Penzance Brewery Co head brewer Lewis Elliott, who won the beer competition with Mild (3.6% ABV), said that traditional cask is still popular as a local product and it was “phenomenal" for an old-fashioned style beer such as Mild to win.
“I think people are going back to their roots and trying more of what their dad or their grandads would drink and going for locally produced great British products,” he said.
“People want to know where things are sourced from and want to know who makes it and cask is part of that. There’s nothing that can touch a fresh cask. It’s alive. It’s been handmade.”
Drinking attitudes
However, he said that there is some work to do to bring the younger people into cask.
“I think the younger demographic certainly are less interested in cask but I think what we need to do as cask producers is make sure we’re doing some fun stuff with it. The challenge for cask is changing drinking attitudes,” he said.
He said that to keep cask more current it should be more innovative by producing hazy hoppy beers or fruit beers to wider the appeal.
But he highlighted that a major challenge for the cask market is the decline of pubs in the sector.
“Pubs are closing and that’s the only place you can have a cask beer. There needs to be someone trained how to look after it needs time as it’s a live product,” he said.
Loyalty to local pubs
Penzance is a five-barrel brewery that produces a range of beers including Potion No 9 (4% ABV), Crawlas Amber Ale (4% ABV) and Mild in a stable block at the rear of the Star Inn in Crowlas.
The Penzance Brewing Co was established in 2008 by the late Peter Elvin who was landlord of the Star Inn at Crowlas, just outside Penzance.
The pub was named Cornwall Pub of the Year by CAMRA in 2013. The brewery is now owned by his partner Tracey Cornelius.
Elliott has vowed that the microbrewery will stay loyal to its existing customers, which include 15 to 18 local pubs.
