THE CAMPAIGN for Real Ale campaigns nationally and locally for high-quality real ales in clubs.

Many clubs already serve real ale, and indeed CAMRA has its own awards scheme for clubs serving real ale in top-notch condition.

The winning club, which receives CAMRA's annual Club Of The Year award, is the club which is deemed to have shown the greatest commitment to real ale over the last 12 months. Many clubs appear each year in CAMRA’s flagship publication the Good Beer Guide.

The Keighley and Craven branch of CAMRA is endeavouring to support clubs in the area that provide real ale, and encouraging those that don’t.

It is easier now for clubs to serve real ale, as CAMRA has endorsed the KeyCask as a suitable means of dispensing beer, especially in those establishments which don’t have the facilities or the trading conditions to satisfy traditional cask ale.

KeyCask is essentially a ‘bag inside a ball’: a foiled bag contains the beer and a polycarbonate ball holds everything together under pressure.

Beer comes out of the keg by introducing gas (CO² or pressurised air) between the ball and the bag, thus squeezing the beer out of the bag, or by using a proper hand-pump.

Brewery-conditioned beer goes into KeyCask as a “living product” so this term is not a synonym for “keg” beer, which has been pasteurized.

One Keighley club that does serve real ale is the Keighley Cricket Club on Hard Ings Road. It has one real ale, which is a rotating guest beer and changes every one or two weeks.

Some other clubs in the locality are Keighley Liberal Club, Scott Street; Engineers Club, Russell Street; Keighley Bridge Club, Beechcliffe; Keighley Cougars; Keighley Cycling Club, Cavendish Street; the Bus Club, Lord Street; New Variety Club, Russell Street; East Ward Unionist Club, Parkwood Street; Grafton Club, Oakworth Road; Ingrow and Hermit Hole Conservative Club, Halifax Road, Keighley Rugby Union Club, Utley.

Contact any of the clubs for more details regarding matters such as admission times and membership.

Clubs, like pubs, are important community meeting places for social events and sports interests, and present a warm and friendly atmosphere to members and visitors alike.

Like pubs some are under threat from falling memberships and financial pressures yet still provide benefits for their devotees in the form of good facilities, entertainment and subsidies.

If your local club doesn't stock real ale then why not try to convince them to do so?

The Keighley and Craven CAMRA website is at keighleyandcravencamra.org.uk.

Have you missed any of Keighley and Craven CAMRA’s previous Down The Pub articles in the Keighley News? Don’t worry, simply visit the Keighley News website at keighleynews.co.uk, click on What’s On then Food & Drink and Down The Pub.