You can help boost the fortunes of Britain’s unique beer style – real ale – by visiting a pub or a beer festival this month.

Cask Ale Week runs from September 19-29 and neatly coincides with St Albans Beer Festival from the 25th to the 28th of the month.

Cask Ale Week is an annual celebration of a beer style not found in other countries. Most beer leaves breweries ready to serve when it reaches pubs and bars.

But real ale is different. It enjoys a secondary fermentation in cask in pub cellars as it still contains live, working yeast. And, once ready, it has to be served within two or three days as it slowly oxidises in its cask.

Cask beer took a hammering during the Covid pandemic. It’s a draught beer and it can be sold only in pubs and bars – but they were all shut during the lockdowns imposed by the government.

The result was that several hundred pubs closed and some 70 breweries also went out of business last year.

The industry is slowly recovering but the breweries that specialise in cask beer need our help and support. That means going to a pub and ordering a pint of your favourite tipple – not too onerous a task!

Greene King, the country’s biggest producer of real ale, has two new beers out this month to support Cask Ale Week.

Watch Room (4.3 per cent) is a golden ale that celebrates the time when the brewery in Bury St Edmunds had its own fire service, based in the watch room.

It was formed in 1888 and it played a major role in the Suffolk town during the Second World War when it not only protected the brewery but also put out fires in factories and homes hit by enemy attack.

The beer is brewed with pale malt and is hopped with Azacca,El Dorado and Kohatu hop varieties. It has a rich and fruity aroma and flavour with notes of pear, water melon, mango and pineapple. The hops are sourced from America and New Zealand.

The second Greene King beer is Bonkers Conkers (4.1 per cent), a popular seasonal ale that goes well with autumn bonfires and roast chestnuts.

It’s brewed with pale and crystal malts and hopped with five varieties that balance the biscuit notes of the malt with blackcurrant and lemon notes.

Look out for both beers in the Speckled Hen on Hatfield Road. If you commute, there’s no shortage of Greene King pubs in London.

You won’t have to travel far to revel in a wide range of cask ales at the 27th St Albans Beer Festival, run by the South Herts branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, in the Alban Arena.

There will be beers from many parts of the country but with the emphasis on those produced by brewers in Hertfordshire. As well as beer, there will be many ciders to enjoy along with live music and food, including good old fish and chips.

On the opening day, Wednesday September 25, I will take part in a talk and tasting with Miles Jenner, head brewer at Harvey’s in Lewes.

For my money, his Sussex Best Bitter is one of the finest beers on the planet and is a good reason for visiting the Robin Hood pub on Victoria Street, where it’s a regular on the bar.

And on Friday evening, September 27, I will join brewers from the Thornbridge Brewery in Derbyshire for a talk and tasting of beers brewed using the “Burton Union” system of fermentation.

The system was invented in the 19th century to cleanse fermenting beer of yeast to produce a sparkling pale ale. Thornbridge has one of the last union sets in the country and their beers will be available to taste.

Tickets: stalbansbf.org.uk.