Greenaway, whose pub won the Great British Pub Awards’ Best Pub for Beer category in 2024, told The Morning Advertiser his views on the cask market now and for the future.
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“Growing rapidly as consumer confidence has increased with returning discerning customers to an excellent product dispensed by professional operators and cellars,” he said.
12 cask beer lines
The pub has just increased the number of its cask lines from eight to 12 and said all 12 are always in use. It brews its own beer and serves those while its mix on offer includes two or three dark beers, one hazy, three session pale ales, one high ABV option and also serves one from a new brewery, one-off beers or celebratory ales too.
On pricing, Greenaway said: “The issue with cask pricing is more mature drinkers insist it is priced lower due to historic lower price of cask against keg. Keg has been allowed to reflect the ABV, hop content and exclusivity.”
And he stated staff members need to know a bit about the beers they are serving. He said that “Many customers are unaware there are only four ingredients to cask ale but they are also inquisitive about grain types and hops.”
Cleanliness is key
He also noted it is critical to ensure weekly water washes take place between cask beer changes along with regular line cleaning. In fact, he cites ‘cleanliness’ as one of his top five tips for an operator wanting to start their own cask ale offer. The other four are choice, make sure you cover all styles, knowledge and to have enthusiasm for cask beer.
With 60% of the Tamworth Tap sales made up from drink purchases, Greenaway knows what he is doing and serves seasonally too. This means it follows brewers’ leads on stronger, darks beers in winter and mild beers in May plus pales in summer.
His favourite cask ale is Oakham Citra because it’s “always fresh and tasty”.
