EP-211 Tom Stainer of the Campaign for Real Ale

I’m not sure how to introduce CAMRA. On the one hand, it’s the biggest
single-issue consumer interest group in the UK, the savior of British
brewing that’s as responsible for our amazing beer scene as any American
influence. On the other hand, it’s portrayed as an irrelevant lumbering
beast that seems to stagger from controversy to controversy.

The Campaign for Real Ale was founded in 1971 in response to a surge in
pasteurized, force-carbonated keg beer that was pushing traditional British
cask ale of the bars around the country. Alarmed by the lack of diversity,
four men in a pub decided that someone needed to champion the traditional
method of delivering unconditioned beer to pubs and serving them at the
exact moment they peaked, without any extra gas.

Since then, the organization has grown to nearly 200,000 members, lobbying
the government, running festivals, producing magazines, and promoting their
self-defined “real ale” above all other formats. Its success in protecting
an inefficient product against capitalist pressures is unprecedented.

But since the UK craft beer revolution, CAMRA has struggled to find its
place in a fast moving and often image-led scene. Suddenly, most of the
brewing and talking was being done by young, American-inspired breweries
who loved keg beer, big hops, and high ABVs. The keg lines that had been
loaded with crap Euro Lagers were suddenly pouring exciting, experimental
beers that appealed more to young drinkers than the more historic real ale
did.

Caught looking the other way and trying to catch up, CAMRA has come under
pressure to realign its objectives in support good keg beer, to update
older breweries’ outdated marketing, and pick a side on issues that simply
wasn’t there when its charter was drawn up—all the while coping with the
fact that after decades of growth, cask beer had gone into decline again.

I sat down with the new chief executive, Tom Stainer, who might be seen as
a reformer but has had to keep a level head in his vital new role. We talk
through the challenges of running an organization controlled by some
200,000 members, propped up by volunteers and considered out of touch—when
they were the people who made it all possible.

This is Tom Stainer, chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale. Listen
in.