We have much to thank CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) for! CAMRA was founded in March 1971 by four men from the North West of England who were concerned about the decline in quality and variety of British beers.
They were particularly worried about the dominance of large breweries producing bland, fizzy and often poorly conditioned beers.
In Scotland we also had the same situation and I’m sure most of us can remember many of the worse examples!
CAMRA played a major role in the resurgence of real ale and the revitalization of the British pub scene.
But with this resurgence initially in England. as it travelled north over the border, came the English method of dispensing the beer. The hand-pull/beer engine. Many pubs started offering real ale again but using this method as it was a relatively simple and easy installation.
Scottish Tall Fount
However, tall founts were the original method of dispensing beer in Scotland and many old-established pubs like The Digger’s and Bennett’s. and others maintained the tradition. And, new pubs opening like The Bow Bar and Thomson’s insisted on this method.
And, now there is another introducing the Scottish Tall Font to its method of dispensing real ales.
The Corbie Inn, in Bo’ness, is the first pub in Scotland and the UK, to have just installed two brand new Tall Founts* to ensure the tradition continues and starts to become the standard and preferred option in all Scottish pubs and bars once again.
* CREO Engineering Solutions in Glenrothes, Fife, have produced a new design of the fount, keeping the same iconic style externally with modern sealing methods internally to deliver the same quality of beer as many of us fondly remember. Check out their website for more information:-
https://www.creosolutions.co.uk/tall-founts/
Why The Scottish Tall Fount!
The distinctive Scottish system of dispensing cask-conditioned beer through tall founts (referred to originally, and majestically, as counter fountains) to which the beer has been raised by air pressure is a traditional method well over a century old, dating back, many believe, to the 1870s.
It appears, however, that the system may be even older. According to a paper delivered by James Auld in November 1925 to members of the London Section of the Institute of Brewing (and printed the following year in the Institute’s Journal), see below, the principle of using air pressure can be traced back to about 1814, when a fairly crude apparatus was devised to raise beer from the cellar to small taps on the counter.
Journal Extract:-
“Raising beer from a lower to a higher level by means of air pressure appears to have been first used in Scotland about the year l8l4.
The difference between beer drawn in this way and the suction method suggests a comparison between a bottle of beer in good condition and the contents of the same bottle when allowed to stand exposed to the air for some time.
If two glasses of beer, one drawn by air pressure and one drawn by the pull, be allowed to stand side by side for a few minutes it will be found that the head on the pressure-drawn beer is thick and creamy, while the head on the pull—drawn beer consists of large coarse bubbles.
When the glasses have been emptied, the side of the glass containing the pull-drawn beer is quite clear, or almost so, while on the glass that contained the beer drawn by the pressure system the froth has adhered to the sides of the glass, following it right down to the bottom, leaving a thick creamy film.
This proves that the beer drawn by the pressure system contained its full complement of [naturally produced] gas, and possessed all the properties required of beer in first—class condition.
When beer is drawn by the pull the natural gas is allowed to escape through the spile pins to the atmosphere, and as the beer is drawn quicker than the gas is liberated from the beer, the contents of the cask become flat and insipid.
Any surplus of carbon dioxide that may fill the barrel during the time it is standing in the cellar is allowed to escape through the spile hole and is lost. when compressed air is used, however, the pressure on the surface of the beer keeps the carbon dioxide in solution and very little is lost.
The natural gas of the beer being thus kept from escaping, it will be obvious that the beer has every chance of remaining in its natural first-class condition to the end of the barrel.”
James Auld, ‘Raising Beer by Air Pressure‘, lecture of 9 November 1925
Reprinted in the Journal of Institute of Brewing (1926)