Observations on drink

At a recent party, my friends supped eagerly on a new drink. No, not the latest, heavily advertised alco- pop or imported spirit: nestled among the Chardonnay were bottles of Spitfire Premium Kentish Strong Ale. Real ale is hip. Or as Camra (the Campaign for Real Ale) has it: "Real ale is cool; other beers are just cold."

Real ale fans were once described as "like train-spotters, only drunk". But real ale has cast off its image as the preserve of beer-bellied, bearded, sandal-wearing bores. Camra says 5,000 of its 72,000 members are under-25s. University real ale clubs are growing and, in some, women outnumber men. Fashionable bars have responded. At Mash, in London's West End, young people schmooze around the minimalist decor with pints of on-site-microbrewed beer. The front-of-house manager, Tim Hocks, offers tasting trays and patrons often choose a beer over a cocktail after examining the list and sampling the beers.

Real ale is unprocessed, unpasteurised beer that continues fermenting in the barrel. Sterilised beers cannot achieve such variety or depth of flavour: they are, says Robin Jones, student liaison officer for Camra in Glasgow and West Scotland, "the liquid equivalent of fast food".

The best news of all, perhaps, is that the major brewers are not profiting from this shift in tastes. Coors, Scottish Courage, Interbrew and Carlsberg UK have all cut their production of cask ale in recent years. They now account for only 27 per cent of cask beer drunk in Britain, the rest being from regional brewers (57 per cent) and microbreweries (16 per cent). Draught Bass (owned by Interbrew) used to sell more than a million barrels a year; now it barely manages 100,000. Its position as market leader has been usurped by Fuller's London Pride - made by a family-owned brewery.

But watch out for the next drink revolution. Whisky distillers are also trying to tap into the youth market. The Easy Drinking Company has launched three whiskies with groovy packaging (called "maltopops" by critics) to try to shake off scotch's fuddy-duddy image.

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