Whisper it quietly, but ale is in danger of becoming cool. Madonna is known to enjoy the odd drop of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, and Tony Hadley, the Spandau Ballet frontman, has gone a step farther by investing in the Red Rat Craft Brewery in Suffolk, purveyor of a refreshing summer ale called Hadley’s.

The revival of cask ale is to some extent part of a wider move by consumers away from big corporate brands — witness the travails of Starbucks and McDonald’s in recent years — towards local brands with provenance and heritage.

Ale also has one other advantage over most lagers: taste. While lager tastes just as anaemic whether served on draught in pubs or in cheap packs of 20 cans from the supermarket, cask ale is available only in pubs and has a very different taste from bottled versions.

Recent moves by the big pub companies to ensure that ale is stored and served correctly, often at a slightly cooler temperature, have also paid dividends, attracting many younger drinkers. Lighter, less bitter ales are also gaining support from female drinkers.

It is no coincidence that while micro-breweries are opening in record numbers, Britain’s biggest brewers continue to rationalise their monolithic production facilities. Scottish & Newcastle has closed its breweries in Edinburgh and Newcastle, Anheuser-Busch InBev is to close the Budweiser plant in Mortlake next year and in 2011 Carlsberg is planning to shut the Tetley’s brewery in Leeds.

Traditional ales are also finding favour overseas. Shepherd Neame, based in Kent, which claims to be Britain’s oldest brewer, revealed yesterday that it has snared two awards at the first Hong Kong International Beer Awards. Its Bishop’s Finger beer won not only the Best English Ale category but also beat beers from all over the world to win the award for the Best Overall Beer.

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