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Real Ale: My Journey From Hipster To Hopster
Real Ale has undergone something of a renaissance in the last few years amongst the student population as the 18-25 demographic leave lager behind. Here's why...
We are on the cusp of a major revolution in British drinking habits and nowhere is this revolution more pronounced than in the 18-25 demographic of student drinkers.
Real Ale has traditionally been a preserve of the Pipe and Slippers brigade who took enormous pride in bemoaning the wave of imported lagers which line the bar of most English pubs but all the signs point to a seismic shift away from this rather fusty image. In student circles, it is no longer seen as an act of social suicide to request a pint of London Pride when the next round is ordered. Quite the reverse in fact since this rejection of mainstream European larger (Carlsberg, Peroni, Becks) in favour of more obscure English brands (Adnams, Timothy Taylor, Fuller’s) is now viewed as a statement of class and sophistication rather than an attempt to project oneself as being well beyond your years.
I am an active member of my university’s Real Ale Society, an organisation whose popularity and renown has skyrocketed in the last few years and which continues to go from strength to strength. Its disciples routinely arrange guided brewery tours (usually involving plentiful opportunities for free tasting) and other such beer-related expeditions including croquet tournaments and pub meets. The sheer diversity of membership in this society reveals the extent to which “Alemania” has permeated all tiers of the student class. It provides a forum in which “Rugger buggers”, “Science boffins” and “Frustrated poets” can discuss a shared passion, thus making Real Ale one of the great levellers amongst the current crop of undergraduates.
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So what’s behind this generation’s decision to turn to ale? The answer is simple: ale has followed a well-trodden path in the context of student fads and fashions. The act of choosing the drink at a pub was initially seen as a conscious rejection of mainstream tastes and therefore belonged to the realm of the “Hipster” (a.k.a those who deem themselves too cool for school). As with all such phenomena, ale was adopted as a pastime by a sufficient number of so-called “Hipsters” that it ceased to hold such appeal for these types and lost its exclusivity, thus enabling those with more conventional tastes to legitimately enjoy drinking it with their peer group.
Despite this surge of enthusiasm for ale, there is still a large body of students and 20 somethings who are reluctant to leave their lager-fuelled comfort zone and order beers which actually have any flavour. Cask Ales now account for 15% of the British beer market and there is no excuse for playing it safe at the pub. The revolution is coming; here are 5 of the many reasons why you don’t want to be left behind:
1.Better pubs: The correlation between the quality of a beer and the quality of the drinking establishment is no great surprise. In London, the most highly acclaimed pubs at the minute are those specialising in Real Ales sourced from obscure microbreweries. The Southampton Arms (CAMRA’s London Pub of the Year) in Kentish Town is my favourite place to have a beer. It offers a wide selection of freshly made pork snacks (Sausage Rolls, Pork pies and a superb roast pork bap with fresh apple compote to name but a few), all washed down with a varied and constantly changing assortment of ales.
2. Depth of taste and texture: Although you don’t need a particularly developed palate to appreciate it’s taste, there is no denying the fact that the popular brands of lager cannot compete with the complex and multifaceted flavours in most Ales. Real Ale can be tasted in a similar fashion to wine and both practises require the same amount of knowledge and terminology. Ales vary hugely in colour and strength and the scope for analysis and discussion is therefore extremely wide.
3. Seasonal and complements most types of food: My local pub at university serves their own brand of ‘Winter Ale’ and ‘Summer Ale’, proving that this is a drink for all seasons which can be nursed in a beer garden on a warm summer’s day or equally enjoyed in a toasty pub, huddled by the fireplace.
4. Value: On the whole, Real Ale is a significantly cheaper alternative to lager since it is rarely imported. Up until a few months ago, you could order 3 pints at the aforementioned Southampton Arms and walk away with change from a tenner.
5. Street cred: I’m not alone in thinking that anyone displaying a high degree of interest in his or her beer is worth asking out for a drink.
So next time you’re in the pub, eschew the overpriced, tasteless array of chemically-enhanced Australian lagers and make your drink an ale.
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COMMENTS
"Real Ale has traditionally been a preserve of the Pipe and Slippers brigade..". No. It fucking hasn't. It's just that it's become trendy for bloody students to ramble on about it. A bit like Hooch and Moscow Mule (bottled, not the cocktail) did a few years back, this will pass and they'll move on and stop being all poncey about a subject they think they invented. I hope.
"Real Ale is a significantly cheaper alternative to lager since it is rarely imported." Nor are the keg lagers you mention. It might be worth looking up where Carling, Fosters, Carlsberg and their ilk are actually brewed....
A decent article and good that you are trying to promote the drinking of good ales, though I agree with the previous comment - ale drinking was never just for the pipe and slipper brigade. It's the Swansea Ale festival tomorrow and there are a diverse range of drinkers there (thankfully, not too many students who think they know everything about ale because they've had a bottle of their dad's Hobgoblin). Still, well done on the article - keep drinking (now that's a slogan for CAMRA!)
"tasteless array of chemically-enhanced Australian lagers" You haven't a clue what you're talking about mate. Almost never see a real Aussie beer in the UK, unless I'm lucky enough to find a bottle of Little Creatures or Coopers. This watery Fosters stuff here is about as Australian as a bloody pint of Tetley's Smoothflow - entirely a British invention. Not to say common Aussie beer back home is great stuff... but it is better than that. Much like the UK the popular beer is mostly garbage. However, I'd hazard a guess that the craft beer scene back in Australia may be a bit in advance of that here in the UK. Just a pity beer's so bloody expensive there! I do love a good cask ale though - and you can't really find much of that back home!
Excellent article and Yvan hit’s the nail on the head too, Fosters is to Australian larger what a putrid pint of Tetleys pissflow is to Britain. Although the obscure brands you mention (Adnams, Timothy Taylor, Fuller’s) are indeed not that obscure at all, in fact they are now pretty much the defacto mainstream real ale and often scoffed at by the pipe and slippers brigade (who are still alive and kicking). If you want obscure try Holdens, Salopian or Sarah Hughes to name but a few of my local breweries, their diverse and individual Ales make larger seem bland and rather boring. For the record, I so not sport a pipe, beard or slippers :)
Decent article and good to know the younger crowd are getting into proper beer too, as brits its one of the best home produced "foods" we have. Although bigger breweries like Fullers and Younds have done a dead good job of keeping the olympic beerflame alight the past 20 odd years i think the explosion of microbeers is really upping the ante. In London you cant move now for a new brewery every week and they have some cracking beers and cracking pubs like the Southampton Arms you mention you support them. My dad an from Canada picked up the habit of drinking real ale when it was becoming harder and harder to get here and although he died 5 years ago now i know hed be chuffed at the profusion of ale on other now. Long may it continue
Completely agree with the other comments - You'll never see a Fosters in Oz, in fact it was all a joke hatched by Barry Humphries in a Private Eye strip in the 60s to link Fosters with Australia perpetually. Adnams, Timothy Taylor and Fullers aren't in the last bit onscure. And yeah Real Ale has ALWAYS enjoyed a diverse audience, it's just infuriating that poncy hipster students who can't handle more then two and a half pints are now banging on about it. For the record, I'm 32, have been drinking real ale for ten years and have never smoked a pipe or wore a beard.
Think'll you find most of them still are hipsters, happy to chug down the latest brews at £4.95/half in achingly oh so trendy shiny echoey 'spaces', whilst munching on overpriced burgers/pizza from the gap year student run van parked up outside.
The fact that you list street cred as a reason to drink ale suggests you have not made any transition from being s hipster.
Good article. Harsh critics. Enjoy the journey. That's what it is all about.
Rambler points for you my dear friend. perhaps we could take photos of action men together?
At the risk of sounding like Paul Calf, is anyone else seeing the big problem with real ale here!? You're surrounded by hipster student twats! No thanks.
Great stuff - although a little more on the best pubs, best rare beers wouldnt go amiss! Im not sure how it happened with me - I always liked ale but now the only lager I will drink is the good stuff. Recently been getting more into dark star ales - a sussex favourite.
Great article love real ale.
You reason you talk about real ale being anti mainstream means your a hipster of the highest order sir! And blatantly jumping on the real ale bandwagon that's been circling the internet and forums the past few years, like a big herd of sheep, all with ironic pin badges stating "Don't be a sheep" they've decided they like real ale. They don't like real ale, like you, they're more concerned with being anti-mainstream and different when in reality you're all the same. Bobble hat wearing clones with no sense of identity. I'll quite happily go into a bar and drink a peroni, I like it and I couldn't care less if it makes me "mainstream."
For me, and I suspect others, the switch to real ale/craft beer came with the realisation that your Stella's, Heineken's etc etc actually don't have any taste. None.
Whilst I'm glad that you've found the pleasures of real ale/craft beer: call it what you will, the fact that you equate it with hipsters leaves me a bad taste in my mouth, similar to having given a crusty camel a blowjob after eating a jar of marmite. Hipsters, they think of themselves as uber cool, anti-mainstream, but they appear to the rest of us ordinary mortals as middle class sheep, looking the same, talking the same, all so concerned with appearing unaffectedly cool that they don't realise they've all jumped on the same bandwagon.
Hipster to hopster? Tw*t to C*nt. When will people stop kidding themselves that lager/beer/ale tastes nice? It all tastes like shite and the reason a lot of people puke while hungover is because the aftertaste is still lingering. Drink to be sociable or to forget or whatever, but don't tell me it's because it tastes nice.
