Have I missed a CAMRA sea change?

[ETA]

Having just got my 2023 GBG I noticed that at least one pub - The Twelve Taps - sells craft ales but no real ale. CAMRA's website continues to promote real ale but not craft.

It's a pretty good pub, but it doesn't seem to fit the criteria. Or am I missing something?

[sheffield hatter]

Having just got my 2023 GBG I noticed that at least one pub - The Twelve Taps - sells craft ales but no real ale. CAMRA's website continues to promote real ale but not craft.

It's a pretty good pub, but it doesn't seem to fit the criteria. Or am I missing something?

If you click on the WhatPub link you'll see that - unusually - all of the craft ales are served from key kegs, which means all the beer is live and has no contact with the carbon dioxide that is used to serve it. My main gripe with Camra's "hey, some of this keg beer is pretty good" policy is that it is not normally possible to tell which is key keg (good) and which is not (not). It has been suggested to me that I should ask, but I reckon it would be better if it was made clear by the use of, I don't know, a hand pump or something.

[Mobyduck]

If you click on the WhatPub link you'll see that - unusually - all of the craft ales are served from key kegs, which means all the beer is live and has no contact with the carbon dioxide that is used to serve it. My main gripe with Camra's "hey, some of this keg beer is pretty good" policy is that it is not normally possible to tell which is key keg (good) and which is not (not). It has been suggested to me that I should ask, but I reckon it would be better if it was made clear by the use of, I don't know, a hand pump or something.

Personally I don't care whether it's key keg or not or whether the beer is live or not, I go by taste and overall experience, of course it's down to preference and cask ale has always been my base camp, but one has to explore. To see some CAMRAs "Discord" Forum denigrating keg having never tasted it in the last forty years or so is quite jurassic. I do sometimes wonder why I am and remain a CAMRA member.

[sheffield hatter]

Personally I don't care whether it's key keg or not or whether the beer is live or not, I go by taste and overall experience, of course it's down to preference and cask ale has always been my base camp, but one has to explore.

I often explore keg options, and my overall experience is that it tends to be too cool, too fizzy and too expensive. But that's just me.

[Mobyduck]

I often explore keg options, and my overall experience is that it tends to be too cool, too fizzy and too expensive. But that's just me.

Of course, but my overall point being there is little difference in taste, mouthfeel, beer experience between keg & key keg, only beer nerds would disagree.

[sheffield hatter]

Of course, but my overall point being there is little difference in taste, mouthfeel, beer experience between keg & key keg, only beer nerds would disagree.

Well, I would agree with you to a certain extent - the problem for me with key keg is that it's generally kept colder than I would like, and of course the carbon dioxide is not vented so the beer has a residual fizziness.

But the original question was about Camera policy and the GBG, not about your or my personal preferences!

Just to be clear, are you saying I am a beer nerd or that I'm not a beer nerd?

[Wittenden]

My main gripe with Camra's "hey, some of this keg beer is pretty good" policy is that it is not normally possible to tell which is key keg (good) and which is not (not).

You answered my question. I tend to by-pass keg, key or not, and go to the can These seen to be less fizzy than keg (usually.) If drinking indoors,I can regulate the temperature.Aren't key kegs single use?

[sheffield hatter]

Aren't key kegs single use?

That's my understanding, and if it is still so then it's a disgrace. The cans you are drinking at home - whether steel or aluminium - are easily recycled, and normal beer barrels/kegs in pubs are reused if anyone can be bothered to go and get them, so why not the plastic key kegs?

[rpadam]

Aren't key kegs single use?

That's my understanding, and if it is still so then it's a disgrace.

Not quite as simple as that: KeyKeg | reduce, recycle, reuse materials.

[sheffield hatter]

Not quite as simple as that: KeyKeg | reduce, recycle, reuse materials.

Yes, that's better than I imagined, but it still reads like a work in progress:

"Our goal is reusing all empty KeyKegs as recycled materials for new Kegs instead of letting them be incinerated or used as landfill."

"To further our ambitious goals for sustainability, we are assembling a worldwide Collection Network of partners to collect and process empty Kegs for reuse as materials in the production of new KeyKegs."

Why didn't they set up the "Collection Network of partners to collect and process empty Kegs" at the start? How many have been incinerated or used as landfill, or continue to be?