Brewery tells industry: give our barrels back

Acorn brewery has urged customers to have a look in the back of their cellars and yards - and return any stray casks they find to the brewery to put back into circulation.

Dave Hughes, owner of Acorn Brewery said: “Every week we produce and send out about 100 barrels of real ale. A lot of that beer is delivered via wholesalers to hundreds of pubs and bars across the UK, but we also deliver direct to more than 400 customers in the North and East Midlands.

“It’s these customers we’ve asked to have shufty in their back rooms, to see if they can find any stray empty casks and give them to our van drivers on their next visit.

“Pubs are very busy places and ours is certainly a high-turnover product. We expect some loss of barrels of course, but we have an excellent relationship with our customers so thought we’d ask them to help us put some misplaced casks back into action.

“We aim to be as green and sustainable a business as possible and don’t like to think of them sitting there not being put to good use carrying our beer!”

The brewery is keen to find some of their misplaced casks ahead of summer holiday season and the launch of its new beer, Summer Pale.

Casks cost about £60 each and are re-usable many times. When they come back in to the brewery, they are washed, sterilised and refilled with prime real ale to return to the pubs with a shelf-life of four to five weeks.