Crikey, time is whizzing by. I am not sure what happened to September, it was there one minute and gone the next. We are all so busy presently, as the saying goes… “time flies when you’re enjoying yourself!”
Here at Cheshire Cat, we have just finished a record year thankfully, despite World Cup distractions and many rural road closures. A big reason for our success after the loyalty and hard work of our wonderful team of course, is our commitment to keeping the heritage of our pubs at the forefront of everything we do. A big part of this is championing local cask ale in each pub.
If you didn’t know it by now, we love pubs. We love everything about them, the people, the individuality, the history, the heritage, the atmosphere, the log fires, the black labradors and, of course, cask ale at the centre of everything – and we love the comfort pubs bring to people’s lives.
A pub is not a pub without a variety of cask ales though. We should be puzzling our customers with ale choice consistently at the centre of each bar in the country.
It is apt that I am writing this opinion piece exactly two years since I wrote a piece all about big lager (fizzy stuff) brewers destroying cask ale brands and their respective breweries (entitled ‘There’s a storm brewing’).
In this article, I voiced my concerns about the future of Marston’s Brewery along with the future of Fuller’s Griffin Brewery. Low and behold, just two years later, the Marston’s brewery is closing. It is only six years since Carlsberg merged with Marston’s so one has to ask the question of what has gone wrong?
Carlsberg says cask ale demand has dropped 50%... yes 50% in the past 10 years. If our company had dropped our ale demand by 2% I would be really worried, let alone 50%. This is truly eye-watering.
Alarm bells should have rung
So how has this been left to demise so badly for so long that the brewery has to close? Surely when the brewery first saw decline of any scale, the alarm bells should have rung and action should have taken place to protect and rebuild the demand for their heritage ales. Sadly, ale is not at the forefront of the minds of any of these companies or indeed their account managers… it is all about sales of the fizzy stuff.
Marston’s Pedigree is/was one of the finest ales this country has seen along with Tetley’s, John Smith’s, Boddingtons, Doom Bar, Bombardier, Banks’s, Bass… I could go on for quite a while. Thankfully, a few of these beers have been ‘rescued’ but the trend is still so obvious… in comes a big international fizzy stuff brewer, they buy a reputable brewery with amazing cask ales and what do they do? They shut iconic breweries, phase out cask ale production and promote the life out of what brought them here in the first place – their boring fizzy beers.
I am going to say this, and some people won’t like it, but hey, it’s only my opinion. Why on earth are we giving international lagers so much support and presence on our bars? Why on earth do we allow the fizzy stuff from other countries to dominate our bars versus brilliant small brewers from the UK?
The international brewers continually put their prices up. I know they have fancy glassware, a few cardboard beer mats and those horrific ‘bar runners’, but actually a pub can run without them all. We just have to be brave and we need a revolution!
If, in unison, all small pub businesses alone move away from international beers and only do great ales and beers from the UK, it would be amazing.
This is like buying coffee from a local hard-working independent versus the non-tax paying Starbucks. I am so fed up of companies coming in, buying up our breweries and killing our heritage. It is time to stand up and say that it is unacceptable and speak through strong actions.
The closure of the Rock Brewery, the home of Doom Bar, is just as shameful. Originality, heritage, history, jobs, local passion, all thrown away again. A great beer with no home. Tetley’s of Leeds remains, in my opinion, the biggest and most shameful closure at the hands of guess who… Carlsberg again!
Concerns turn to Fuller’s
My concerns turn to Fuller’s and London Pride. I hope Asahi is reading this. In 2029, when your 10-year deal with Fuller’s pubs is up, I really hope you keep brewing their great ale at the wonderful Griffin Brewery – but I bet you don’t.
Cask ale is woven into the fabric of our national pub heritage and great pub history. How dare international fizzy stuff brewers come here and ride roughshod over it like it isn’t important. It is more than important… it is vital!
We shouldn’t be buying their lagers and, over time here at Cheshire Cat, we will be changing the bars in our pubs to reflect our disappointment of international brewers and their treatment of cask ale and the respective breweries that brewed such great ales.
Finally on a different, yet equally important subject, since my previous opinion piece about Tom Kerridge’s great work on #VATsTheProblem, it is great to see the petition signatures have gone up 33% to more than 400,000 signatures.
It is time every brewery in the country and their teams signed the petition too (if they haven’t already) and let The MA know when you have all done it. It is important to us and let’s face it, without us… you’re in trouble.
I was delighted to see the message from all the editors of our industry publications getting together to encourage the signing of the petition, well done all.
Here’s to a great autumn.
