Rail Ale Rambles 30th anniversary bus at Knights Templar

Sometimes now used as a generic expression in the United Kingdom for a day tour of pubs and/or breweries by train, in search of "

real ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous car ...

" (cask-conditioned beer), the marketing name "Rail Ale Ramble" was originally conceived by Gerald Daniels, who runs an English tour company, Crookham Travel. In October 1977 he ran the first "RAR", a chartered train with 596 passengers from London to Bath, Somerset and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. At that time traditional cask-conditioned beer was rare in London, but the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was beginning to have more impact in regional centres where there was a greater range of traditional breweries still supplying this "living" beer. More than thirty years later Crookham Travel still runs several Rail Ale Rambles each year as well as longer trips to explore surviving regional and local breweries and the increasing number of new

microbreweries Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...

throughout Britain and beyond. Meanwhile, the term Rail Ale has been adopted by organisations such as the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, who promote rural train routes in the English West Country as

rail ale trail A rail ale trail is a marketing exercise in the United Kingdom that is designed to promote tourism to a rural area, by encouraging people to visit a series of pubs that are close to stations along a railway line. Participants are rewarded for ...

References

* * {{cite book , last = The Centenarian , title = Rail Ale Ramble no. 100 brochure , date = 6 October 2001
"About Crookham Travel"

External links

Crookham Travel

Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership
Rail transport in Great Britain Beer culture Alcohol in the United Kingdom

See also

References

External links