| Molson recently ran a television spot featuring two young men trekking across all terrains in search of Molson Canadian while the Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" served as musical accompaniment. Since Molson Canadian is ubiquitous throughout North America, I question the intellectual capacity of anybody who would walk 1,000 miles for some. But then, I wouldn't reach 1,000 millimetres for a Canadian, so maybe I'm just biased.
Beer that is actually worth travelling (7,061 kilometres) for is British real ale. Real ale is unfiltered, unpasteurized and must be conditioned (carbonated) in its serving vessel. For this reason, real ale is also commonly referred to as cask-conditioned or bottle-conditioned ale. In any case, all of the beer's carbonation must come naturally as a result of the fermentation process and no additional carbonation may be added. Carbon dioxide can't even be used to dispense the beer – the most common dispensation method used in North America, if not the world.
In its native Britain, real ale is so beloved that, in 1971, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was formed to protect it. Now over 67,000 members strong, CAMRA claims to be the world's largest consumer advocacy group and every August, hosts the Great British Beer Festival in London.
The GBBF boasts over 45,000 visitors and samples of more than 700 real ales, yet it is a celebration of beer, not drunkenness. The festival is housed in an exhibition hall roughly double the size of the Saddledome where rows and rows of casks, divided into regional bars, are neatly arranged on purpose-built scaffolding. Despite the formidable size of the crowd, the individuals within it, unified in their mission to try all of the beer, become instant friends – from the young lass trying her first real ale, to the 90-year-old gentleman carrying a binder listing over 10,000 he has sampled in his lifetime.
Whether it be in private tutored tastings or merely among the crowd, esoteric topics of beer are debated and even the most knowledgeable beer lover will learn a few things. For this reason, the GBBF is a must-attend event for any beer lover and is the unofficial meeting point of the world's greatest beer experts – Michael Jackson (the portly white guy, not the skinny black guy), Roger Protz, Garrett Oliver, Fred Eckhardt, Lorenzo Dabove, Stephen Beaumont and… Don Tse, are frequent attendees.
So what's the big deal about real ale? Because real ale continues to ferment until consumed, it is "alive" and volatile. Being unfiltered and unpasteurized, it is richer in flavour with greater complexity than its filtered, pasteurized counterpart. This is similar to the difference between whole cheese and processed cheese. There are various kinds of whole cheese and various kinds of processed cheese. In either case, some are good and some are not so good. But there is something magical about whole cheese that needs to be properly cared for and lovingly matured. Like whole cheese, real ale is made by artisans, not accountants, and continues to evolve after it leaves the manufacturer.
If you are unable to travel to Britain, real ale is available only on a limited basis in Calgary. While some Belgian-style or German-style beers continue to ferment in the bottle, for CAMRA to consider a bottled beer to be "real" and therefore worthy of the term "bottle-conditioned," it must be British. British bottle-conditioned ales have made fleeting appearances in Calgary, but none are presently available. Look for a British beer with visible yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle.
For cask-conditioned ales, Calgary beer lovers have only two options. Wildwood Grill and Brewing Company (2417 Fourth Street S.W.) features one cask of cask-conditioned ale each Friday starting at about 4:30 p.m. Just ask for a pint of the cask. Once the cask is empty, you are out of luck. In addition, local microbrewery Wild Rose Brewery features a cask of real ale on the first Friday of each month at a different pub each month. Contact the brewery at 720-2733 to find out where the next cask will be. Wherever it is, it will be well within 1,000 miles of your home and will be worth the trip. Visit the CAMRA website at www.camra.org.uk for more information on attending the GBBF. |
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