World Heritage Pints

Obviously I'm a pretty big fan of cask beer. 

It accounts for about 96-97% of the beer I drink, I spend way too much time seeking out new and interesting pints to tick off, and it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that drinking cask, in pubs, is a huge part of my life. 

I'm also well aware that I exist in a beer bubble of my own creation, that my drinking habits are far from universal and that cask beer is in serious decline. 

OK, it may not exactly be dying - yet - but it has increasingly become a niche product, as I vaguely predicted some years ago. 

Most of the beers I'd want to drink can only really be found in a relatively small number of specialist pubs, and the fact that I do almost my drinking in such places doesn't change the fact that as a mainstream product, cask is on the endangered list. Which should, and does, worry me.

The boys from the Craft Beer Channel on YouTube are concerned too. And, unlike me, are a whole lot more proactive when it comes to actually doing something about it!

Their long-running 'Keep Cask Alive' campaign is to be taken up a level as they seek to secure UNESCO 'Intangible Cultural Heritage' status for cask beer. Which is interesting for a number of reasons.

 

Every day a school day

I'm surely not alone in that when I think of 'UNESCO', the phrase that invariably slides into my lubricated brain is 'World Heritage Site' and precious little else.

I freely admit that I had not one fucking clue about Intangible Cultural Heritage, or indeed how it could be applied to the beers I love to drink, but I'm willing to learn, and have learned a bit, largely thanks to Johnny and Brad's latest video series.

This particular type of recogntion is a relatively new thing, first introduced by UNESCO in 2003 and only ratified in the UK last year. It includes stuff too vague to be eligible for 'Protected Geographical Indication' status, but which is nonetheless considered important enough to be preserved and recognised - apparently French baguettes and Belgian beer culture are covered, and there is plenty of evidence for cask beer to join the club.

Johnny and Brad are very good at this. Their videos are always slick, professional and impeccably researched - head and shoulders above a lot of the shitty dross that you find on YouTube where anybody with a smartphone thinks they can be a video star these days.

If anyone has the knowledge, passion and drive to make this happen, it's these guys. Respect.

CAMRA is officially on board with the campaign - it would be a bit weird if they weren't, frankly - and several breweries have got themselves involved too, so there's surely a decent chance of making this happen. 

(The breweries involved obviously aren't my favourites, but they have the people, the money and the general clout to contribute to the overall impact of this campaign, which is probably more important on this occasion than the ability to brew a killer loganberry sour and release a one-off cask of it for people like me!)

 

Negative Nancying?

If I have a couple of reservations, it's that successful UNESCO recognition might come with a risk of:

1. Codifying cask beer as 'a style' rather than simply a method of fermentation and dispense, which is an easy excuse for brewers to only put certain beers into cask, often their less interesting offerings.
2. Reinforcing the flawed idea that it's a 'uniquely British' phenomenon, which is sort-of half-true nowadays, but historically inaccurate. (The truth is that until the mid-20th century the technology behind kegging didn't exist and all draught beer everywhere would've closely resembled what we call 'cask'!)   
   

Them and me

And if I wanted to push back against this, I'd make all kinds of arguments about how Guinness in Ireland was once served from cask, all the bleeding-edge craft micro cask in the trendiest bars in the New World, about altbier from the wood in Germany, and how Imperial Dessert Stouts have really taken off in Italy because of the rediscovery of cask, which gives them the Espresso-type crema that they couldn't get from keg...

However, I'm aware that all these points would muddy the waters when it comes to the whole UNESCO thing, so I'm probably better off keeping my mouth the fuck shut!

So, on that basis: 

I wholeheartedly endorse and approve of this campaign. 

And maybe, just maybe, if we make cask mainstream again in the UK, the rest of the world will sit up and take notice? Because UNESCO says so!

 

There is a petition to parliament to help make this happen. You can sign it here.