Come on, really support real ale - Peter Linacre

One of the delights of the past few years has been the re-emergence of real ale. Hats-off to those visionaries who stuck with it through thick and thin in the sixties and seventies including the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra). Camra still does a great job, while the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has been pivotal in getting many micro-brewers into our pubs.

But there are two anomalies that I feel now should be addressed. Firstly, why do Camra - and other fans of real ale - still like to see these delicious hand-crafted British products being sold for less than the price of the industrially-produced standard lagers?

Secondly - are real ale drinkers motivated by abv and expect to pay for different levels of abv? In relation to the first issue I believe that real ale should sell for at least the price of premium products such as Guinness - in our own estate we are not there yet but we sell real ales for at least the same price as the standard lager.

We will be continuing to push real ale prices forward. All the current industry schemes to get real ale more widely accepted by a younger generation of drinkers should, in my view, include the education of the fact that these products are worthy of a premium.

In France, hand-crafted wines cost a fortune, the "industrial alcohol" table wines a pittance - is there not a lesson here for us? I am a real-ale drinker and I do not give a firkin about abv. My annual consumption of other products is two pints of lager, one pint of stout and the rest is real ale... and the odd vineyard or two of wine.

If it gets hot in the summer I will drink some colder Deuchars IPA. Adnams Broadside is currently helping me though those autumnal blues and is drinking beautifully. The local to me, Twickenham Ales Autumn Blaze, is also a stunner. At any time do I say to myself I must have a lower abv pint because I want to spend a few pence less? Never - I am motivated only by a lovely pint of my current favourite. Do I even notice the price - most times not?

In the past year, at Massive, we have revitalised a few formerly dodgy boozers into lovely revitalised pubs. In each of these premises there were previously no real ales. Now we have at least four regularly-changing real ales on offer - all priced at the same as standard lager.

So what does my local Camra man report back to me and say? "We are delighted with what you have done to the pubs, we love the ales and we love the variety but we think they are a bit expensive." Come on guys - support your favourite beers and tell all your members and supporters they are worth a proper premium. Our customers happily pay the price, whatever the abv - what they like is the beer quality.

Alistair Darby was reported recently in the Morning Advertiser (21 August) saying that from a W&DB perspective they believe that real-ale drinkers will pay a premium. I could not agree more. So Camra, having been so instrumental in saving the industry, do not now hold it back by trying to put a price cap on real ales.

A final thought. Brewers want us to drink more real ale with food. Can we then have from the real-ale producers better glassware, ideally third-of-a-pint branded goblets, so that real ale will sit well on dining tables. Glassware from British brewers, in general, is improving, but is still miles and miles behind our European counterparts.