Casking in glory

Selling cask ale does require more care and attention than keg. But developing a range that entices customers doesn't have to be as daunting as it sounds. And with our CaskForce promotion now underway, branching out into cask could even help you get your rent paid for a year. Adrian Tierney-Jones reports

A good pint of cask beer is a vital selling point for a pub wanting to make its mark with the drinking public. Ale aficionados travel far and wide to sample the best beers and pass the good news on about a pub where the pints are in tip-top condition.

The flip side of this coin is that a reputation built up over many years can be broken in a weekend of indifferent ales. Inexperienced staff, unfamiliar with methods of dispense and temperature, can drive away the customer and his mates.

Given this, it's no wonder that a sizeable number of licensees totally swear off cask ale and stick with brewery-conditioned beers (otherwise known as keg or smooth). These are beers that offer consistency in taste and temperature to the ever-picky drinker, while allowing the landlord to look after the beer with the minimum of fuss. Just plug in and serve.

This is a shame as cask beer is a wonderful drink - a beer full of nuances, subtleties, depth and flavour, and a beer that matures in the cellar as the second fermentation does its job. For some, though, this is as welcome as having to hand-make sushi for a football crowd.

Win a day's free training

The industry has responded to this perception with a variety of initiatives such as Cask Marque, the Beer Academy, various brewery training schemes and the latest, CaskForce, which is being promoted by Marston's and the Morning Advertiser. By ordering a cask of Marston's, licensees will go into a monthly draw that will see 100 licensees or their staff win a day's free training from the Marston's CaskForce team.

The overall winner from the eight monthly draws will also scoop the top prize - a year's rent (or the equal for free-house owners). So there's every reason for cask-ale virgins to reconsider their position.

'Marston's have always had a team assessing beer quality,' says CaskForce spokeswoman Lisa Harlow. 'Their beer technicians are always out there helping licensees to sell their products. I would agree that when beer quality is improved then people usually see a rise in sales.'

So, it is time to tackle the mystique surrounding cask ale, which leaves many licensees intimidated by its reputation.

Are they turned off by tapping and spiling, concerned about conditioning, held back by the thought of those sentinels of the bar top, the hand pump, daunted by the thought of secondary fermentation within a cask in the cellar, which sounds like something out of Ground Force, and worried about the storing of cask ale? Or is it anything for a quiet life?

Cask ale's fog of uncertainty

Stuart Douglas is a former freehouse owner who helps to train future licensees at St Austell Brewery in Cornwall. He has some pertinent and surprising observations about the fog of uncertainty that surrounds cask ale.

'There's this whole air of mystery about cask beer - that it's 'difficult to keep',' he says, 'but I tell people that it is easier to deal with than keg beer. For instance, I tell people to be clean and be quick and don't try and have too many hand pumps.

'Practical measures can include a 9-gallon firkin instead of an 18. Put on three hand-pumps instead of five, and then you have a better chance of a good throughput. When people come on our BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) approved courses they realise that it is not as hard as it seems. 'I tell people it is like looking after milk: if you heat beer, like milk, it spoils, so keep it in a cool cellar. If you leave the top off a bottle of milk, you know what happens. It is the same with beer at the end of a session, so put a hard spile in. You don't keep milk for six to seven days; it's the same with beer. I tell everyone, it's such a simple thing to do.'

His views are echoed by Rodney Sprague, the beer-quality manager at St Austell: 'The four words that spring to mind when thinking about beer quality are training, cleanliness, temperature and stock control. Glasses are also important. You can get all the other things that I've mentioned right and spoil it all with dirty glasses.'

'People do seem to be nervous about cask beer,' agrees Harlow, 'not being sure what keeping it involves. Like all fresh food you have to adhere to certain principles, such as shelf life and, as a landlord, you are also responsible for the secondary fermentation.

'People who do it well are so proud of it. They are craftsmen in their own right. Granted, there is a lot to do, a need to let the beer settle in the cellar, vent the casks, and be adept at knowing when to serve. However, it can be simple when you know how. It is complex and a craft, but once you get it right, you wonder what the fuss was all about.

'You could liken the craftsmanship of cellar work to learning to drive a car. It looks impossible when you first start, but becomes second nature when you have had experience.'

It's not rocket science

Dealing with cask ale is not rocket science. All the larger family breweries have people beavering away in labs to make sure that their beers don't cause any nasty surprises, while most micros have their own standards.

Still, every cask-ale lover who runs a pub has a tale of the landlord who won't stock cask ale because he/she is afraid of it: a) exploding; b) coming out of the tap cloudier than a Hoegaarden; or c) going off before it can be served.

Read the words of Clive McIntyre, who runs the Hawk & Buckle in Etwall, Derbyshire. Seven years ago he was a first-time licensee who wanted a traditional approach to the Marston's pub he took over.

For him part of the tradition was serving cask ales. These days he's won several awards for his cellar and keeps five real ales, including his best seller, Pedigree, of which he sells 20 gallons a day - and this is in a village of 2,000 people.

'I took a BII induction course at the start,' he recalls, 'and I asked lots of questions of the brewery's beer-quality technicians and picked their brains. It was all about learning.

'To be honest, several licensees will say that they can't be bothered and take the easy route of keg. Keg and cask is the difference between owning a photo of a painting and owning the painting itself. I always allow at least three days to condition the beers, but the longer the better. You have to be patient.'

As for his four top tips on selling cask, he mentions patience, cleanliness, staff training and tasting the beer at both barrel and dispense end.

'Know what to look for,' he says, 'and enjoy the spectrum of flavours. Keg and lager can be enjoyed for their consistency, which is always average, but don't be average, be special. Pubs and cask ale are special, so why not be that way?'

Everything you need to know about CaskForce

What is CaskForce?

CaskForce is a cellar-training initiative that's designed to drive up beer quality in pubs, while at the same time giving participating licensees the chance to win some top prizes - including the opportunity to live rent free for a year.

Four steps to becoming a winner

Step 1: Order your Marston's beer

For every nine gallons of Marston's ale, you will receive one cask sticker displaying a unique reference number. This counts as an entry into that month's prize draw so the more beer you purchase, the more entries you get.

Step 2: Enter into the monthly draw

Go online at www.caskforce.co.uk or phone the entry hotline on 0800 028 1969 to register the unique reference numbers from your casks into the competition. The deadline for entering the next draw is 5pm on Monday 7 November.

Step 3: Are you a winner?

From these entries CaskForce will draw 50 winning pubs that will each receive the BII-accredited training for two people on their premises on every element of storing and serving cask beer. In addition one victorious hos