Trade Talk: Stephen Goodyear

Stephen Goodyear, chief executive of Youngs Brewery and chairman of the IFBB PR Committee on Cask Beer Week.

Cask Beer Week launches later this month and it is an annual celebration of cask beer organised by the Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB), which has been running since 2001. I believe it is a fantastic opportunity to promote the diversity of brands and flavours available on the market as the IFBB and its members are always trying to promote cask beer to a wider audience.

Cask Beer Week 2004 is certain to be a spectacular event. Every year members put together a targeted programme of promotional activity to be run within IFBB pubs. The campaign aims to encourage customers to sample cask beer and to discover for themselves the varieties and intricacies offered by the drink.

In the South West breweries have been using their giant pints for photoshoots to promote the naturalness of cask beer. Meanwhile in the North, IFBB members have formulated a targeted plan of promotional activity and will be running an advertising campaign in the local press offering tokens to collect to sample cask beer.

Tradition​

With the campaign now in its fourth year, there are some traditions still in place from previous Cask Beer Week's such as the Giant Pint Run. This takes place through the streets of London, staged by the IFBB South East brewers, on the first Friday of Cask Beer Week, raising awareness and providing an opportunity for sampling along the way!

Once again Cask Beer Week has received wonderful support and for 2004 the IFBB has been working in conjunction with the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), as well as other key stakeholders such as the Society of Independent Brewers, to come up with a range of enterprising initiatives for the promotion of this year's event.

Both the IFBB and CAMRA have recently collaborated to put together an application for Traditional Speciality Guaranteed Status to be awarded to the terms cask beer, cask ale and cask conditioned beer. Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status will ensure that unless a drink has been brewed in the correct manner to make certain that it is cask conditioned it cannot be given the name cask beer, cask conditioned beer or real ale.

Preserving the heritage and tradition of cask beer is important to both CAMRA and the IFBB and we are delighted to be taking positive steps towards this. This exciting venture will not only help to protect the heritage of our industry but will serve to promote cask beer to a new market.

With industry backing, the IFBB hopes Cask Beer Week will continue to develop, growing into a nationwide event supported by all brewers of cask beer and celebrated in pubs the length and breadth of the country.