Jag skickade några frågor till Iain Russell som driver två framgångsrika pubar i Danmark, där det bland annat serveras en del Real Ale. Charlies Bar i Köpenhamn hade jag givetvis hört talas om (men aldrig besökt), dessutom driver han The Wharf som ligger i Aalborg.
Jag väljer att publicera hans svar som en text snarare än i Q&A-form.
Mina frågor;
- For how long have you been serving Real Ale at Charlies Bar Copenhagen?
- Who is your "average" Cask-customer? Young or old? Male or Female? Danish (Copenhagen or countryside) or foreigner (Swedish)?
- The Interrest for cask in Sweden is NOT very strong, what about the danish beer drinkers?
- Best selling Real Ale at Charlies Bar? Do you have any Danish brewerys the produce Real Ale?
- Do you serve any swedish Real Ale?
- Do you have the Cask Marque-sign in Charlies Bar?
Iains svar.
Thank you
for your interest in Cask Ale aka Real Ale and what my two pubs (Charlie’s Bar,
Copenhagen, and The Wharf, Aalborg) have been doing the past 20 years to keep
the Cask Ale Tradition alive and extremely well. I am very proud to say that
our work over the last two decades has made Denmark by far the biggest Cask Ale
drinking country in the world outside the UK measured in pints and we import
1000s of cask ales in to Denmark each year from right across the UK and this
growth is exponential. Without fear
of contradiction.
Cask Ale
Culture is inclusive of all ages, gender, and nationalities or races, like its
twin genuine Pub Culture, and therefore totally egalitarian and
fraternal. Cask Ale and the Pub go together - you can’t have one without
the other! Which is probably why there are no Cask Ale breweries in Denmark and
precious little elsewhere in the world solely brewing Cask Ale. Sadly! We have
tried a few Swedish Cask Ales over the years but not very successfully I’m
afraid, you don’t seem to understand the meaning and therefore the commitment
to brew good Cask Ale, I’m sorry. It’s a bit like what the French say about
other countries when it comes to producing wine and good food.
Cask Ale
Culture is a lifestyle, I always like to say “Drink Cask Ale and save the
planet Earth!” Also Cask Ale is the “Real Craft” - that much overused and abuse
noun these days - (and you can’t hide anything in a cask...), because you need
skill, love, dedication, and passion to make Cask Ale and too in equal measure
genuine Pubs to look after and serve the casks at. Please take notice Pubs are
different to bars, and therefore they are not just businesses but instead are a
vocation to the communities they serve; therefore both Cask Ale Brewery and
Pubic House (or Ale House) are a “lifestyle” inasmuch as they are a way of life
in Harmony with Nature and Mankind.
Cask Ale
Cultural on the practical side requires an Organic link - a symbiotic
relationship - between the brewery and pub, because it necessitates skill and
dedication both ends to produce good cask ales. Therefore not everyone can do
Cask Ale if they don’t understand those requirements.
Anyone who
has the Knowledge of Cask Ale will tell you that cask ales talk to you, and
whether they are good, ok, or bad, they all have a personality and need looking
after and nurturing. Whereas the “K” word - keg beer - are dead,
indifferent, and require absolutely no skill in looking after, and always
remain the same whatever, which is why the modern commercial world loves keg
beer so much: As it’s just a commercial link to the brewery needing no effort
each end; and this applies to the so-called ‘Craft Beer’ industry (Hipster
Capitalism we like to call it!) too with their mountain-building of
one-way-nonreturnable pressurised plastic kegs, as much as it does to the old
industrial keg factories. Often the more things change, the more they remain
the same....
Cask Marque
for what’s it worth these days... Charlie’s Bar, and The Wharf, Aalborg, have
had for almost two decades now. We were the first two pubs outside the UK to
receive accreditation.
Cheers,
Iain
Thanks to Iain for your answers, I hope to meet you in person sometime in a not to far away future, perhaps at the Wharf!
Quote from e-mail-correnspondence;
Quote from e-mail-correnspondence;
You really should try and visit The Wharf in the not too distant future, we really built it as an Cathedral to Cask Ale 18 years ago now, and there’s nothing else like it in Europe and wider afield I would reckon, I say this proudly but with our usual modesty, without fear of contradiction. //Iain Russell.
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| Bild lånad från The Wharfs Facebook-sida. |
