With over 400 different brews on show, the Great British Beer Festival at London's Olympia aims to be the biggest and best yet. By Clare O'Brien.
What comes into your head when someone says the words "real ale"? Middle-aged beer-swillers slapping each other on the back and singing rugby songs? Bearded folkies in twig sandals earnestly discussing ABVs and organic hops? Well, there's a kernel of truth in the stereotype. Most cask ale drinkers are certainly over 35, male and belong to the high income A/B social grouping.
But all this is changing. Sexy advertising campaigns encouraging younger drinkers to try cask - and the changing nature of the marketplace itself - means the people who drink cask ale in your pub are increasingly hard to categorise.
"People are becoming more promiscuous in their drinking habits," said CAMRA spokesman Tony Jerome.
"Individuals can no longer be defined as real ale drinkers, wine drinkers, lager drinkers, spirits drinkers - they could be any one of these depending on the time of day, the venue and the occasion."
This means that although sales of cask ales were badly hit by the introduction of nitrokeg products, pub chains such as J D Wetherspoon have now pointed the way forward with a strong retail focus on the category, offering cask ales from regionals and microbrewers as well as from the nationals.
The recent growth in organics has also helped this live, natural product gain more ground in the marketplace - and customers are more ready to accept the same kind of premium pricing.
"To keep the tradition of real ale alive we need pubs which want to keep it in good condition and promote it to customers," said Tony.
With that in mind, the Great British Beer Festival has become an event which not only promotes cask to consumers but also aims to encourage more licensees to stock the beers.
Over the years the festival's beer order has increased steadily in size as attendance figures have risen. This year it features more than 400 different beers totalling about 200,000 pints, all of which have to be delivered to Olympia over the weekend before the festival opens.
Slightly less than half of this beer is served from brewery bars and the remainder is split across CAMRA-organised bars representing the different British regions.
"Regional preferences are not as marked as they used to be," said Tony. "A lot of regionality has been lost as brands such as 6X, London Pride and Greene King's Abbot have become national in their distribution.
"But this doesn't stop individual brewers from producing beers that are based on local taste characteristics.
"Mild is still popular in the Midlands, and to a lesser extent, South Wales. Beers from Kent tend to be hoppier and beers from Scotland tend to be sweeter, more malty and less hoppy," he explained.
Choosing which beers go on these stands can be a thankless task, according to the festival's beer buyer Barry Durham. "With about 480 brewers producing 5,500 different beers the festival's order has to attempt to represent that diversity," he said.
"I often get recommendations for beers I can't get - Christmas Special may be an excellent beer, but it's not available in August!" Similarly, he sometimes hears of a wonderful new ale that turns out to have been one-off brew for a special occasion six months before.
Tony Jerome has high hopes for this year's festival - and the latest phase of CAMRA's "Ask If It's Cask" promotion which will be launched there.
"Let's hope the pub industry supports the campaign," he said. "Then together we'll see real ale sales go through the roof!"