Beer guru JEFF EVANS reflects on the progress being made by the BBPA's Beautiful Beer campaign at a tasting aboard the Severn Valley Railway
There's a certain sad symmetry to the histories of British brewing and steam railways. Step back some 50 years and both are in their heydays, with as much steam rising from the coppers of traditional ale brewers as from the funnels of engines plying the many branch lines.
Come forward 10 years or so to the 1960s and the picture is already changing. Consolidation among brew- eries has gathered speed, wiping long- serving family names from the brewing map, while the functional new title of British Railways has for nearly 20 years been erasing more romantic-sounding railway com-panies from station livery.
At the same time as trains are switching to new sources of power, British beer is also being modernised. Keg bitter and new-fangled lager are the brewing industry's answer to the high-speed diesel.
Traditions won't lie down
Defiantly, however, since that time of change, both traditions have refused to lie down. The fate of the steam railway may be confined to little pockets of amateur dedication, but it lives on in the North Yorkshire Moors, Norfolk, Sussex, Hampshire and elsewhere. Traditional British beer, though battered and bleeding, survives more strongly, riding a graph of peaks and troughs as the pub market fickly lends its attentions to alcopops, flavoured spirits or whatever the latest fad may be.
On a national level, traditional cask-conditioned beer has now felt the blade of an axe sharper than the one wielded famously by Beeching when he butchered the rail network in the 1960s, but on a regional level it is thriving, as the British Beer & Pub Association proved on the Severn Valley Railway. And in choosing to combine old-style locomotives with the best of British beer, the BBPA exposed that strange similarity between the two traditions.
As part of the new Beautiful Beer campaign a vehicle to revitalise the image of beer of all kinds, not solely cask ale the association chartered a carriage on the Severn Valley Railway, to take journalists on a voyage into the delights of beer. The journey only ran for 70 minutes, but the aim was to lead the uninitiated into new territory.
Welcomed with a choice of beer
The point of departure was Kidderminster station's King & Castle pub, an atmospheric recreation of an old-style licensed refreshment room, complete with marble-topped bar and a GWR motif in the carpet. Travellers were welcomed by a choice of half a dozen cask beers brewed by West Midlands brewers, who took the opportunity to showcase their latest seasonal ales.
An introduction was provided by Paul Bayley, former head brewer at Marston's, who underlined the variety of beer styles across the region by explaining the colours, aromas, tastes and aftertastes of two brews, First Light, a 4.3% abv crisp, fruity, golden ale brewed by Hook Norton, and Resistance, a 4.4% abv equally golden but more malty creation by Wye Valley.
Ben Bartlett, catering development manager at the Union Pub Company, chipped in to suggest beer and food matches that might tickle the palate. He himself runs beer-and-cheese evenings in Union pubs every fortnight.
Aboard the train's observation car, once the preserve of important engineers, we sat on comfy sofas and armchairs, supping exceedingly mellow bottled Batham's Best Bitter with our lunch as the dramatic scenery of the Severn Valley unfolded. Reaching the end of the line at Bridgnorth, there was time for a quick half of Holden's Will O' The Wisp again a golden beer, but this time with a drying, bitter finish in the Railwayman's Arms, another fine, platform-edge boozer from the halcyon days of steam.
Building media relationships
When the whistle blew, we rattled back down the track, bustling through sheer-sided cuttings and burrowing through lushly green hills while enjoying a pavlova pudding with Batham's formidable Special Strong Ale and a trio of cheeses with hoppy Marston's Old Empire IPA.
For Ros Shiel, formerly of S&N Retail, Guinness and Matthew Clark and now PR manager for the Beautiful Beer campaign, having a captive audience of journalists offered a chance to showcase the diversity and versatility of beer. It's part of a national strategy of building up key relationships with the media. 'It's still early days, she says. 'But we're running a number of events to tell people about the range of beers that are out there, addressing misconceptions about beer, such as that it is fattening, and encouraging more experimentation with beer and food.
Events already staged include a dinner put together by celebrity chef Ed Baines, and a trip to Barcelona a city that is modern, exciting and stylish, says Ros just the sort of attributes the BBPA would like to attach to beer.
The response, she explains, has been good. 'It's so refreshing to see media coverage of beer that is positive. We're so used to seeing beer covered negatively in the press.
The local media on the train encouragingly a mostly female constituency certainly seemed impressed and scuttled off as we alighted back in Kidderminster to file copy for their various lifestyle columns.
One of the criticisms levied at the Beautiful Beer campaign is its level of funding. A first-year allocation of £300,000 may seem a sizeable sum, but it pales into insignificance when compared with the £80m Coors alone is spending on promoting its lager portfolio this year. But at least it is offering forward momentum after years when beer has been stuck at the points. The smoke obscuring the beerage seems to be clearing and there just may be light at the end of the tunnel.