Shepherd Neame's Master of Beer training courses are paying off as the customers begin to notice the difference in the serve. Phil Mellows reports.
Maybe it takes a brewer to really instill in publicans the importance of disciplined procedures for maintaining beer quality right through to the glass. Over the last few years Kent family brewer Shepherd Neame has continued to develop its own independent Master of Beer training programme that takes licensees and their staff from the basics of cellar management to promoting beer with tasting events.
To date, around 340 pubs have completed Level One, 200 Level Two and half a dozen licensees have piloted the new Level Three Master of Beer Fellowship.
Sheps is extending the scheme from its own estate into its freetrade accounts and has launched a CD-ROM that makes it easier for licensees to train their own people in beer quality.
For trade quality services manager Ian Barsby, the biggest benefits have come from driving home some simple procedures.
"It's the basic stuff that's had the major impact, such as showing people how to maintain glasswashers," he says. "It has not only helped ensure glasses are clean but has reduced calls from pubs for new glass washing machines, because they break down less."
The brewer has also seen success in encouraging barstaff to use glass refreshers for its lagers, part of the training in beer pouring. "It makes sure customers get a clean chilled glass and adds theatre to our service," says Ian.
For cask beer, it has been a case of going back to basics. Master of Beer has driven through a common spiling regime throughout the Sheps estate, regulating when ales are tapped and spiled to ensure consistency and correct conditioning.
The training has been backed up by new temperature control equipment, installed in pubs over the last three years, to help ensure cask beer is no more than 14ºC when it hits the glass.
Barstaff training is vital to the success of the programme and Ian appreciates that publicans find it a time-consuming process.
"But as part of Master of Beer we show them how to do it and demonstrate that even training staff in something as simple as pouring a pint of lager can be effective," he says.
Ian's team monitors the success of the programme with regular pub audits, calling every three months at Level One and every six months at Level Two. "The whole company has been able to pull together on this, and that's been a great benefit in itself," he says.
Pubs are failed if they do not score 80 per cent across numerous tests covering glassware, pouring and staff knowledge as well as the quality of the beer itself. The pass rate is up to 90 per cent, but perhaps even more pleasing is that the drinkers are noticing the difference.
As branded glassware has come in, it's the customers who have put the pressure on for more. And the feedback has been good too. "It's down to getting the temperature right, clean glassware and correct conditioning," says a delighted Ian. "Where we used to have complaints, now we are getting compliments."
Master of Beer training
- Level 1 - Effective Cellar Management
- Routines to ensure the cellar is maintained, clean and hygienic
- Care of cask beer in stages
- Cleaning process for cask and keg systems
- Faults and their remedies.
Level 2 - Master of Beer
- Health benefits of moderate beer consumption
- Flavour differences of Shepherd Neame beers
- Key stages in effective glass-washing
- Pouring techniques for cask beer, smooth beer and lager
- Training staff in the pouring and service of beer.
Level 3 - Master of Beer Fellowship
- A greater understanding of brewing, knowledge of raw materials, the brewing process and packaging systems
- A greater understanding of beer tasting
- Auditing staff training in product pouring and service
- Conducting a beer tasting event in the pub with the aim of increasing beer sales
- Assessment of a tutored tasting session.
Cleaning between the lines
Line cleaning is one of those areas of pub operations that attracts peddlars of magic solutions; snake oil men who promise an easier life with their latest labour-saving inventions.
Cleaning the beer lines is such a chore, so expensive in terms of waste - and so important to the quality of the beer served in the pub - that licensees are readily tempted.
The simple message is that there are no short-cuts. The amazing device that can reduce the need for a regular weekly line clean has yet to hit the market. The experts in the brewing establishment are not budging from their traditional recommendation.
But that's not to say there haven't been technological developments that can improve the cleanliness of lines and, in turn, enhance the licensee's ability to serve the perfect pint.
The latest company to claim a breakthrough is Cellar Miser, which recently surprised boffins at Brewing Research International (BRI) with the effectiveness of its electromagnetic system in laboratory tests.
BRI used its machines on dirty lines and measured the build-up of biofilm, the stuff on which contaminants can get a grip, on the insides of the lines. It found that the build-up was reduced and Cellar Miser kept the line cleaner for longer.
That was not enough for BRI to suggest that it could make the weekly line clean obsolete, however. "At best it's a safety net," says BRI head of microbiology Steve Livens. "When licensees forget to clean the lines there's a tendency to give it a double dose later, and that does it no good. Cellar Miser has some benefits in that it helps maintain cleanliness of the line. But there is not enough evidence to suggest licensees can extend the weekly line cleaning regime."
Steve admits that the Cellar Miser is "a controversial bit of kit". Similar equipment has been touted around the pub trade for a decade or more and results have been hit-and-miss. But this latest attempt seems to be an advance on that and its success has persuaded leading pub group Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) to install it into some of its O'Neill's outlets.
"We needed scientific proof that it works, and the BRI trial has given us that," says Cellar Miser managing director Mike Tait. "The appeal for M&B is that it can save its pub managers' time."
Be warned, however, that Cellar Miser is continuing to market its device on the grounds that it enables licensees to reduce the frequency of line cleans to as little as once every four weeks, and that's not recommended by the independent experts.
Steve Livens believes that the real breakthrough in line cleaning efficiency is still some way off, favouring the ice method that is currently in development. This uses a kind of slush pumped through the pipe and, because it doesn't use any chemicals, it is easier to do automatically at the end of each barrel - regarded as the best way of reducing waste beer and maintaining quality in the glass.
The Publican's recent Pub & Bar show saw the launch of another line cleaning innovation, the Clever Clear monitoring system.
Clever Clear uses the latest intelligent sensors to check the lines are clean. All licensees or their staff have to do is connect it up to the beer taps and cleaning ring and switch it on. Electronic monitoring means exactly the right amount of cleaning takes place with the minimum of beer wastage and chemical use.
"Existing systems operate on a time basis with no consideration of how contaminated the line was in the first place," says the company's owner Steve Wheeler. "For relatively clean lines this is