Why are cask ale drinkers like a cult?

Posted by HisLoba97@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 40 comments

Recently got into cask ale and I go to the pubs that promote it. A few times I've been the cask ale drinkers downplay the alcohol acting like snobs? If I can say that. I always feel like saying if it's not what you like then drink something else.. but they're so snobby they'd probably say anything against me

But seriously today the pub has a load of cask ale options and has been up for best pub in the county awards. Some people walked in and said "ooo you can tell its not proper cask because of the size of the bar" then telling everyone who walked in"you will not have a good pint of cask ale from here" but continued to drink.

What is the issue ?! It's just fkn beer man

[-]

Harrry-Otter@reddit

I once ended up on a CAMRA night and it was dreadful. Never encountered such a bunch of tedious fucking anoraks in my life. It was like a constant oneupmanship of who could find the most obscure thing to complain about.

Ironically, pretty much every wine enthusiast I know and every wine event I’ve been to has been the exact opposite, just a bunch of pretty relaxed people chatting about their drinks.

[-]

EfficientRegular7986@reddit

My experience with CAMRA evens echoes yours. Some of the strangest people I’ve ever met.

I’ve avoided wine based events like the plague so I can’t comment on them.

[-]

EfficientRegular7986@reddit

It’s the same blueprint that you can apply to almost anything that people base their entire identity on. In this instance I’ve seen family members succumb to the CAMRA thing, and become the slightly odd, beer festival T-shirt wearing folk who can’t wait to cry their eyes out when a drinking establishment doesn’t have 100 barrels of piss lined up for them.

I know people that are wine snobs, same blueprint, different drink.

I’ve worked with people that worship at the alter of CrossFit, cycling, rowing, F45 or whatever it’s called, bouldering! At least these don’t revolve around drinking liquids to excess that will probably kill you. Either way it’s still unbearable.

[-]

fairplay23@reddit

I sell beer, including cask beer for a fairly highly decorated brewery and I can tell you the majority of “serious” cask drinkers and particularly camra drinkers don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

From what I’ve seen a lot are just the beer equivalent of the guy who repeats what they’ve heard on match of the day and passes it off as their own in depth analysis.

[-]

saywherefore@reddit

“The trouble with Marstons is they always try to walk it in.”

[-]

ZaphodG@reddit

I’ve been traveling from the US to the UK on business since the 1980s. I’ve always thought ale hand pumped from a keg in the cellar of the pub is my favorite beer in the world. I always seek it out. I’m always confused when I look around and see people drinking Stella and Budweiser.

[-]

OldGuto@reddit

Hobgoblin Brewery (probably back when they were independent) had posters/adverts saying "What's the matter lagerboy, afraid you might taste something?"

Here it is https://i.reddituploads.com/0534e8fb7601473bb5b0821a246f92aa?fit=max&h=1536&w=1536&s=6fd2e7d4d5390cade4cc9585eeab9224

[-]

LemonIntelligent4301@reddit

I still have one though just this week relegated? Promoted? To the heritage draw had to send bottle tops in.

[-]

AdeptusShitpostus@reddit

Same. Lived in the UK all my life, and I love good scrumpy and cask beer. For the life of me I don’t get people who religiously drink lager. It’s alright but gets tiresome really quickly.

[-]

acripaul@reddit

Sure I'll be corrected here but I think cask almost died out in Britain and Ireland.

Took a serious effort by the early CAMRA folk to save it.

So the movement developed quite a hard core, and some elements were quite against keg and ciders etc.

That's a possible element to it.

[-]

Content_Display_1328@reddit

If you think Camra can be hardcore wait till you meet the Society for Preservation of Beer from the Wood.

Only want to drink beers from a wooden cask.

Its like the provisional wing of Camra

[-]

OldGuto@reddit

I wonder what gives them wood?

[-]

RoboTon78@reddit

A tight bung hole.

[-]

Old-Calendar-9912@reddit

Same thing as when I used to work in a wine shop and we’d do tastings, people love to lord it over others and pretend they have this niche knowledge and palate.

They’d spend £30 on a bottle that tastes exactly the same as a £7 one and when doing tastings I could say “ohh, do you taste the oak of Shreks ballsack” and they’d enthusiastically agree to seem like they were in the know.

[-]

WelcometotheZhongguo@reddit

Well, cask is a fresh product, it changes by location, storage, age, time of year, temperature and other mystical factors which include whether the glass has a handle, or whether the drinker is consuming it through a spittle flecked beard.

All of these factors lead to the same beer tasting different every time. That’s important to a cask drinker to point this out ad nauseum

Which is the exact opposite of the kegged lager drinker who strives for the drink to be exactly the same wherever and whenever they have that same brand anywhere in the world.

[-]

OldGuto@reddit

spittle flecked beard

To be honest the "I must follow the latest trend, I have seen madri advert so must drink it" lager drinkers probably have spittle flecked (bum fluff) beards.

[-]

WelcometotheZhongguo@reddit

There is a fine line between a shoddily dressed, bearded, rambling real ale twat and a shoddily dressed, rambling craft beer hipster.

The true pub connoisseur treads this fine line between the two. Cheers!

[-]

JamOverCream@reddit

A few years ago I did some work at a massive brewery company. As part of the induction process we spent time with one of the master brewers. He told us about the amount of work that goes into ensuring that your favourite lager tastes the same, batch upon batch, regardless of where it was brewed etc.

He also said that he was often accused of not being a real beer lover by craft beer & real ale zealots.

[-]

WelcometotheZhongguo@reddit

Both of those things can be true at the same time.

[-]

Annabelle_Sugarsweet@reddit

Join CAMRA, you know you want to, then you’ll understand.

[-]

OldGuto@reddit

Plus they all had beards before they were cool and trendy

[-]

AlligatorInMyRectum@reddit

Beer bellies have never been trendy though.

[-]

SlightProgrammer@reddit

Reminds me of that Viz strip, real ale twats

[-]

AccidentalSirens@reddit

That strip must write itself. All the cartoonist has to do is go to a pub, sip a pint and listen.

[-]

HisLoba97@reddit (OP)

Also cask ale is always cheaper than the cheapest pint eg fosters. Makes no sense

[-]

howarth4422@reddit

I own a pub and pay less for a pint of carlsberg than any of the cask ales but I sell the ale cheaper than the carlsberg. Don’t ask me why though…

[-]

Gone_For_Lunch@reddit

I need to ask why.

[-]

howarth4422@reddit

When I said “don’t ask me why” I genuinely meant I don’t know why, not that there’s some bizarre reason 😂. I presume my thinking is that ale is traditionally cheaper than lager and it doesn’t feel right charging more for ale. Also I get Carlserg at a very good price so I’m able to sneak a bit extra margin on it and still knock it out at a decent price I feel

[-]

jaymatthewbee@reddit

Because cask has a shorter shelf life than keg?

[-]

jaymatthewbee@reddit

I think some of it is people thinking they know more about beer than they actually do.

I love cask ale, but I hate it when ale drinkers think they have superior taste to lager or keg ale drinkers. There is a reason why pilsner style beer the most popular in the world.

[-]

Dense_Appearance_298@reddit

Another perspective:

If you spend time with Italians, Spanish, Germans, Japanese etc, you find they take great pride in their national cuisine and spend ages obsessing over / discussing it. My partner is Italian, at her family's dinner table they will spend 30 minutes discussing cheese; it just boggles my mind.

In the UK we generally don't, for example the Scots produce the best whiskey in the world, yet the most commonly drunk whiskey here is Jack Daniels. We're a net importer of (cheap) fish despite being an island. We have a fantastic beer culture here - up there with the Belgian's, Czech and German's, but we mostly drink mass produced piss (lager).

Whilst they can seem a bit snobbish, real ale enthusiasts are just Brits taking pride in high quality, British beer produced and served by traditional methods. If there weren't enthusiasts the whole culture would have died out.

[-]

Competitive_Alps_514@reddit

Sounds like utter bullshit. People into beer can have strong opinions, but bar size would never be one. If anything tap rooms are tiny.

I suggest changing your story.

[-]

Fred776@reddit

I'm not saying there's a problem with your pub, and maybe the people you are talking about are just being a bit twatty about it, but there genuinely can be variation between the same beer at different pubs, depending on how well they look after it. A lot of it is to do with the fact that cask beer is still "live" when it's delivered.

Whereas if you like a particular brand of lager, say, you can be reasonably sure of what you are going to get, there is always a bit of pot luck with real ale.

[-]

cardiffman100@reddit

This is just made up. Nobody does this.

[-]

SorryIGotBadNews@reddit

I don’t believe your story tbh. Screams of “I overheard one snobby comment now I’m making up a scenario to generate an echo chamber”

[-]

Content_Display_1328@reddit

If you think Camra can be hardcore wait till you meet the Society for preservation of beer from the wood.

Only want to drink beers from a wooden cask.

Its like the provisional wing of Camra

[-]

Rubberfootman@reddit

They are a real world example of Reddit hobbyists.

Try asking a newbie question in subs about espresso/coin collecting/photography, and you’ll see what I mean. Some of the people in the banknote-collecting sub are just pricks.

[-]

Top-level comments to the OP must contain genuine efforts to answer the question. No jokes, judgements, etc.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!

Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.