Real Ale on Rise in UK More real ales - 2,000 different ones - are being brewed than at any time since 1971, according to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra). In the past year, about 80 new breweries began producing real ale - twice as many as in the previous year. Britain now has more small breweries per head than any other country. Each of about 500 "micro breweries" across Britain produce up to 30,000 barrels of real ale every year. That means one out of every five barrels of cask beer is now made by micro breweries - up from 14% in 2006. Real ale contains live yeast and improves in the cellar. ----------------- Hundreds of pubs are serving real ale which is too warm to be refreshing, an inspection has revealed. The recommended temperature for a hand-pulled pint is from 11C to 13C but assessors found 44% of pints bought in 2,000 UK pubs exceeded 13C. Publicans in London, Essex, Middlesex, Cambridgeshire and the West Midlands all pulled pints measuring between 25.9C and 28.1C, said Cask Marque. |
Cheating Bartenders After doing a three-year survey, the Campaign for Real Ale is calling for the British government to require that a pint glass of beer be completely filled. The survey showed that 26.6 percent of pints served in local pub were under-filled by at least 5 percent! CAMRA claims the missing beer costs patrons a total of about $957 million each year and is now calling on the government to impose legislation requiring licensees to serve full pints.CAMRA did 25 surveys between the 2004 and 2007 of different council areas before releasing their findings. CAMRA Chief Executive Mike Benner called it a disgrace that up to a quarter of all pints served in Britain are less than 95 percent liquid when the consumer is paying for a full pint every time. Studies in the US have shown that bartenders generally under-fill a pint by 4.5% Sadly for American drinkers there is no CAMRA like organization to help consumer to demand a full pint. |