Credit where credit is due

Alongside the endless press releases, invitations, bad jokes and offers to solve erectile dysfunction (or is that just me?) that fall into my inbox every day, there is the odd email that really raises my ire.

And the other day I received a press release from the good folk at the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) which called on consumers to boycott the new fashion for cider over ice in favour of real cider.

And in a thinly veiled swipe at the new category champion Magners, CAMRA said: "Pub-goers are being fooled by slick advertising into thinking that cider is supposed to be fizzy, pasteurised, chilled and diluted by ice."

Now while Magners might be a bit unpalatable for the cider diehards within CAMRA you would think that they would still see it as a godsend - a category that was receiving no interest at all has been in every national newspaper you would care to mention. All thanks to Magners. It has been like handing a glass of water to a bloke lost in the desert.

But for some reason CAMRA has decided to spit in that glass of water and hand it back.

Rather than seizing on the success of Magners and using it in a positive fashion to get people to try other ciders, you very much get the impression that CAMRA wishes it had never come along in the first place.

CAMRA is understandably not a fan of Magners and its over ice serve but why on earth is it being so aggressive towards the very thing that has breathed life back into the category? How many people who have never tried cider are now sampling better ones as a result of starting on Magners? Just look at Aspall's cider, which has recently been listed across Mitchells & Butler's All Bar One estate. Would that have happened without the Magners effect?

CAMRA does a huge amount of valuable and impressive work. Beer would be a lot poorer without it. As, for that matter, would cider and perry, for which it also tirelessly campaigns.

But why must CAMRA always undo the good work it does do with occasional aberrations which make it look petty and out of tune with the pub industry?