A mate of mine once said that he could spot a male CAMRA member a mile off; going bald, beer belly and a beard. I have to say that is an apt description of myself.
Anyhow, CAMRA have started a long consultation process to determine the future direction of the organisation. So Saturday just gone finds me in the Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle. Its a venue I've never been in before. It consists of a cafe bar at street level, with 2 handpulls ( Hadrian & Border and Allendale beers) and a basement with another bar ( same beers) and a tiny stage for comics to perform on.
The beers were spot on , albeit expensive at £3.90 a pint. No sign of any CAMRA discount on offer this time !
At sign - in we were each handed a small pendant with a keypad and visual display. Called a Clickapad , like they use of TV voting shows , this was to enable us to vote in real time on various aspects of the presentation give by the CAMRA top men. So for example, a list was given asking why members had joined CAMRA ; press 1 for for the the real ale, 2 for reduced entry into beer festivals or 3 for the Wetherspoons vouchers and so on up to 10. Can't recall the results of each vote but it was a useful exercise to show the CAMRA top men how we felt. ( Let's hope the data was saved.)
It was actually stated during the discussion that CAMRA is sometimes seen as a club for old men with 
beards. Looking round the room, I can see where this came from. One guy quipped it was something to do upon retirement, although Ive had mine since Sunderland won the FA Cup in 1973.
beards. Looking round the room, I can see where this came from. One guy quipped it was something to do upon retirement, although Ive had mine since Sunderland won the FA Cup in 1973.
I hate to bring the term craft up , but it was interesting that those members who mentioned it all accepted that craft isn't real ale. At last.
The show was well run but towards the end the presenter made the classic mistake of standing between the words on the screen and the projector. On the screen could be seen ;
Pubs and other places we drink
The h and e of the word "other" appeared on his forehead and the n of drink was on his upper lip, looking for all the world like he had grown a droopy moustache. I think only a couple of us noticed, I guess we were sitting at just the right angle. Very amusing.
One concern in the organisation is that less young people are joining.Now over the last ten years I've encouraged my ex student daughter to drink real ale. Every time we meet up she has a pint ( or more). In fact at one point she was visiting more beer festivals than I did which really pissed me off at time.. Although not a member, there's time yet.
The adverse to this was evident after I left. I had to get home to go back out again to see a U2 tribute band at our local arts centre. One of the 8 handpulls in the bar was a wonderful porter from Empire Brewery called Big Brother . One young guy had just bought a pint of Lager but then asked to sample the Porter. On tasting it he pulled a face , saying he had tried Hobgoblin and Bombardier before, but said he preferred lager. I think some people like that could never be persuaded.
So I thought the day was worthwhile. A chance to see the CAMRA top brass and local members, have a couple of good local beers in a new venue for me.
PS - the U2 tribute band were OK; the sound was a bit distorted but the guitarist, called "The Hedge", was excellent.
