19-March-2010

Real ale shunned by young people

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There’s a lot of talk about binge drinking, underage drinking, twenty-four hour drinking and the rest of it. I’d like to take a look at another aspect of drinking here in the UK. How about WHAT the youngsters are drinking these days rather than the where, when and why?

If I go out to a pub (usually at the weekend) I usually stick to drinking real ale, although occasionally I will have a glass of wine or perhaps even a shot of bourbon. On a hot evening, you may catch me with an ice cold glass of scrumpy cider or maybe even a good quality lager. Real ales such as Abbot, Theakstons or Marston’s Pedigree would definitely be my first choice and there’s nothing quite like a really good hand drawn pint of beer in my opinion.

Like a great many other people who appreciate real beer, I enjoy the taste of it. I also enjoy trying out different ales and to be honest there’s such an exceptional variety in this country you’d be hard pushed to get bored with the same old drink. My point is that whilst the effect of the alcohol in beer is pleasant and assists in developing an enjoyable and sociable evening, it’s only a part of the equation and not a reason in itself to drink.

These days however, the kids are drinking all kinds of designer drinks and for the most part they seem to be sweet sickly vodka based bottles of high alcohol concoctions. Often called alcopop’s, these are consumed for the sole purpose of getting drunk as quickly as possible. There’s no hard and fast rule, but these drinks go hand in hand with the cheap mass produced lager that can be found in the majority of pubs these days. You can witness this for yourself in any English town on a Friday or Saturday night, whilst the boys gravitate towards pints and bottles of lager, the girls are downing bottles of this vodka based ‘tart fuel’.

I find it very sad that so many of the new generation of pub goers have such an uneducated palate when it comes to the alcoholic beverages they choose to drink. I’m willing to bet that many of them haven’t even tried real ale. Perhaps this is because they see it as the domain of older men and it’s not cool to be seen drinking an ‘old mans’ drink. I blame the big breweries and the marketing people for this. They don’t care what people drink as long it can be made cheaply, sold for a good profit and quickly consumed. How often do you see their happy hour drinks promotions, two bottles for the price of one, ladies night half price and so on?

These products are aggressively marketed and are aimed at the junk food generation brought up on sugary snacks with absolutely no time to sit and enjoy something unique that took a little bit of time and effort to create.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant and on a final note: Don’t drink and drive. Drink responsibly and stay safe! By the way next time you’re in a pub, try some real ale for a change – you never know you might actually taste something!

Further Information

CAMRA – Campaign For Real Ale
CAMRA promotes good-quality real ale and pubs, as well as acting as the consumer's champion in relation to the UK and European beer and drinks industry.

Roxxoff – Alcopop that boosts sexual performance
The Surrey-based firm Yours Alternatively make this claim of their new vodka based drink. A really mature marketing strategy guys (not!), this is exactly what I am talking about!

The Portman Group
The majority of people who drink alcohol enjoy it without causing harm to themselves or others. The Portman Group acts to reduce the misuse of alcohol by the minority through a strategy of working with other organisations locally and nationally.

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If anyone reading this lives anywhere near Colchester, get yourselves down to The Hole In The Wall next to the theatre, they serve loads of different ales and the manager there knows his stuff! Plus theres always young people in there drinking real ale for those moaning about that! Other local notables include The Hospital Arms and The FatCat (which even brews its own!)

Elmo 10-Mar-2010 20:00

The main problem with being a real ale drinker is finding the pubs where the landlord is a beer drinker because if he isn't he won't have a clue how to store it nor will he clean out the pipes regularly as they don't care how it tastes.

Rantony 14-Aug-2009 21:00

Pubs have been dumbed down to the level of the yuppy thatcherite children that now inhabit their portals. Piss served from ice-cold auto-pumps. Ale is unreal. It ails me.

Leak on the Floor 25-Feb-2009 00:18

I love real ale. Most of my friend enjoy real ale. My girlfriend enjoys the odd couple of pints of the stuff. I have convertd many over the last 7-8 years and have found that some people just dont like the taste of real beer. They prefer the tastless, watery, super chilled this and smooth flow that, crap lagers and bitters. Its all about image. Look at Guiness now its so cold its tastless you ask for an 'original' and get 'cold' anyway because your young or the bar staff have no idea what your on about. It lacks life and taste its too smooth and far too cold. Dare I say its crap? I do. it manufactured so the young will try it but its a lie in a glass.

Now here is my point. The more tastless something is the greater percentage of people will 'like' it. It does not tread on anyones toes and its all manly in pints. Ale drinkers are still a relativily small band of folk but its a group growing and thats incouraging.

What really gets me is 'men' drinking tarts drinks out the little bottle trying to look hard. Your not hard you are drinking a girls drink and ill probably end the night either on your ass in a chippy throwing up blue fluids or in A + E. So I say sod these narrow minded students of the drinking world and leave them to it!

Sir Rant-a-lot 24-Feb-2009 21:41

The de-phlogisticated pub of the future. It will serve Estrella Fartois and Piso Gwidw. Raising a glass in cheer you will toast with inorganically produced free range desalinated mineral water drawn from an artesanal quarry - £5/pint.

Reality 27-Sep-2008 14:29

I am 22 and know lots of people my age who wish to drink real ale in clubs and club like bars though the managers don't seem to know it. Whenever a bar or club has any ale they like to hide it in the large cabinets beind the throngs of people at the bar so that as few people as possible know they are selling it. Out of five places 12 us asked 1 now has ales. Five bottles are shown in the window. During his trial we managed to one night rink the entire supply of ale. We now direct all ale drinkers and people we wan tto hang out to here. Still no clubs have ale bottles and the student union won't carry glass bottles or put hand taps in.

kch 25-Sep-2008 20:12

Sad slapper, we don't want our "old fart fuel" becoming associated with the likes of vapid slatterns like yourself, thankya kindly.

Signed,

Son of a Blizzard, age 22.

Son of a Blizzard 26-May-2008 15:37

What has the world come to? Now you're not allowed to have your drink of choice without being told off for it. Drink your ale and let everyone else enjoy their blue wkd in peace and just be thankful it's not a cocktail of drugs!

Welcome to the 21st century 07-Jan-2008 00:18

I am 24 and since I was 17 I have chose real ale as my drink of choice, most of my friends my age enjoy real ale too! However how are young people expected to try real ale when a lot of pubs especially chain ones serve poor quality ale, often don't have the ale on and when its busy get narky when they have to serve you ale as opposed to cracking open a lager bottle top

Jamie 21-Jun-2007 16:25

I went to my first beer festival at a local "traditional" pub a few weeks ago. It was pretty good! Lots of different types of Ale. Arundel St George was my favorite although I couldnt tell you why - I just liked it more than the others. A perfect summers evening tipple!
Of course when out in the town I can only get lager, but I do now enjoy a couple of pints of ale after footie on a sunday. Even a couple of the younger players are getting into it. Im 29 and cant believe I havent tried it before. Next thing I will be growing a beard and smoking a pipe!(just Kidding) I even start asking how many pints have been pulled just so I dont get naff pint out the barrel, its like being in a special club!
Ale - dont knock it till you've tried it

Danno 13-Jun-2007 09:33

This is a damn good gripe, like you say the only reason why they drink tasteless larger like carling is because they see it on thier football teams shirt. Its been marketed at them and unfortunately there is more profit in mass produced rubbish than quality products, the downside of capatalism As a young larger drinker I stick to the better ones such as San Miguel, or Stella, and well away from Carling, which to me tastes like fizzy water. Next time I go out Im going to try the quality ale...

billy 05-Jun-2007 12:39

My parents have never been realy strict with me over alcohol, they have let me make my own mistakes with it and learn the effects of it buy myself, because of this I no my limit and I am no longer interested in getting drunk, as for one of my friends he was never allowed to even try alcohol and his parents are very strict with him but as an effect as soon as he is out of his parents sight he is alcohol obsessed. (teenager)

yorkshire lass 28-Feb-2007 19:57

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Real ale shunned by young people

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