There's still hope...

Traditional Beer Claims Comeback as Tastes Change Aug 4, 9:37 am ET By Jeremy Lovell LONDON (Reuters) - Traditional beer drinkers are changing in substance, style and shape. Disappearing fast are the hairy, heavy-bellied beer-swillers of yesteryear, their place being taken by young urban professional men and women more normally associated with wine and working out. One-third of the 45,000 real ale enthusiasts expected to attend this year's annual Great British Beer Festival at London's Olympia run by the beer purists Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) are likely to be women. "CAMRA is often seen as sandals, beer-bellies and beards. But that is not true today," the organization's chief executive Mike Benner told Reuters on the opening night. "The truth has changed. The image, unfortunately, has not." That does not mean they will hold back. Over the five days of the event, people will sink some 200,000 pints of beer. And it is not just in Britain, that sees itself as the guardian of traditional brewing, that real ales are making a comeback against mass-produced lagers. Even in the United States, where a handful of giant brewers like Anheuser-Busch have dominated the beer market for decades, the taste for distinctive real ales is rising. "Demand for cask-conditioned beer is small but it is growing," Jonathan Tuttle, U.S. representative of the Bieres Sans Frontieres (BSF) organization told Reuters. "I guess the demand is mainly from young professionals and it is the micro brewers that are driving the change," he added. BSF groups small brewers from the United States, Africa, Asia and Australia as they move from one beer festival to another touting their wares and sampling the competition. Tuttle said he too had noticed a distinct slimming down of the classic beer drinkers' profile -- including his own -- and attributed the change in part to maturity and in part to a greater health consciousness among consumers of all ages. Across Europe too the demand for beers with a traditional taste is growing even as the overall market for beer stagnates. The European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU) boasts members in Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Poland, Austria and Italy, and anticipates that the Czech Republic and Latvia will also soon sign up. "Our membership is growing -- mainly among people in their early 20s," EBCU representative Richard Larkin said. "But these are not binge drinkers. These are people who know what they want -- and that is good food and drink."