Vive la revolution
Anyone can be a wine expert these days. For a few quid you can book yourself on a tasting course where you’ll learn to tell your claret from your beaujolais. Fine beer, though, tends to be associated with the Campaign for Real Ale brigade, which conjures images of a tweed jacketted James May – the only man who can make Jeremy Clarkson look cool.
Indeed, the beer industry hasn’t had an easy few decades. In 1929, there were over 3,000 breweries in the US. By 1972 there were just 70, driven down by mergers and the dominance of super-brewers Anheuser-Busch and Miller. Since then, though, things have been looking up – there are now over 3,000 breweries again, driven by an explosion in low-level, high quality craft brewing.
The UK has also seen a resurgence, with some varieties that had all but died out – such as the traditional London porter dark beer – making a comeback.
So what exactly is craft beer?
“Well, it’s a very vague term,” says Charlie McVeigh, craft beer pioneer and owner of The Draft House pub group. “It’s anything that’s not mass-produced crap that’s made using all kinds of chemicals to make it go quicker.
“It needs to be made with quality ingredients, and over which time is taken. You could make comparisons with the slow food movement – it is about taking time to make sure things are done properly. That doesn’t mean it needs to be made in a cow shed though: Budvar, which is the closest to a mainstream beer I serve, is brewed in huge quantities in the Czech Republic but with incredible integrity – they would never consider brewing it under license elsewhere or shortening the process.”
McVeigh has been involved in the British craft beer movement since it “went crazy” in 2007. He says he began by experimenting with more varieties in one of his bars and found his clientele growing week by week. Eventually he ceased selling the so-called “premium” mass-produced lagers altogether. “Premium lagers are not cheap,” he says. “When we cut out the big brands our margins actually came down.”
The explosion in demand for artisan beer has been driven by a wider, cultural shift in our expectations of what we eat and drink, says McVeigh.
“A few years ago, people were happy eating frozen fish fingers. Now they’re told that they might want to make their own fish fingers. Drinking craft beer is an expression of the same instinct – to be involved with something that’s done properly, harking back to a better way of doing things.”
“I think more people will start to look at beer like they do wine. The main difference, though, is that, with a few exceptions, the greatest beers cost no more that £9 or £10 a pint, where wine is unlimited. Beer is very democratic – you can drink the best without breaking the bank.”
Naturally, McVeigh thinks his Draft House pubs are the ideal way to get involved in the movement. He is one of the few publicans to sell beer measures in “thirds”, giving you the chance to sample lots of varieties without ending up flat on your back.
All of which is great news for beer lovers.
The Draft House on Lordship Lane is now open. www.drafthouse.co.uk.