Brewing innovations revive cask market

As two women walked past the Campaign for Real Ale's (Camra) stand at the BBC Food Show in Birmingham last week, one said: "Ah, Camra - they've been around a long time."

I'd done four exhausting beer tastings the previous day and was going on stage again. I felt I'd been around for a long time, too. But if the tastings were exhausting, they were also exhilarating. It was the second year running that Camra had organised a beer theatre at the food show, in conjunction with several regional and microbrewers. Last year had been a "toe-in-the-water" exercise and some of the beer-tastings were not exactly packed out.

It was a different experience this year. Nearly all the tastings were fully booked. The audiences were lively, often argumentative, but above all passionate about beer and eager to learn more.

It was a wonderful antidote to the shenanigans in the world of brewing and pub retailing. Every week, when I scour the MA, I am reminded of Charles Dickens' memorable opening to A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

On the one hand, there is news that, courtesy of a YouGov opinion poll, the new licensing hours are popular and are not encouraging people to drink more. On the other, beer sales in general are taking a hammering, the smoking ban has had a worse impact than expected, and the pub trade looks like being hit further by a massive increase in beer prices.

I draw comfort from the fact that the cask sector shows signs of real growth. The craft brewers I met in Birmingham and others who have contacted me have expressed their disbelief at the British Beer & Pub Association's dire predictions of the end of beer drinking as we know it. They are witnessing encouraging signs of increased sales and interest.

These increases are fuelled by innovation. Craft brewers have moved beyond the predictable offerings of mild and bitter. They are reviving old beer styles and developing new ones, frequently using new ingredients that bring fresh and exciting flavours to products.

I offered five beers in my tastings at the BBC Show. The first two - Shepherd Neame's Whitstable Bay and Bateman's Hop Bine - are organic. This means the malt and hops used have not been sprayed with chemicals. The brewers are responding to a growing consumer demand for "green" food and drink.

Two other beers were both strong and bottle-conditioned, with live yeast encouraging the beers to age and develop greater depth of flavour. Fuller's 1845 is 6.3% abv while Brakspear's Triple weighs in at an even more weighty 7.2% abv. These are sipping not quaffing beers, best enjoyed with a good meal.

The beer that drew the most attention and plaudits at the tastings was the remarkable 7 Giraffes from Williams Brothers Brewery in Alloa, Scotland. The figure seven comes from the fact that the brewer uses seven malts in the beer while the giraffe is the result of his young daughter thinking seven looks like a giraffe - she has a successful career in marketing ahead of her.

The malts are lager, pale, oats, Vienna, Munich, rye and crystal. Not satisfied with them, the brewer has added elderfl ower and lemon zest, along with Cascade, First Gold and Styrian Goldings hops. The result is a 5.1% abv beer of awesome complexity, citrussy, hoppy and malty on the nose and the palate.

Above all, it is beautifully refreshing. Several people at the tastings remarked that 7 Giraffes would make a splendid beer to have with a curry or Thai meal. The beer is on sale at selected Tescos in England as well as Scotland, while a draft cask version is available from the Flying Firkin agency.

There's another encouraging sign in my local Morrison's. Customers - young men in particular - who a year ago would reach the checkout with four packs of canned lager are now increasingly buying quality ales from British brewers.

Unlike the unfortunate hero of A Tale of Two Cities, set during the French Revolution, craft beer is not heading for the guillotine.