It has been reported that the sale of
British Ale has dropped 22% since 1979, with sales now at their lowest level since the 1930s.
One problem has been the ease at which Brits can buy cheap beer in France and then take it home through the channel tunnel. Another is that most of the small breweries have been bought up by pub chains, who are more interested in selling large numbers of pints than delivering a quality product. This has made it harder to find really good beer. Also, Ale now has to compete with trendy drinks targeted at young people.
This is a national tragedy as British Ale is the best beer in the world...I know that many German's and Czechs might disagree with this, but frankly this is my blog and they can kiss my hairy butt.
British Ale comes in so many different types with such a diversity of flavour and texture, it's more like wine than the rubbish you get in other countries. In Sweden its very hard to find decent beer (although Swedish Ale, particularly that coming from the Jämtland Brewery is pretty damn good stuff and there are pubs like Accurat and Oliver Twist in Stockholm selling British Ale).
The best way to sample British Ale, if you can't find a pub is to go to a beer festival. On any given weekend there is bound to be a few going on somewhere in the country. This picture is from the Bath Beer festival which was held in September. They had about 50 ales to sample, and a pint cost around 2.20pounds which is about 30Kr.
I've always been shocked by how expensive beer is here in Sweden but even I wasn't prepared for a news story saying that the Sytembolaget is selling a beer for 1221Kr a bottle (72cl). 
