OR MR BEER
Y Britain’s oldest pub, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks is mbling, with heavy beams, creaky floors, vast and the original cock fighting pit – not used ourse. It has a great range of beers and good he edge of Verulamium Park at St Albans, Herts. e 1800s by a railway company for what thoughtful bosses – The Inn is two minutes from Derby on at the end of a row of workers’ Lots of small comfortable rooms main corridor. The inn has its own don’t miss the Triple Hop. but being tall and having glasses t to pubs way before I was legally k. I always liked beer but by the dn’t work out why I wasn’t enjoying ” the only disillusioned drinker. our friends – Michael Hardman, es, Jim Makin and Bill Mellor – a campaign group called the or Real Ale, in St Albans, Herts. s: “I read about CAMRA which ork out what I was missing – good ales.” as inflation and unemployment ger lost his job as a lecturer. saw an ad for a new editor of Good Beer Guide – the bible for and recognised the perfect chance obby into a career. d the annual guide from 1978 to rom 2000 to 2018. And he has AN ancient coaching house, The Black Bull is close to the beautiful lake at Coniston, Cumbria. It has its own small brewery at the back which uses pure water flowing down from the Old Man of Coniston. Beers include Bluebird Bitter – a former CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain. THE Boot dates from the 15th century – soldiers fighting in the Wars of the Roses drank here. Mind your head on the low beams as you explore its nooks and crannies. Specialises in Hertfordshire breweries’ ales. Find it opposite the Clock Tower in St Albans, Herts. travelled the world writing about beer. But his proudest achievement is helping to save traditional British beers from extinction.
“It was an incredibly exciting time because we stopped breweries closing,” he says.
“Fullers – now an enormous breweryy in Chiswick, west London – had made a boardroom decision to stop making their real ale. But we helped to change their mind.
“A lot of the other smaller brewers were also thinking of giving up because the market was flooded with awful keg beers and fake British lager. But we convinced them there was a market for these beers through our festivals.”
Despite down- A VAST, imposing shrine to Victorian architecture with high windows, impressive cornices and a large canopied bar, The Guildford is opposite Waverley Station in Edinburgh. It serves around 10 beers from small Scottish breweries. There’s a separate restaurant with top quality food. ing beer for a living for most of his life, Roger says he is not a heavy drinker. He rarely drinks in the daytime, only samples whisky-sized measures when working and has a dry day every week. How much money would he have to be offered to give up beer? “Oh, more than Philip Green has,” he jokes. “I do love a decent pint.” Roger’s wife Diana has tried to introduce him to the subtleties of wine. But Roger says nothing beats a pint of cask ale, which he calls “the champagne of the beer world.” The Rake in London’s Borough Market, where we meet, hit the headlines last week for serving a pint of Cloudwater DIPA, Citra & Amarillo for £13.40. Does he embrace the craft beer revolution? Or is it against CAMRA’s real ale message?
“We were a bit slow to recognise the movement but anything that helps the country drink good quality beer is a good thing,” says Roger. “The more the merrier.
“But let’s not forget cask beer is doing incredibly well with over 55 per cent of the ale market.
“And the projection is over 70 per cent by 2020. The beer that was nearly dead and buried in the 1970s is now the predominant style in the UK.”
As we finish our drinks, Roger tells me: “I’m certainly not retiring. I want to visit Japan next to learn about their brewing process and I have plenty more books I want to write.”
And he promises he’ll never give up his “politics” – protecting small breweries from takeovers. Cheers to that!