Service challenge
Andrew Jefford goes on to focus on Adnams who have doubled their cask ale production by marketing well beyond their 80-pub estate centred on Southwold, Suffolk. He emphasises the challenge of ‘immaculate’ service:
Great real ale is as much the creation of the publican and the drinker as it is of the brewer, and without the landlord’s skill, determination and discipline, combined with an appreciative and thirsty clientele, real ale is a bitter disappointment and a waste of everyone’s time and money.
This is one reason why Adnams has developed a new keg beer – Spindrift - but unpasteurised and with low carbonation.
Jefford was impressed:
I loved my glass of it: deep gold with a soothingly foamy head; delicate, citrussy leaf-hop scents rather than the dreary sweetcorn smell of British lager; and smooth, round and gratifying to drink with Adnams’ salty, coastal finish. Real beer – even if it’s not real ale.
And, of course, it will survive well as a guest beer in a relatively uncared-for cellar, with a lower level of throughput.
Terroir on the move
Jefford lists some of the great tastes in cask bitters: Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, Black Sheep Best Bitter (brewery pipes pictured right) and Brakspear’s among them. He didn’t tell us when he enjoyed that pint of Harvey’s. It is being served in the Lewes Arms, but is it still being brewed in Lewes (at the classic buildings illustrated at the top of our article, no doubt worth more as luxury flats)? Or does it now emerge from Greene King’s factory at Bury St Edmunds, like all the Hardys & Hansons’ brews? As David McCaskey quotes Rooney Anand (GK CEO) in his article in our July issue:
The best way to ensure that Hardy’s and Hanson’s brands continue to flourish in a challenging ale market is to transfer brewing to Bury St Edmunds. The head office functions will also be moved there.
Beer matching will begin shortly and we’ll soon be beginning the painstaking process of brewing trials and taste-profiling. We’ll ensure that customers can continue to drink the same great beer in the future.
The surprise for the outside observer is that location – and presumably the local water – seems to matter little to successful brewing. Brakspear’s is no longer brewed at Henley, having been moved by its new owner Refresh to the Wychwood Brewery at Witney on the other side of Oxfordshire.
When industrial space adjacent to Wychwood Brewery became available plans were immediately drawn up to expand the brewery and increase its capacity. Fermentation vessels, including the famous double drop system which had been purchased from the Henley Brewery, were installed and the first Witney-brewed Brakspear went on sale in the on trade during June 2004. Since the relauch, sales of Brakspears beers have grown by more than 20%, and sales of Brakspears Bitter cask have grown by 30%.
More consolidation
So The Hospitality Review office is fairly relaxed about the news that its favourite Ringwood Brewery, one of the newer cask brewers (founded thirty years ago in 1978), has been purchased by Marstons. Marstons have announced they want to use Ringwood as a base for regional expansion. Veteran CAMRA campaigner and Morning Advertiser columnist Roger Protz is a little cautious on 19 October, and he has seen these takeovers before.
Several of the best cask brews, even if the recipes are traditional, already come from new companies: as well as Ringwood (1978), there’s Black Sheep (founded 1987) and Refresh UK plc (1990). How long before these beers are brewed in ‘nice clean factories’ well away from their traditional origins?
The wine challenge
One issue that is exercising beer producers is the continuing onward march of wine. A recent Guardian article reported on a survey of 1,000 British men which forecast that their wine consumption would overtake their beer drinking by 2039.
More than half (52%) the men conceded that the range of wines on offer in British pubs often outshone the beer choices, and slightly more (54%) admit they are likely to drink less beer than wine in the future.
The developing pub offer of reasonable wine is good news. The article didn’t mention that, while the process is simpler, it too needs to be carefully stored and served. It is great for pubs to offer half-a-dozen reds and whites, but not if they serve you with a Sauvignon or Shiraz out of the dregs of last week’s bottle or from a plastic-tasting box. The cask ale story shows that a lot more training and management is required before we can be confident that wines will immaculately served in each and every pub.
