Published at 11:05, Thursday, 11 August 2011

MENTION real ale and most people will think of blokes with beards and beer bellies.

But an award-winning brewer has abseiled into a beer festival and taken to the stage with a rock band in a bid to boost his beer’s image.

Dave Bailey of Hardknott Brewery in Millom performed the stunt as part of a film advertising his ales.

Mr Bailey runs the business with his partner Ann Wedgwood and is running a campaign to modernise the image of real ale.

In the film, made with Kendal-based PiciFilms, Mr Bailey receives a Twitter message summoning him to save a boring beer festival.

A number of bearded old men are drinking generic ales when Mr Bailey drops in armed with cheese and a selection of his beers.

Mr Bailey said: “Cumbria is a massive playground for many outdoor sports.

“A proportion of the visitors to the area are active people who also have a progressive attitude to food and drink. It’s often the case local beers are overlooked by this younger, fitter, demographic in favour of more contemporary big brand beers.

“We wanted to dispel the notion that local crafted beer is old fashioned and stuffy ale that only appeals to fat unhealthy people.”

The project was developed by Mr Bailey with Jeff Pickthall and Mark Syred of PiciFilms.

Mr Bailey said: “We planned it for about two months. There was about 14 hours of filming, seven outdoors. The main abseil shot took about two-and-a-half hours to get right, as we had to wait for the sun to come onto the crag.”

Former landlord Mr Bailey said despite the light hearted nature of the film, there was a serious message. He said: “It’s an issue to us that there is a perception Camra activists portray an unhealthy image of beer drinking.

“In reality, some have taken our video to be a direct attack on things they hold dear. We ask these people whether they wish beer to remain in the 20th century or if they’d like to come along with our dream of a progressive, modern, contemporary beer scene that has a future.”

Mr Bailey added: “Abseiling is my preferred delivery, although obviously this is rarely practical.”

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk