What Is Real Ale?

Real Ale is a term used to describe beer brewed using traditional methods and ingredients, as oposed to the more recent, processed keg beers.

The phrase was devised by the founders of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, in the 1970s. At that time a small number of national breweries had established a virtual monopoly on brewing in Britain and used it to promote a new breed of bland but cheaply produced product. Sterilised before distribution and pumped full of gas before serving, it was fizzy and flavourless but almost indestructible. Such was the breweries' hold on the market that traditional beers came close to extinction.

CAMRA led a consumer revolt, which over the years has seen real ale not only survive but gain increasing popularity. Nowadays it is easy to find pubs serving flavoursome, natural real ale.

It is often also called Cask Ale or Cask Conditioned Ale or Beer, which gives a clue to one of its key features. After brewing, it is uniquely allowed to continue maturing in the cask (a process called secondary fermentation) right up to the moment it is served. This is what allows real ale to develop its fabulous range of tastes and aromas.

How is it made?

There are three basic steps involved in brewing real ale.

Malting

The basic ingredient of beer is barley. To convert the starches in the barley into a form that can be fermented, it is soaked in water and allowed to germinate. After about 4-6 days, when the shoots approach the length of the barley grains and the natural sugars have been unlocked, the barley is heated in a kiln to stop the germination.

The kilning process has a huge effect on the colour, flavour and body of the beer. Generally, the more it is heated, the darker and heavier the beer becomes, from pale gold to dark and nutty.

Brewing

When the resulting malt is dry it is crushed, mixed with hot water and left in a mash tun to soak. Over the next few hours, the sugars dissolve into the water to form a liquid called wort. When it holds as much of the sugar as possible, the wort is strained into a vessel called a copper. Here it is boiled with hops for an hour or so. The hops act as a preservative, but also give the beer its bitterness and much of its aroma. There are many varieties of hops, each with its own individual characteristics.

After boiling, the wort is filtered through a bed of dried hops, cooled, and run into fermentation tanks, where yeast is added.

Fermentation

Yeast is essentially a type of fungus which feeds off sugars and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Most brewers tend to maintain their own strains of yeast, as over time they adapt uniquely to their specific environment and impart distinctive flavours.

The yeast multiplies rapidly in the warm, sweet wort, and within hours spreads throughout the liquid and forms a thick yellowy-brown foam on top. The fermentation transforms the liquid into green beer, which is run into conditioning tanks for a few days. Here the remaining yeast continues to turn sugar into alcohol, and also helps purge the beer of rough after-tastes.

For a traditional real ale, this is not quite the end of the story. When the beer is transferred to casks it is allowed to remain a live product, fermenting and improving right up to the point where it is drawn into the glass.

Kevin Clarke. Fermentation photo: Gordon Clarke