STRANGE irony, is it not, that in the greatest ale brewing nation in the world we import wine to drink with our meals.

But beer is beaut with food, and who better than the Campaign for Real Ale to show how it should be done at their 30th anniversary dinner when flagons of ale replaced bottles of wine on the tables?

If you can't have a booze up in a brewery then where can you, and the St Albans-based consumer organisation chose the imposing Porter Tun Rooms at Whitbread's former London brewery for their milestone celebration intriguing choice, as Whitbread no longer brews, an omission condemned by CAMRA.

But this vast hall dominated by its mighty beamed roof was the perfect setting for a six-course feast cooked with ale and accompanied by ale and was a perfect showcase for the breadth and complexity of the beers brewed in the UK today.

I had a hand in the menu, which began with a terrine of fresh and smoked salmon set in an aspic of Oakham brewery's White Dwarf pale wheat beer. Beef Wellington with horseradish mash arrived on a pool of gravy made with one of Scotland's malty beers and was accompanied by Hop Back's Summer Lightning.

Vegetarians found something more palatable than the usual veggie lasagne you get in the pub leek and potato terrine with wheat beer and a vegetable and beer polenta tower with chestnuts, shallots and wild mushrooms marinated in ale.

A really dark chocolate mousse on a fruit beer coulis contained a porter made with chocolate malt, and Young's, who do still brew in London in no uncertain manner, provided a fabulous anniversary cake flavoured with their honey beer, Waggledance, and bottles of their highly intoxicating Special London Ale to wash it down.

There were what Dickens called some "stonking" ales alongside, winners from the 2001 Champion Beer of Britain at Olympia last August. From Norfolk, Woodforde's Nelson's Revenge, from the Isles of Orkney, aptly named Skullsplitter (champion winter beer of Britain), from Wales, Brain's brewery dark mild and, of course, this year's Supreme Champion Oakham's JHB.

And perhaps this inspiring list is the monument to CAMRA's achievement over the past 30 years.

For when the organisation first began operating from a back room in St Albans very few, if any, of them existed.

In 1971 the terrible tide of keg beer with names like Watney's Red Barrel and Double Diamond threatened to drown Britain. Real ales with live yeast still fermenting in the barrel had almost vanished; in St Albans only one pub, the Farriers Arms in Lower Dagnall Street, still had handpumps on the bar.

AMRA changed all that through a movement that has now grown to 60,000 members and is this country's single most effective pressure group.

It has saved pubs and breweries; encouraged the resurrection of old beer styles like India Pale Ale and barley wine, and the invention of new ones; successfully lobbied parliament on everything from longer licensing hours remember when pubs had to close on Saturday and Sunday afternoons? to beer duty and rate relief for pubs in rural areas.

Nationwide a whole network of CAMRA branches enthusiastically keep the live ale movement alive - checking the beer in their locals for quality (no hardship that!), liaising with breweries in their area, ready to campaign at the drop of a beer glass if a pub or brewery in their patch is threatened with closure.

This year CAMRA proved it is not resting on its laurels by launching its biggest ever advertising campaign, Ask If It's Cask, to encourage people to try proper beer then give up those big brand keg lagers and the new threat to real ale, 'smooth flow'. They are actively targeting young drinkers who, let's face it, will find a healthier drink in our traditional ales than in high alcohol designer beers and alcopops.

At the ripe old age of 30 CAMRA, is still out there campaigning, still protecting our pint. Hoppy birthday CAMRA!

December 19, 2001 11:30