrong I am definitely interested in cask conditioning. I think it is fascinating and also important to understand why some still like to use this process. Im all about historical methods of brewing. I am more reacting to CAMRAs wording and high-horse attitude, not necessarily their interest in cask conditioning.
....Maybe there is some sort of cultural translation Im missing here, but I doubt it. Ill say what I said before, they simply come across as Real A**holes.
Interested to see some others take on this.
First off, CAMRA lost me at first glance with this whole Real Ale name. It is simply absurd. They could have chosen to simply call the beer that they cherish cask conditioned ale which is what it is. A simple, descriptive and accurate name. Instead, they needed to call is Real. They induced opinion into a name. (You could say that they, in effect, force carbonated the name for their beer. They did not let it naturally ferment. ) Regardless, this is so arrogant that it amazes me that people are willing to buy into this! Do they really believe that they alone have the authority to deem what beer is real and what beer is fake? I mean, if I cook up a 5 gallon batch of beer, bottle condition half of it and keg half (force carbonating it) then I only got 2.5 gallons of REAL BEER? It is just a stupid, divisive point. And where do they draw the line with evolving methods of production and technology? As I mentioned in a previous post, do they practice Real Medicine (no anesthesia, sanitization, modern equipment pushed on the doctors by the big insurance corporations), Real Transportation (animals) and Real Communication (no telephones, no email, no internet that The Man could control)?
To me, this is a direct parallel to the all grain VS. extract brewing eternal argument. There are definitely arrogant people out there who insist that extract brewing is not brewing (it is, therefore, FAKE). I believe it was The Bird who said, in response to this claim in a recent thread, Homebrewers arent elitists. I thought that was a great response, and an accurate one. What makes this CAMRA organization so, well, elitist? And militant. Their web page makes them come across like the NRA.
Dont get me wrong I am definitely interested in cask conditioning. I think it is fascinating and also important to understand why some still like to use this process. Im all about historical methods of brewing. I am more reacting to CAMRAs wording and high-horse attitude, not necessarily their interest in cask conditioning.
....Maybe there is some sort of cultural translation Im missing here, but I doubt it. Ill say what I said before, they simply come across as Real A**holes.
Interested to see some others take on this.