Is beer too important to be left to the celebs?

Back in the early nineties there was a series on TV about beer, presented by a chap who rejoiced in the name of Michael Jackson. No not HIM. He was the other Michael Jackson – The Beer Hunter - who sadly passed away two years ago.

Michael was the beer messiah even before the ‘great brewing revival’. His work is still fondly remembered by many who celebrate the joys of John Barleycorn.

Not one for watching much telly, I’m sorry to say I missed most of them. Probably out doing research. And there has not been much about beer on the box since. That was until recently. Suddenly, in this celebrity obsessed world, we have been treated to the cult of personality on beer - big style.

First it was the Morrissey-Fox duo on Channel 4 with a whole series ‘Neil Morrissey’s Risky Business’ dedicated to showing how they went about setting up a brew-pub in a North Yorkshire village.

Then wine buff Oz Clarke and Top Gear’s James May came along on BBC 2 with ‘Oz and James Drink to Britain’ to find the drink that was the most quintessentially British, with, quite properly, a bit of attention paid to beer. Now I’m still not a big telly watcher, but I looked forward to them both.

The only thing is, the cynics might say, the Channel 4 series turned out to be simply a laddish promotional platform for ex-‘Men Behaving Badly’ star Neil Morrissey and TV chef Richard Fox. It appears, as a result, they have achieved national distribution for their beers in record time. Ok, many brewers - not all - would do the same, given the chance. So perhaps we should congratulate the boys on this audacious exercise in product placement.

They did manage to produce a couple of decent beers – a reasonable blonde and a good best bitter - which are now, to meet demand, contract brewed by both an excellent neighbouring Yorkshire brewer and even one down in South Wales. Meanwhile, their new plant behind the new Ye Olde Punch Bowl Gastro Pub in Marton-Cum-Grafton remains largely unsullied for now, I believe, by malt and hops.

Yes, a nice bit of marketing work there lads. And your pub is not bad either, for an old village inn morphed into a modern gastro-ey sort of place. And maybe the series did do something for the cause of cask ale and the Great British Pub? I can’t think what off-hand, but it gave us a laugh. It was better than nothing – just.

The Clarke/May combo was a different animal. They certainly weren’t out to promote their own businesses, just their own egos - same thing really. To be fair, they visited some lovely craft brewers – the outstandingly innovative Thornbridge and the ebullient Patsy Slevin of Prospect in Wigan. There were some quite funny moments, and they seem to play off each other well.

Anyway, they brewed their own ale and filmed a Camra beer festival, although you didn’t know that because the banners and such had to be removed due to an odd ruling on branding - in stark contrast to the Morrisey/Fox show.

The duo also visited wine and cider producers. And, again to be fair, bits of the series were reasonably amusing and could even be illuminating for the uninitiated. But on the whole it was superficial nonsense. The final episode confirmed this.

Yes, they were supposed to be finding the drink of Britain, so what did they settle on? Tea. Hell’s teeth! Amazing. Well, OK, maybe they are right. But, strange, I don’t remember them visiting Betty’s of Harrogate – the tea Mecca of the North, if not the world.

This was a staggeringly disappointing conclusion I’m afraid. Especially as I left the pub early, just to catch their verdict. But, hey, that’s celeb TV.

So can the future of British cask ale be left to our TV personalities? Well this has made a start in raising the profile of our national drink and, to some extent, the great British pub at a time when both are under serious assault on several fronts - not least from the government.

But on balance the evidence indicates that they are going to have to try a lot harder to capture the magic and mystery of cask beer and the unique British pub.

In my own humble experience, I know that the craft brewing and pub world has a much richer and deeper furrow to plough than this. It’s full of fascinating characters of all ages and backgrounds - women as well as men. There’s a legion of engaging and inspiring stories, full of real human interest. Many would knock spots off the boys above for sheer entertainment value.

With the rapidly growing interest in cask-ale the time must be right for a second coming of the ‘The Beer Hunter’. Then I would stay in.