Cellar to Glass

With a view to standardising cellar management and beer dispense, the BII is now offering an Award in Beer and Cellar Quality. Phil Mellows explains.

It has been a long wait, but the brewing industry has finally come together to agree on a set of national standards for cellar management and beer dispense. Concrete evidence of this historic accord comes with the newly launched Award in Beer and Cellar Quality (ABCQ) now available from the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII).

The new qualification is ambitious in its scope. BII operations manager Rees Ruchat expects no fewer than 32,000 people a year to take the exam.

Delivered in a day, the ABCQ is designed to be accessible to busy licensees and their staff. While it is principally aimed at newcomers to the trade, Rees believes it will also benefit anyone running a bar, cellar managers, barstaff and students on licensed retail courses.

It's also cheap. Just £10 plus VAT for the certificate if you pass the multiple choice test at the end of the day. And nothing to pay if you fail.

Most importantly, the ABCQ is a nationally-recognised qualification that should help to raise quality standards across the industry - and help to improve business at pubs which take part.

Cellar standards have been a growing issue for the trade since the restructuring of the industry began to break the organic link between brewers and pubs some 15 years ago.

Today, most pubs are not owned by brewers. Tens of thousands of licensees in the giant tenanted and leased pub estates are likely to receive cellar services from a number of suppliers with none of them taking ownership of beer quality as a whole.

The ABCQ aims to bridge that gap and set measurable standards that every licensee can seek to attain.

"For the first time we have national standards that have been set by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), a national benchmark," said Rees. "It has been a masterstroke by the BBPA to pull together all the interested bodies.

"We will make the ABCQ as widely available as we can. Everyone who delivers cellar training should come under this scheme and we will monitor the centres taking part."

It's not just a matter of getting a certificate to put on your wall. The ABCQ is "about taking what you learn back into the pub and making a difference," said Rees. And pubs which took part in the pilot for the training generally found that it worked, with 85 per cent saying it had improved their business performance.

There are already plans to introduce a additional level to the ABCQ that will measure the results in the pub.

"The ABCQ will give knowledge but we need a second part," said Cask Marque director Paul Nunny, who was involved in the consultation process with the BBPA. "We need a full house inspection one month later to make sure the lessons are being applied at the pub."

That figures...​

Following the pilot scheme for the ABCQ

• 85 per cent of licensees said that it had improved the performance of their business
• 92 per cent found the programme of value
• 90 per cent would be happy to pay for it
• 75 per cent would put a team member through the qualification.

A question of quality​

Despite the rise of food, wine and RTDs, beer still remains the pub industry's most important product - yet it is becoming abundantly clear that many licensees struggle to maintain the quality their customers demand.

In the audits carried out by Cask Marque in four pub groups, only 32 per cent of the pubs reached the required standard - a 90 per cent score.

The most common reasons for failure included dirty glasses, warm beer, beer lines that hadn't been properly cleaned and health and safety problems such as gas cylinders left unchained. And this was in pubs which did have a training regime!

The conclusion is that the industry needs more than training - it needs a qualification.

Training for the ABCQ will ensure that training is based on hands-on practical application, that it is independently assessed and that it is constantly refreshed and relevant to a changing pub trade.

Training can be delivered to BII guidelines and the BBPA will supply free materials to accredited trainers through its website - www.bbpa.org.uk.

For more information about the ABCQ contact the BII on 01276 684449.​

Where does it go wrong?​

Key areas where pubs failed the audit

• 40 per cent​ dirty glasses
• 34 per cent​ gas cylinders unchained
• 32 per cent​ cellar temperature
• beer temperature
• line cleaning

Wizard goes back to basics​

For Ed Heaver, commercial director of Wizard Inns, the ABCQ and the battle for a better pint is "about inspiration, a reason for staff to get out of bed to serve the best pint of beer in the high street".

Wizard was one of the pub companies that took part in the the trials that helped the BII and the BBPA put together the qualification. Yet even in an organisation that prides itself on its beer, Cask Marque audits revealed big inconsistencies in quality across the estate. Or, as Ed succinctly puts it, "we were pants".

"It was embarrassing. We know we have good people working in our pubs but we only got 50 per cent scores in some houses. It highlighted various issues for us, but mainly a skills gap," he says. "We need a consistent approach to training our people, but the industry is so fragmented that they are getting different messages all the time. We have got to go back to basics."

As well as welcoming the ABCQ, Wizard is developing its own Ale Champions in the pubs, running its own courses to empower individuals to take charge of beer quality and take some of the pressure off house managers.

Reducing staff turnover is another important factor in the campaign and the company is also incentivising people through competitions and mystery visits.

"Following the training we are auditing 11 sites and hopefully we'll see some improvement," said Ed.

Getting academic​

The ABCQ forms one part of a broad campaign around the image and quality of beer coordinated by the BBPA.

Various trials are under way in the trade to identify the problems and the best solutions. Working with Thwaites, Mitchells & Butlers, Enterprise Inns and Robinsons, the BBPA is putting a cross-section of 300 licensees through an initial inspection followed by the new Beer Academy course plus cellar training. After three months the pubs will be inspected again to assess whether beer quality - and sales - have improved.

"Anything we do must have an impact on a publican's take and profitability," said Cask Marque's Paul Nunny.

"It must produce a better quality product, help licensees conform to health and safety requirements and give them a pride and a passion in their beer.

"Brewers are keen to channel support in this way in the long term. It will certainly help the beer image campaign if people can get a decent pint when they go to the pub."

More on Cellar to Glass...

• Hygiene:​ Dirty lines cause taints, fobbing and 'slimy floaters' - none of which will do your beers, or your trade, any good. Click hereto read more.
• Glassware:​ Taste matters most of course but branded glassware is integral to the customer's perceptions on the quality of your pub's beer. Click hereto read more.