Real Ale Research Articles

Managing neolocalism outside the locale in real ale and craft beer entrepreneurship: The case of Ben Lui Brewery

This case focuses on the role played by place and neolocalism in real ale and craft beer entrepreneurship, and the dilemma of how to manage neolocalism when a firm extends into markets beyond its established locale. It examines how a sense of belonging and ‘locatedness’ underpins a small, entrepreneurial brewery's vision, mission and market differentiation, contributing to the firm's brand equity amongst its core audiences. The owner-director, Duncan, is currently considering the brand implications of a possible expansion of sales activities into England and Wales. He expects that English and Welsh stakeholders will derive different meanings from the place-oriented aspects of the firm's brand when compared with his established Scottish stakeholders but is unsure how and to what effect. The case considers the extent to which perceptions of neolocalism and place-specificity can differ between local and non-local stakeholders. The concept is explored in the context of rural entrepreneurship, and in the strategic decision making of a small, independent brewery in rural Scotland.

Rhythm and booze: contesting leisure mobilities on the Transpennine Real Ale Trail

ABSTRACT Ale Trails, where a series of pubs noted for serving real ale and craft beer are linked together along a prescribed route followed either on foot or by bus or train, are now a well-established activity in the UK and beyond. However, in some cases they have become associated with large groups of rowdy drinkers characterised by excessive consumption and disorderly behaviour. While copious research has focused on drinking urban leisure spaces, few studies have examined leisure mobilities involved in drinking in, and intoxicated mobilities through, rural and suburban spaces. This article uses Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis to analyse leisure mobility through the spaces constituting the Ale Trail – including pubs, train carriages, station platforms and village streets. In these spaces, the differing rhythms of diverse individuals and groups as they move through heterogeneous spaces on foot and by train give rise to both shifting alignments and conflicts. The article concludes with a discussion of the spatial, temporal and affective dimensions of alcohol consumption and demonstrates the relevance of rhythmanalysis concepts and methods for exploring contemporary forms of leisure mobilities.

Putting Faith in Vinyl, Real Ale, and Live Music: a Case Study Of the Limits of Tourism Policy and a Critical Analysis Of New Leisure Spaces in a Northern English Town

Skipton, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is an old mill town that has seen tourists flocking to it since the arrival of the railway in the 19th century. Like many other old mill towns in northern England, Skipton has lost those mills-as-factories and the workers in them—and has struggled to retain a sustainable local economy. At the same time, Skipton has become increasingly gentrified, and has become a focus for day visitors and tourists attracted by the beautiful countryside seen when Le Tour de France came through Yorkshire in 2014. In this article, we explore the area of Skipton, dubbed the Canal Quarter. We focus on the leisure spaces that have opened there as attempts to construct alternative, authentic experiences around the consumption of real ale, the performance of live music, and the curation of second-hand vinyl records. We have previously explored how these might be shown to be a space for Habermasian rationality. In this sequel, we use critical theory to show how the alternative, authentic space of vinyl, real ale, and live music has already been compromised by two conflicting hegemonic powers: the cooption of leisure into the economics of tourism and tourism policy, and the meaninglessness of cool capitalism and Bauman's consumer society.

Enthusiasm, craft and authenticity on the High Street: micropubs as ‘community fixers’

The retail recession has left a legacy of vacant shops on many shopping streets, with closures having significant consequences for local populations. But several new ‘pop-up’ formats are bucking this trend by bringing community-oriented forms of consumption back to the High Street. The micropub is a notable example, a small-scale venue selling real ale that has taken over a vacant shop premise, usually in smaller and struggling town centres. The rapid take-up of the micropub concept has attracted considerable attention, suggesting a model for retail regeneration based on community-mindedness and a close relationship between owner and customer. Based on ethnographic research in micropubs, alongside interviews with landlords, this paper suggests that their success is dependent upon the enthusiasm of landlords and customers alike, with such ‘cultures of enthusiasm’ encouraged via the nostalgic motifs of craft, tradition and Britishness that inform the curation of these seemingly ‘authentic’ spaces. The paper concludes that the micropub offers a form of socially-connective consumption highly valued by some, but stresses that there are clear limits to the ability of such spaces to be ‘community fixers’ given enthusiasm for real ale remains a distinctly white, male, and middle-aged pursuit.

The embourgeoisement of beer: Changing practices of ‘Real Ale’ consumption

Recent years have seen changes in the practice of beer consumption, which appear to indicate raised standards of cultural prestige. This article focuses on the practice of Real Ale consumption, which has been promoted by the UK consumer pressure group, the Campaign for Real Ale, since 1971, and analyses how beer consumption has achieved an increased cultural position relative to understandings of taste and cultural capital. The article also draws on qualitative research, including interviews, archival material analysis and participant observation. Following recent advances in practice theories of consumption, the article identifies important changes in the materials, meanings and competencies of Real Ale consumption, which mean that a more complex ‘intellectualised’ form of beer appreciation has emerged over recent years. The article argues that by tracking these changes, it is possible to illustrate how cultural tastes and practices have undergone a process of ‘embourgeoisement’. Specifically, exponents of Real Ale appreciation practices have borrowed from proximate practices, such as wine and food consumption, in seeking increased value. Beer consumption has become subjected to upward social mobility in becoming more complex and refined, meaning that it now functions more readily as a marker of social status. However, there is some suggestion that such a process of embourgeoisement has also generated antagonisms, with some consumers being excluded by discourses of taste and status.

‘Did you ever hear of police being called to a beer festival?’ Discourses of merriment, moderation and ‘civilized’ drinking amongst real ale enthusiasts

While the real and perceived excesses of ‘binge drinking’ have received considerable attention in policy, media and academic debates, the concept of ‘sensible drinking’ is poorly defined and has rarely been subject to empirical analysis. Using qualitative research, this article explores the drinking discourses of ale enthusiasts as a means of highlighting how understandings of sensible drinking draw on notions of taste, sociability and self-control. Drawing on Elias’s concept of the ‘civilizing process’, the article analyses how these narratives highlight self-control and social regulation as central features of acceptable drinking practices. Emerging from these accounts is a rejection of elements of the night-time economy and the unruly and hedonistic ‘determined drunkenness’ often associated with it.

‘Real Ale’ Enthusiasts, Serious Leisure and the Costs of Getting ‘Too Serious’ About Beer

The article uses the concept of serious leisure to explain the leisure commitments made by members of the British consumer campaign group the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and that of Real Ale enthusiasts in general. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research including interviews with CAMRA branch members and staff, the article demonstrates that beer appreciation can be understood as a serious rather than a casual leisure activity. While many of the benefits to participation typical of serious leisure activities are identified, so are the numerous “costs” involved. Beyond costs relating to money, time, obligation, and organizational conflicts, the article suggests that Real Ale enthusiasts are at times marginalized by wider cultural stereotypes positioning them as obsessive and snobbish. The article concludes with discussion of how the concept of the cultural omnivore might explain how serious leisure practitioners are often marginalized because of their specialism in a single field rather than many.

Knowledge management in the voluntary sector: a focus on sharing project know-how and expertise

Voluntary sector organisations are operated principally by volunteers who are not obliged to share their knowledge, as might be expected in a for-profit company, with a greater consequent loss of knowledge should individuals leave. This research examines how a volunteer-led organisation, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), acquires, stores and shares its project knowledge in the context of event management. Three annual CAMRA festivals of different sizes and maturity were selected to see how volunteers’ knowledge is managed in the process of organising their festivals. Key Festival Officers were interviewed and focus groups, comprising of festival volunteers, were conducted. While the maturity of a festival and its size seemed to influence the ways in which knowledge was managed there were some commonalities between festivals. Evident was a strong master-apprentice model of learning with little formal training or record keeping except, that is, where legislation and accountability in treasury and health and safety functions were necessary. Trust between volunteers and their need to know and to share information appeared to be dependent, in part, on their perception and confidence in the success of the overarching project organisation, and this helped shape volunteers’ knowledge-sharing practices. While there was evidence of a laissez-faire approach to codification and the sharing of knowledge, this was less so when volunteers recognised a genuine lack of knowledge, which would hinder the success of their festival. The analysis also highlighted factors related to the sharing of knowledge that, it is suggested, have not been identified in the for-profit sector.

Knowledge sharing: insights from Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Festival volunteers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a British Academy funded project that investigated the knowledge sharing activities of volunteers within three Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) festivals. Design/methodology/approach – Three case study festivals were selected based on factors such as longevity and size. Rich qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews with volunteers in key festival roles and focus groups with a range of other volunteers. Findings – A range of inhibitors and enablers to sharing festival knowledge were identified, some of which have not yet featured in the knowledge management (KM) literature. Riege's categorisation of individual, organisational and technological barriers to knowledge sharing was used to frame discussion of the findings. Research limitations/implications – Volunteer-led festivals are a novel context for knowledge sharing research yet the principles of volunteer working and the project-based approach to most festivals means they are a fertile arena for lessons in KM. Practical implications – Insights into knowledge sharing activities were generated from this study which could improve KM practices in festivals. They included the use of the master-apprentice model, raising the value of post-project reviews and designing festival layout with knowledge sharing in mind. Originality/value – The study of knowledge sharing is an original contribution to the field of event management.

Craft, tangibility and affect at work in the microbrewery

In offering particular intrinsic rewards, craftwork has been situated in recent debates as a possible antidote to some of the alienating features of work in modern capitalist societies. The revival of traditional beer in the UK, led by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), has provided the context in which a proliferation of small-scale breweries has emerged. Using insights drawn from qualitative interviews, this article explores the occupational identity of brewers working in such small-scale breweries. Their accounts foreground notions of skill and passion where both are intertwined to produce the brewer identity. Brewer identity is described as being embodied, felt and performed through the working on and with ingredients and equipment at the brewery. It is suggested that the tangibility of both the process involved and the product produced mean that significant intrinsic value is derived from the embodied craft of brewing. Thus, being engaged in the material processes of the brewery and, in the finished beer, being able to see a tangible reflection of one’s labour in the final product highlights the ways in which brewers draw meaningful rewards from the affective and embodied facets of skilled craft work.

Colin Carter 1963-2013 Nurse who loved to study, and was a real ale enthusiast

Colin Carter 1963-2013 Nurse who loved to study, and was a real ale enthusiast

‘Yobs’ and ‘Snobs’: Embodying Drink and the Problematic Male Drinking Body

The cultural linkages between the drinking of alcohol and the assertion of masculinity have been well explored. In particular, drinking alcohol is still assumed to be a site where masculinity can be tested and proved. However, equally, drinking can be seen to undermine and discredit the male body. Further, older men's drinking practices are commonly overlooked. Through exploring two examples of cultural stereotypes relating to male drinking bodies, the lager lout and the real ale enthusiast, the article argues that persistent cultural assumptions about the appropriate way to embody masculinity. Both the lager lout and the bearded ale snob represent two alternative discourses of how alcohol undermines the bounded male body. Both cases exhibit a lack of control and restraint which is assumed to be desired of masculine bodies and, therefore, both become problematic and subject to social sanctions and cultural policing in the form of negative caricatured depictions. Finally, it is suggested that such stereotypes offer vivid examples of problematic male drinking bodies from which other embodiments can be normalised.

REAL ALE MICROBREWING AND RELATIONS OF TRUST: A COMMODITY CHAIN PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the nature of supply chain linkages for microbrewing and contributes to existing geographical work on the specialist brewery industry. It argues that a commodity chain and, more specifically, a ‘whole chain’ approach, can be employed to examine such linkages and to contextualise economic relations. After outlining the main features of a whole chain methodology, the paper applies it to a case study of a real ale microbrewery in Northumberland in the North East of England. As well as examining the ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ nature of the microbrewer's own business supply chain, material from interviews with wholesalers, bottlers, pubs and other brewers is included to develop a locally sensitive cultural economy perspective. The paper reveals the complex nature of economic relationships and organisation for microbrewing, the different forms of trust that typify such supply chain relationships and tensions between difference and localness in relation to selling real ale.

Will progressive beer duty really help UK small breweries? a case study in profit appropriation

Both the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) argue that barriers to market access in the UK brewing industry disadvantage small brewers. They have been actively campaigning for a number of years for a tax concession (progressive beer duty or PBD) to alleviate the situation of small brewers. This paper argues that the disadvantages faced by small brewers are due to a complex monopsony in the beer industry, where the power of the distribution segment of the value chain is paramount. It outlines a model of the structure of the UK beer industry, and undertakes two types of empirical analysis to test the potential impact of PBD on the small brewery sector. The paper finds that control over distribution is the key to profitability and survival in the beer industry, and that small brewers with such control are most likely to benefit from PBD. The findings, however, also have relevance to the position of any small business facing a powerful distribution segment. Finally, for the issue of policy development, the paper indicates that the potential outcomes of a policy change may not be entirely those intended.