A row has broken out over a report which claimed the cask ale market was much healthier than previously thought.
The Business Guide to the Cask Ale Market was published by Martin Information shortly before Christmas.
It said although the big brewers had lost interest in cask ale, the market itself had a retail value of £2.6bn. It estimated that cask ale sales accounted for almost 25 per cent of the beer market, by volume.
But previous estimates of the real ale market have put it at less than 10 per cent and researchers and brewers claim the new figures are wrong.
Graham Page, spokesman for research firm AC Nielson, said: "Our conclusion is that the report is based on flawed methodology and overstates the market by at least one million barrels."
The report's author, Martyn Cornell, defended the findings saying the discrepancy came from different research methods.
He said: "The idea that cask ale is less than 10 per cent of the market does not match with the booming number of new small brewers and the success many family brewers are having."
The Society of Independent Brewers agreed. Secretary Peter Haydon said: "The Martin Information report raises the question of who was under the impression the cask ale market was half the size it now appears to be? It certainly wasn't us as the report's estimate of the micro sector being in the order of more than 800,000 barrels per annum is in line with our own surveys."
But the findings have been treated with caution by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), which compiles its own annual figures. Andy Tighe, the BBPA's statistician, said he thought the Martin Information report overstated the cask ale market by as much as one million barrels or 25 per cent.
Related stories:
Cask ale market bigger than expected (14 December 2001)