Given that almost 1.7 billion litres of beer were poured in British venues in the past year, you’d think we’d be able to keep the country’s biggest beer festival afloat. It is therefore sad to hear that the Great British Beer Festival will be taken off tap next year, its organisers claiming it can no longer afford to get its round in.

‘In the simplest of terms, we did not get enough people through the doors to cover costs,’ according to Ash Corbett-Collins, the chair of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), who may well be ruing the decision to move the festival to Birmingham, cited by more sceptical beer fans as a hindrance to the event’s footfall.

It’s not the only skunky smell around Britain’s leading beer champions, who appear increasingly tired and emotional. As well as canning its winter festival, the campaign will not be printing the next edition of its magazine, as it bewails stagnant membership numbers.

It’s particularly poignant in the run-up to Cask Ale Week, a marketing excuse for the ‘real ales’ that Camra has been protecting the virtue of for more than half a century. Cask boosters have been hoping to recruit a few Gen Z drinkers to the cause and a

© The Spectator