What's the difference between Ale and Real Ale?

Good marketing?

Real Ale is ale made the traditional way without colourings, preservatives etc.

Ale is someting made in a giant factory and can contain a whole host of weird nasty shit you probably didn’t know about because no one ever reads the ingrediants.

Real Ale is cask-conditioned. In other words, it is put in a cask and then left for a length of time to fully mature. Ale that isn’t “Real Ale” is casked and then shipped off for sale and consumption straight away. Also Real Ale is not enhanced with carbon dioxide to make the “bubbles” as some ordinary beers are. Real Ale depends on the yeast for that.

@Lightlyseared is also correct.

Real ale is my top choice of alcoholic beverage.

Similar to the difference between RareDenver and WelldoneDenver, I think.

Ask CAMRA, a group of enthusiasts (who invented the term).

My God, I love living next to the CAMRA Pub of the Year, and also in Sheffield in general.
The beer round here is fucking excellent. And also cheap. I should’ve been born Northern…

I’ll add to what @downtide said in that because there is no added CO2, real ales must be pulled on a hand pump.

Pulled on a hand pump or straight from the cask what is known as gravity feed