Although I do drink what Richard calls "chemical beers," namely Newcastle Brown Ale and draught Guinness, I must agree with him in his various attacks on lagers. In the main they are flavourless expensive rubbish. Someone once said that Man is simply a machine for turning beer into lager.

The popularity of lager has grown in England since the mid 1970s if my memory serves me correctly. Why should this have happened?

Richard hits the nail on the head in another thread when he describes how one needs to get used to the bitterness of beer in order to appreciate it.

I first visited a pub at the age of 12 with my uncle, having just finished helping him on a milk round. Uncle Jimmy did not ask what I wanted to drink, he just bought me a half of beer. "You might not like it, but you'll soon learn," he said.

When I began to drink regularly in pubs from the age of 14, it was natural to drink beer and not lager. You developed a taste for a particular brand (in my case Newcastle Exhibition, or McEwans 80/- ) and stuck with it.

The only people who drank lager (usually with lime cordial in it) were Nancy-Boys and women. Anyone attempting to change their choice of drink to lager from beer would be pilloried by his peers, and especially by the older established drinkers. These people were providing a valuable service in the socialisation of the younger generations.

Something happened in the mid 1970s, it might have been mass hypnotism or intervention by aliens, but the result was that it became possible for someone to drink lager in public without running the risk of having their sexuality called into question. It was indeed a sad day.

Once the rot had set in, there was a progression by the uneducated youth away even from the limited flavour of lager to what are known as "alcopops." These abominations are pop (soda?) with a shot of spirit.

The problem now is that younger generations do not go to the pub for a pint, and the pubs are dying. At the age of 44 I am one of the youngest drinkers in my local. As the older chaps die off there are no replacements. The only places that are busy now are those with loud music where conversation is impossible.

The youth of today have been let down by their elders and will probably never know the pleasures of good beer and conversation in a convivial atmosphere.

Incidentally, on Richard's recommendation I tried some bottled 1845. It seems a very decent brew, but at 6%+ I don't think that I could manage the usual six or seven pints and still make it home!

FatStan,

I agree with you all the way. My introduction to the pub was very similar, although I was bought a Brown Ale. It was felt that the sweeter flavour of Brown would be more suited to my youthful palate. I continued with Brown for about a year before switching to Bitter, and have continued with it ever since.

Some time in the 70s the brewers discovered that lager beer was easier to keep than properly cask-conditioned beer, so they started advertising it heavily, along with the keg stuff like Watney's Red Barrel. They even had the nerve to make it more expensive than real beer! The kids were brainwashed by the advertising into buying an inferior product and paying more for it, too!

I was never a member of CAMRA like RE, but always supported their aims, and have avoided chemical stuff like John Smith's whenever possible. I was particularly sorry to learn that Brakspear's brewery is closing as I have some very good memories of sunny days in my youth spent on the River Thames in the Henley area, and the riverside pubs (and their beer) were an intrinsic part of the day out.

I have to say, I do enjoy all your discussions about beer. However, I must also say that I have never, in my life, read so much about beer as I have on this board. I just don't think Americans analyze beer as much as you Brits do!

On another note, FatStan, Nancy-Boy??? That is a new one to me!

Nancy boy - a somewhat old-fashioned expression for an effeminate male homosexual.

Thank you, chaps, for your further commentary on beer. Although it is strangly unknown, the reason for the rush into lagers and concoctions like Watney's Red Barrel is well documented. What is less well-known is why in England, almost alone in the world, this rush was halted and reversed.

The reason why beer in most countries is a cold, weak, yellow fizzy liquid is a commercial one. Beer didn't used to be like that. Until about 100 years ago all beer was like English beer. It was time consuming and labour intensive to make; it could only be made if the weather wasn't too cold or too hot, it didn't keep and it required expert handling in the pubs and bars where it was sold.

The first breakthrough was bottled beer which could be made to keep much longer and the techniques that applied to bottled beer started to be aplied to draught beer. Around fifty years ago brewers found that they could sterilise beer by pasteurising it and filtering out the yeast and other solids. The inert liquid that remained was then artificially pressurised with commericially produced carbon dioxide and various compounds were added to give brightness and a spurious head.

Because these concoctions did not taste very good (they have a "burnt sugar" taste similar to that of boiled milk) they were served cold (of course, this wasn't possible before the advent of refrigeration).

These kinds of beers and lagers were then promoted heavily both to the trade and to the public. The trade loved them because no cellarcraft was needed; connect up the keg and the gas and away you go. The brewers loved them because there was no wastage through spoilt beer; both retailers, wholesalers and brewers loved them because they carried a high profit margin.

The problem was that the public had no reason to change and so massive (and very clever) promotional campaigns were launched to persuade drinkers that they were swtiching to a better and more manly drink. "Join the Red Revolution" (Watneys); "The pint that thinks it's a quart" (Whitbread); "A Double Diamond works wonders".

And it worked. Younger drinkers started on these new and exciting brews and assumed that it was normal to get a thumping headache after a couple of pints and to be sick after four. The older drinkers, finding that there preferred brews were no longer sold, had to switch as well.

It was all going swimmingly. The brewers, having persuaded ther customers to drink ice-cold and tasteless brews started adulterating their concoctions with rice and other cheaper substitutes. In just a few years the last luddite brewers (Youngs, Fullers, King and Barnes, Hydes, Batemans, Timothy Taylors) would be unable to compete and would be taken over and closed down. We would be like the USA or Australia - just three or four brewers, all brewing rubbish.

Then, a handful of journalists met one day in a pub to bemoan the fact that the beers they loved were all disappearing. They decided to do something about it and founded the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale - shortly to be changed to the Campaign for Real Ale - CAMRA.

Their efforts, helped by their knowledge of how to manipulate the media created an organisation that could punch well above its weight and which is arguably the most successful consumer organisation of all time.

When CAMRA started few pubs still stocked Real Ale; now almost all do. There were only four bottle-conditioned beers on sale in the UK; now there are dozens. It is the spin-off from CAMRA's example that has turned the tide of chemical fizz in many other parts of the world too. In the USA forty years ago only Anchor Steam were brewing decent beer; now there are 1,500 craft beers being made. In France there has been a welcome resurgence of interest in the bieres du garde. And so it goes on.

That there are still many people drinking rubbish beers shows how far we still have to go - but at least the battle is being fought; before CAMRA it was close to being lost.

Richard English