I was recently at a CAMRA festival (one I go to religiously every year) and I couldn’t help observing how old the demographic was – I don’t think there were more than 10 percent of the attendees under 40 years old. I actually felt out of place, but in reality I am steadfastly part of this older demographic.

The beer was too warm, there were very few that actually stood out, and it wasn’t really that pleasant of an experience. If you attend a ‘craft’ (non CAMRA) organised festival the beer is usually a lot more interesting, colder and the demographic is a lot more vibrant and younger. But I couldn’t help noticing that the numbers attending seemed to be down on previous years despite the weather being good.

Has the real ale war been won? Yes, I think so. There was a time, not long ago, when if a bar did not stock real ale there was a strong sales trick being badly missed. But the victory of winning the war has now subsided, the victors have become soft and confused, and the enemy has regrouped with new weapons.

They are not on a march to start another outright war, but are working in the background winning over potential conscripts, attacking on all fronts from lots of different angles by wooing them with offers of delight and new experiences. Many of the enemy don’t really care for anything CAMRA does or says, because there is nothing they think is worth fighting for. So should the call to arms ever be needed again, there are no new soldiers or even loyalty, so in order to have a future army you have to change the cause célèbre?

Please don’t get me wrong. Cask ale can be the most beautiful drinking experience on the planet, but the level of training, looking after and delivery in (regrettable still) a lot of bars is woefully poor. One of the biggest problems I’ve ever had when I order a pint is how incredibly frustrating the level of staff training, understanding, knowledge and even sympathy the person who serves it has! Most staff training goes a bit like this “you’ve worked a bar before, good, so this is how the till works….”

CAMRA was created in response to a rise in filtered and carbonated product in the 70s. The big brewers had identified that many of the (difficult) issues with management of real ale were removed from licensees if it was put into a keg. However, one big mistake they made at the time was that if you take crap beer and filter it – irrespective of how much carbonation in it – you still end up with crap beer. One realisation of the last 10 years or so is that if you take a really good well-crafted product and filter it, you still end up with good beer and therefore adding carbonation should only enhance the drinking experience.

Can you imagine a time when the Good Beer Guide (once again) becomes a book that represents only a small number of pubs and bars that can claim to sell quality and choice of real ale?

CAMRA’s revitalisation project has not gone far enough, but how far should it go, indeed how far can it go? Could CAMRA reinvent itself as a representative of Good Beer, but then who also defines what ‘good beer’ actually is?

In the past CAMRA had a reasonably clear dividing line as to what to support: if it came out of a cask, it was cask beer, however poor the product or the brewer was, but at least the line was clearly drawn. Are the lines now too difficult or becoming too blurred? Changes to a model that was set in stone will surely upset too many people if the difficult decisions are made to make serious ‘changes’!

Do I believe CAMRA and real ale are dead, well of course I don’t. The title of this piece caught your attention. But the fact that these questions are being asked should raise concern. But I will stick my neck out and say that CAMRA membership numbers will start to fall.

Do I have a solution, to save the decline of CAMRA and the annexation of Real Ale to fewer and fewer (real ale only) beer festivals, Bottle conditioned ales and pubs who have the right experience, professionalism, understanding and training to sell it? Well no, I don’t and neither, I believe, does CAMRA.