FAQ: should real ale be called 'handpull'?

Many people know what real ale is, and the distinction to be drawn between it and keg beer. The debate rolls on, however, on how to name the stuff so that a wider public understands the difference.

Cask ale pretty much does what it says on the tin. It's ale and it comes from a cask, not a keg. Does this make it any clearer for Joe Public, though? Probably not.

In a bid to promote the product — okay, their product — a group of seven of Britain's biggest brewers have banded together and decided to call it 'handpull beer'. You can see where they're coming from here, but it's a cumbersome moniker, isn't it, and "mine's a pint of handpull" seems a bit strange.

It comes down to the fact that the dominance of keg beers in the mid-20th century has left us with a problem we shouldn't have. By default cask ale should be known as "beer": the faux, pasteurised, fizzy stuff should be the drink looking for a title. Unreal ale, perhaps. Okay, makes it sound a bit surreal. But then anyone who's had a keg bitter hangover (remember Caffrey's, anyone?) would probably know that feeling.

DJN — February 2007