Stuff yer transition beers...?

It's very, very easy in most decent sized towns and cities to find really good beer.

For me, this generally means Real Ale, served cool (ideally not cold, definitely not warm), by a person/organization who knows how to look after beer properly.

Do I rate lager as an inferior drink, then?

Not all lager, no, of course not.  Lagering is process which, when done properly and with care produces a fine drink.  I don't usually enjoy it but I wouldn't say a proper lager is inferior.

But I loathe the mass produced tasteless fizzy stuff in much the way I don't enjoy Mother's Pride or Kenco Instant.  They're factory products and the people and machines making them are probably as connected to them as they would be if they were producing washing powder.

So what do I make of the "Craft Beer" surgence (I can't say resurgence since I'm not sure it's happened before)?
Well, I think it's fine.

Perhaps we can all agree that "Craft beer" is a term that encompasses any style of beer that is produced with care (even love, perhaps).

Please, though can we ensure we distinguish between those beers served "alive" from a cask and those which are pasteurised and served under pressure from a keg.

Am I being prissy and pedantic?  Maybe, but frankly I don't care.

I have to say, I was really disappointed a few months back on a visit to the Botanist in Kew when I ordered a pint which had a pump clip on a cask pump only to have the member of staff cross the bar space and fill my glass from a pressurized keg pump.  When I challenged her, she looked blankly and said "no, it's the same stuff".  Frankly, that's shocking.

I accepted the pint and drank it and it was OK but it was too fizzy, and had a definitely metallic signature after taste that keg beers usually have.

More recently, on our first visit to the most excellent Beer Emporium, S decided that he ought to give some of this craft-keg stuff a go. This stuff was properly labelled with no suggestion that it was anything other than from a keg but it still wasn't a very satisfactory experience.

I've no doubt that a lot of people might find craft-keg beer more to their taste, and that's great and it might help craft brewers take some of the revenue from the mass-producers.  In some cases, some newcomers to the keg versions of beers might migrate over to cask, having used the familiar texture and temperature of keg beer as a kind of transition.

Actually, I don't think that matters as much as people choosing to buy products that have been made with care.

But please, please don't try and sell me one thing under the guise of another in the hope I won't notice.  I will, and I'll think twice about coming back...