Justin Adams: Don't neglect the basics in the cask ale revival

Three cheers for cask beer! It's outperforming the overall beer market and, against all the odds, has shown growth in four of the past seven months.

More and more licensees and pub groups are realising that cask ale has bigger potential in their businesses than they had previously thought. And more and more pub-goers are realising that cask ale delivers real freshness, taste and flavour that is special enough to justify (if justification were needed!) a visit to the local. Consumers are being bombarded with an exciting explosion of flavours and styles.

All the messages about cask beer's uniqueness, craft and heritage along with its position as a fresh, natural, flavoursome product at last seem to be hitting fertile ground.

The buzz is contagious, and the prospects are — as far as anything can be in current economic circumstances — actually quite good.

So why is it I'm not yet celebrating? What are the nagging fears that sometimes overshadow my delight with the progress that is being made and the positive things that are happening?

I worry that, in the rush to be part of the cask ale revival, in the excitement about the prospects of boosting footfall and sales, some of the critical basics may be neglected.

It is easy to envisage enthusiastic BDMs and licensees going hell for leather to get cask beer into their pubs without paying heed to requirements for the cellar. Some will be rushing to install handpumps when the cellar isn't up to standard; when the temperature can't be kept to 13ÞC or below and when they have not developed the expertise and patience required to store and condition their beer properly. Others will be racing to get the maximum number of handpumps in the pub with no thought about throughput and therefore freshness and flavour.

In these challenging times there may be temptation to cut back on training. New licensees may never be taught the rudimentaries of cellar management. Then they won't be passing on best practice to their staff members. They won't be insisting on sparklingly clean, unscratched glassware. Neither will they be coaching their teams on how to taste cask beer, how to love it, how to describe it, how to sell it.

So before getting too excited about the whole new audience venturing into cask beer, let's reduce the risk of losing those hard-fought-for converts. Let's look at ensuring the cellar basics; delivering on the training; getting the range right; inspiring the people who serve cask beer and ensuring that every drinker's cask beer experience is a great one.

This way, we will sustain the impressive performance of cask beer and realise the full potential of our national drink. Then it'll be more than three cheers for cask beer!

Justin Adams is managing director of Greene King Brewing Company - The Publican's partner in Beer Matters, our ongoing initiative to promote best practice in beer in pubs​