Eye to the future

It is has now been nine months since David Bremner, the marketing director at Everards Brewery, spoke to The Publican about his idea to better market cask beer.

He was unhappy, he said, about how intimidating cask beer was to consumers, how tasting notes were almost incomprehensible to the average drinker. This, as he saw it, was putting off potential consumers.

His solution was the Cyclops scheme. He felt that wine companies had managed to demystify wine in the off-trade by putting helpful and easy to understand tasting notes on their bottle. So cask beer needed a similar scheme. But instead of bottles he wanted the information on beer mats, posters and pump clips.

He showed me how he had taken each Everards beer and put together a simple 'Cyclops' eyes, nose and mouth scheme, with simple words describing the look, smell and taste of the beer. He also came up with a bitterness and sweetness scale for each beer - also designed to provide more information for the drinker.

However, while the idea simply started as something for Everards beers, the scheme was picked up and warmly received across the industry, from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) to a host of fellow brewers.

By July, 14 regional and family brewers had signed up to the scheme. It was officially launched at the Great British Beer Festival in August and this lead to coverage in The Daily Telegraph.

The scheme continues to gather momentum. While no-one is keen to claim sole ownership of the scheme, David and CAMRA have worked hard to move the project on. There has been concern among both parties that there will be a lack of consistency in terms of wording and design of the Cyclops marketing materials between the different brewers. For example, one brewer's idea of extreme bitterness may differ wildly from another's.

So an official Cyclops accreditation team has been appointed - members of the team will visit any brewery interested in signing up to the scheme to ensure their tasting notes and scales fit a uniform standard.

The Cyclops accreditation team is made up of Mark Tetlow, quality manager for Everards, George Philliskirk of the Beer Academy, Keith Bott of the Titanic Brewery and the Society of Independent Brewers, Brian Yorston of Wadworths and Don Jeffrey from SA Brain. Representatives from Robinsons and Camerons will also be involved. David is pleased with the progress that is being made.

"We're delighted with how the whole Cyclops scheme is rolling out throughout the industry," he says, "and the new accreditation process will ensure the standards remain consistent and therefore the programme will retain its credibility with the trade and the consumer alike."

So many schemes appear and fall by the wayside - but this seems different. Cyclops has received support from across the industry and there are rumours of national pub companies and brewers looking to adopt the scheme and roll it out across their operations. So are we looking at a system that will soon become an industry standard? Given the reaction it has had so far, it wouldn't be a surprise.

As Tony Jerome, CAMRA's senior marketing manager, puts it: "CAMRA has had an amazing amount of positive feedback on the Cyclops campaign since its launch.

"Journalists, wine critics, real ale lovers and a number of breweries have expressed this support for Cyclops and, now that we have a formalised system to help other breweries come on board, I can only see this campaign gaining more credibility and going from strength to strength."

Are we looking at a system that will soon become an industry standard? Given the reaction it has had so far, it wouldn't be a surprise

Are you interested in registering with the scheme?

If you are a brewer and are interested in getting accredited contact Tony Jerome at CAMRA at tony.jerome@camra.org.uk. You will be sent market research, analysing the need for the scheme, as well as press releases and samples of other breweries' artwork.

The 14 brewers already signed up:​

• Everards• Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries• Charles Wells• Caledonian• Hook Norton• Frederic Robinson• Titanic• Woodforde's• Refresh UK• Camerons• Elgoods• Wadworth• Hall & Woodhouse• Fuller's