3 CHEERS FO
RAISE a glass to the man who saved us from gassy, fizzy 70s beer and helped create the classy craft ale revolution we’re enjoying today. At the age of 78 – after his 24th edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide – Britain’s Mr Beer is finally retiring as editor. But his crusade to bring us better brews and protect the people who make them will go on. Over a pint of Moor’s Hoppiness – one of his favourite new brews – Roger Protz talks me through the revolution. “In the 1970s there were just 105 breweries left as a result of a wave of takeovers and mergers by six big brewers who were pushing bland, fizzy keg beer which was ready to drink as soon as it hit the pub. It was awful. “Today there are 1,700 breweries and the range is astonishing – golden ale, new versions of India Pale Ale, porter, stout, barley wine, beers aged in wood and beers with herbs, spices, fruit, coffee and chocolate.” The man who saved the pint began learning about beer and pubs even before he could crawl. He says: “I was born in 1939 at the start of World War Two and evacuated to Norfolk with my mother. The only thing she could do in the evening was go to the pub so she put me under t he bench while she had a drink. “Back in East London we were surrounded by breweries. “Every Sunday I’d walk from East Ham to Barking with my father, who worked in the docks, and my uncle. They had a couple of pints while I sat outside with a ginger beer because children couldn’t go inside. But pubs and seeking out a decent pint intrigued me.” He had his first taste of beer – “a hoppy Charrington IPA” – as a teenager. In 1956, aged 16, he left school and found a job in Fleet Street, the traditional home of national newspapers and full of boozers. “I remember being surrounded by pubs,” he said. “Back then you couldn’t drink until OFFICIALLY big and ram fireplaces a today, of co food. On th BUILT in th its staff – w Brunswick train statio cottages. L lead off a m brewery – you were 21 meant I went able to drink 1960s I could it any more.” He wasn’t In 1971 fo Graham Lee launched a Campaign fo
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