All together now

Taking up an issue is a dangerous business these days. Express mild annoyance at some aspect of the world and next thing you know you're being kettled until past closing time. But someone's got to do it, which is why it's worth raising a hat to beer-enthusiast-about-town Rupert Ponsonby and restaurateur Mark Hix, who this week launched Britons Backing Beer, at a time when launching a campaign could easily see you married to an undercover copper without knowing it.

To be fair, "campaign" might be putting it a bit strongly. The initiators themselves describe it as "a coming-together" or even a "non-campaign", the general aim of which is to bring those involved or interested in beer together to create a kind of surge towards increasing awareness of its delights and countless styles. Whatever you call it, that's a noble cause, and the surge was launched in suitably classy style at Hix's basement bar in Soho, with a variety of beer-favouring celebs - such as Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet, now a confirmed brewer, fello muso Alex James and TV chef Valentine Warner - and a jolly crowd of barley farmers, brewers, politicos and bloggerati.

There's been a wide and welcome rise in interest in and appreciation of good beer over the last decade or so. The days when pubs could happily feature just one tap of uncared-for ale appear to be receding, and any leading-edge restaurant that fails to offer at least the beginnings of a beer list will win few friends. But the  non-campaigners argue that there needs to be a push among those who care about beer to cement this broader understanding and put beer where it belongs in the national consciousness. As Ponsonby puts it, "Beer massively underplays its strengths. It so often adopts the meekness and humility of the Trappist monk, rather than the voluble style of the opera diva. And whereas wine has pride and verve and a language which adds value to its category, we expect the future of beer to grow of its own accord. Beer is often left to speak for itself."

It's a good point and a worthy (non-)campaign, deserving of attention and worth keeping an eye out for. I would point you to a website, but there isn't one. That should keep the authorities guessing.

Get brewing

Fancy your skills with the mash tun and sparging arm? Then you could do a lot worse than get something suitable ready for the Craft Brewers Association's National Homebrew Festival, to be held in Sutton in deepest South London on November 13. That's only five months away, which, unless you're planning a Russian Imperial Ale or something equally heavyweight, should just about give you time to get your best beer cooked and matured in time to try your luck against the meanest hop-and-grain wizards in the game.

Having attended last year's event and entered a kit beer on behalf of The Times to see what happened, I can recommend the occasion as a low-intensity but very high-value celebration of what can be done in the humblest home with a little bit of equipment and a whole lot of love. The overall standard of beers last year was truly excellent, with the best being spectacular. The place was filled with enthusiastic brewers from all parts of the country, of all shapes, sizes and genders, and with all kinds of day jobs. I can guarantee an excellent day, and that you'll come away safe in the knowledge that the future of craft beers is very healthy indeed.

Winter warming

As patrons of the high-altitude Tan Hill Inn know very well, hanging around in pubs at the heart of the festive season can be a chancy business. As well as the risk of being snowed in (or the opportunity, depending on what else you've got planned), spending the Christmas holidays largely in pubs can lead to accusations that you should really have something better to do with your time. That is, of course, preposterous, because there are plenty of grounds for arguing that time spent in a good pub is time spent best of all, besides which the idea of spending any time at all with your family might for very good reasons give you the shakes.

But complicated holiday opening hours, the absence of regular companions and the prospect of disapproval do keep plenty of pub connoisseurs away from their favoured hang-outs over the festive break and even beyond. But that doesn't mean they abandon civilised living entirely. An increasing number of beer aficionadoes are enriching their understanding of beer at such downtimes by taking their enthusiasm home and brewing their own, with often-impressive results.

With money tight, the post-festivity hiatus upon us and a desperate need to keep warm, there's no better time to get up close to a seething boiler and learn to know your Fuggles from your Bramling Cross. It's not as scary as it sounds. It's cheap, requires little equipment, at least at first, and there's plenty of good advice around, not least on the forum at Jim's Beer Kit, recommended by those who know as the oracle for both learned veterans and those who just wouldn't mind having a stab. Recession-busting, weather-beating and educational - there ought to be a grant for it.

Punters like good beer shock

Pubs in decline, beer yesterday's drink and the whole country off to hell in a themed handcart serving only WKD? Only up to a point. The new issue of CAMRA's redoubtable Good Beer Guide, published yesterday, brings the excellent news that there are now more breweries in Britain than at any time since the Second World War, with no fewer than 71 opening in the last year alone.

Yes, pubs are closing at a formidable rate and beer sales in general are down but, it seems, real-ale sales are going the other way, and some pubs facing oblivion are finding that they can pull themselves back to health with the radical innovation of offering good beer.

Could it be that the crisis in publand is less a catastrophe and more a beneficial shake-out? Too early to tell, no doubt, but either way, if real ale is selling and small breweries are spreading like rabbits across the country, something's going right with the world.

More of those cheerful details here.

A global local

For a taste of the global possibilities of beer, get down to the Rake at Borough Market in London. Beats flag-waving any day.

Is it really good for you?

It's 250 years this year since Arthur Guinness opened the brewery in Dublin that turned into the biggest name in beer. No other beer attracts so much myth and no other has been as superbly marketed, decade after decade. Here's my feature from the Times looking at how Guinness took over the world, and finding out if there's any truth whatsoever in any of those stories.