Turner, of the Cornwall-based brewer of cask and keg beers, which also operates pubs, added the pricing structure for cask beer fails to add up fairly too.
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Speaking to The Morning Advertiser, he said: “St Austell Brewery was set up to brew fantastic cask beer and that remains the same today but clearly cask has been under pressure for some time in terms of consumers.
“However, I have no doubt cask beer will be the trendiest beer again at some point. I don’t know whether that’s going to be tomorrow, five years or 20 years, but I guarantee you at some point, all these young people will be out there discovering cask ale for the first time and it will be the trendiest thing.
“Brands and trends are so cyclical. It will happen. I just hope it I hope it happens sooner rather than later because cask beer is arguably the best beer you can drink but the economics of it are what have been wrong with the with the with the category.
Most effort but still the cheapest
“In simple terms, it is the most difficult beer to look after, requires the most energy, the most effort, but yet it appears to be the cheapest pint on the bar – and the two just don’t go hand in hand. It should be the beer consumers are willing to pay the most for because it’s had so much love and care… it’s live beer, it’s beautiful beer.
“Hopefully we can try to adjust [the economics] over time but I have no doubt it will be the coolest drink of choice again in the future.”
Turner added that while St Austell Brewery invests in rebalancing its beer portfolio, which has included ploughing money into developing and growing its lager Korev, launching Proper Job 0.5 – its low & no alcohol beer – and moving into the craft category via its investment in Harbour Brewing Company, cask ale remains a very important part of its business.
The brewer is also working on a brand refresh for its much-loved cask beer Tribute. “Tribute is what we are known for in cask and we want to continue to be proud of that,” He explained. “If we’re all doing this in the cask ale space, we stand a good chance of turning the fortunes of the cask beer category.”
Strong quality initiative
On why cask is a cheaper pint on the bar, Turner said: “I suspect it is because cask is more difficult to keep and, therefore, the likelihood of not having a great point is higher than with a [kegged] lager, for example.
“In our own pubs, we have a really strong quality initiative around how we serve cask beer so the old adage of it being a ‘warm, brown beer’ is not the case anymore. We’ve got cask lines going through a python, which is cooling them to the right temperature, I think is addressing the temperature [issues].”
He added Proper Job IPA, St Austell Brewery’s 4.5% ABV cask beer was “probably was ahead of its time in terms of it being a big, punchy, hoppy beer” but added cask has a right to play beyond simply being a traditional amber or brown ale and the growth in pale ales, IPAs and all sorts of different flavours makes it the cask beer category “exciting”.
Turner added: “The challenge still remains of pulling consumers from the keg products back into cask.”
“It’s very sad to see, in our neck of the woods, the announcement [in February] that Sharp’s Brewery, which makes Doom Bar, will be closed later this year.
“On one hand that provides an opportunity for us but, on the other hand, it’s a great loss to our region and to cask beer.
“It’s not the news we want to be hearing. We’ve got to pull together as a collection of UK brewers that have been built upon cask beer and find a way to ensure we rejuvenate the category.”
