Take-home bottled ale: can pubs reap the rewards?

Despite flagging ale sales in the on-trade, the take-home bottled ale market is booming. John Porter looks at how this success can be replicated in pubs.

If you're looking for reassurance about the health of the premium ale market, a stroll down any supermarket beer aisle is all it should take. On offer is an impressive line-up of premium bottled ales from a dozen or more regional brewers, representing some of the best known brands in the UK.

In the off-trade, total ale volumes fell by 7.4 per cent over the two years to the beginning of 2001, while premium bottled ales increased by two per cent. In value terms, premium bottled ales increased by 4.6 per cent and now account for about 10 per cent of all off-trade ale sales.

So, if the demand is there, why aren't more pubs making a feature of bottle conditioned beers? In theory, it ought to be a match made in heaven. One reason often cited for pubs not offering a wider range of cask ales is that quality suffers if too many beers are kept around for too long - the trend in most pubs is for fewer, better-kept cask ales.

Supplementing the draught offer with a range of bottled brands would enable pubs to offer customers increased choice. A fridge full of chilled ales would also cater to consumer preference for colder serving temperatures.

For regional brewers, now committed to producing reasonably large quantities of their brands in bottles, an increase in pub sales would do wonders for their margins. Despite the song-and-dance brewers like to make about supermarket sales, the fact is that messrs Tesco, Sainsbury et al are calling the shots.

The price point is firmly fixed around the £1.49 mark, and sales are heavily driven by promotions of the three-for-the-price-of-two variety. The higher margins generated by increased pub sales would be very welcome.

Inevitably, though, the issue is more complex.

Allocating more space to bottled ales would be difficult for most pubs. However, it also has a lot to do with the way ale is positioned in the on-trade.

Although Fuller's bottled conditioned 1845 has found a niche for itself in certain pubs - and picked up a bronze in the Campaign for Real Ale's 2001 awards - David Spencer, brand manager at the Chiswick brewer, emphasised that when it comes to the on-trade, it is the cask product that comes first.

"We take the view that beers like London Pride are best enjoyed from the cask and that's the standard to judge them against. Our focus in pubs is to get the serving standard right to generate the throughput that will justify keeping it."

David pointed out that brands are important to cask ale drinkers because of the quality assurance they offer.

Changing customer behaviour to encourage them to also consider a range of bottled ales would be a complex proposition.

Fullers has developed a 330ml "pub size" bottle of London Pride, although this is primarily intended for the restaurant and export market. It has found a place on the menu in restaurant chains such as Hard Rock Café, and David sees this type of approach as a primary focus for bottled ale in the on-trade.

"Bottled beers work very well in a food environment. For many people, the drink of choice with a meal is beer and why should that always be an imported beer?"

Rick Payne, marketing manager of Badger Brewery, which has built itself into a top five off-trade supplier of premium bottled ales through the popularity of brands such as Tanglefoot and Champion, agrees that the link with food is an important one.

"I believe bottled ales are consumed in a different way and on different occasions than cask. Bottled ales deliver immense character and drinkability served chilled and can compete easily with bland bottled lagers."

While accepting there is a danger of diluting cask ale volumes, Rick strongly believes there is untapped potential in pubs.

"The bottled ale success in the off-trade is driven in the main by regional craft brewers, while the large pub estates are dominated by national keg and nitrokeg ale brands.

"While keg ale solves the problem of consistent quality, it has compromised consumer desire for 'real' ale and offers no extra choice. Consumers want quality, variety and heritage, a combination that could be delivered by a back-bar range of five or 10 chilled regional ales and a blackboard wine-style menu."

This approach has already been used by the Hogshead chain, which supports its range of cask ales with a bottled beer menu, including increasingly popular niche products such as continental wheat beers and Belgian ales.

Badger has started to look at different pack sizes for different occasions, including a wine bottle size to share and 330ml bottle, but has no firm launch plans as yet.

"The UK has a fantastic ale and pub heritage that is celebrated worldwide, and we also have an array of bottled ales and microbrewers to rival Belgium - the two should work together more," said Rick.

"I believe the on-trade is an opportunity for regional bottled ales but more work is needed to understand consumer motivation and behaviour, to develop the right pack formats, and to justify the category space relative to the growth in spirit mixers and alcopops."

Storage and serving ​

First of all, bear in mind that the bottled versions of many cask conditioned ale brands are actually brewery rather than bottle conditioned. Before bottling, the fermentation process is completed and the yeast cells destroyed using heat treatment. This is because bottle conditioning can still be an unpredictable process and given the widely varying shipping and storage conditions in the off-trade and export markets, many brewers prefer to take no chances.

The advantage of bottle conditioning, according to beer aficionados, is the same as the difference between cask ale and keg bitter. Beer which is given the opportunity of secondary bottle fermentation retains more flavour, complexity and sophistication.

A downside is that the way the beer develops is only really predictable in the short-term, so bottle conditioned beer generally has a shorter shelf life than most bottled ales. The view of those who believe that some bottle conditioned beers, like Worthington White Shield, actually improve like fine wines over the years, are probably best left for another debate.

Bottle conditioned beers should be stored upright, and vibration, bright light and extremes of temperature will all affect the flavour. Heat in particular will speed up the fermentation process and render the end result far more unpredictable.

To serve a "bright", or clear, bottle conditioned beer, pour it carefully into a tilted glass ensuring the yeast sediment stays in the bottle.

Wheat beers, however, are traditionally served with the yeast in the liquid, and the approved technique is to pour three-quarters of the liquid then swirl the sediment in the remainder before completing the pour.