The Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh is another that has passed through multiple owners. It was founded in 1869 by George Lorimer and Robert Clark and bought in 1919 by Vaux of Sunderland to supply the north east of England with the locally-popular Edinburgh pale ales.
Vaux wanted to close it in 1987, but a management buy-out led by Russell Sharp, former boss of Chivas Regal whisky, turned it into an independent cask-ale specialist. Winning the Champion Beer of Britain award in 2002 for Deuchars IPA helped the company to achieve national prominence. Then last year it was announced that Scottish & Newcastle was closing its own last Edinburgh brewery and buying the 'Caley site, though the Caledonian Brewery Company, in which S&N now has a 30% stake, would continue to brew its own beers at the plant.
Scotland's own cask-ale market is tiny, with 75% of Scottish sales in Edinburgh itself. The Caledonian Brewery Company is currently making rather more than 50,000 barrels a year (it has a capacity of 100,000 barrels), of which around 65% is Deuchars IPA. Stephen Crawley, who joined Caledonian in 1993 as national sales manager, has been its managing director since 2001. Born in the Wirral, and describing himself as a 'posh Scouser, he has spent enough time in Scotland to qualify to play cricket for the country, probably a unique achievement for a modern brewery MD.
Crawley believes that with the current increased rate of sale of its beers in existing outlets, the only limit on Caledonian's growth is the fact that it does not have elastic walls. Crawley says: 'We're delighted with our present progress and will be in a better position to estimate our future growth once we are able to understand the additional potential of recent distribution gains. Ultimately, capacity constraints at the brewery will limit our cask-ale potential but we do not know at what point this factor will come into play.
He is optimistic enough to look beyond the overall cask market simply standing still, and says: 'If the industry continues to make progress on the quality of the beer, the dispense and good staff knowledge, then real ale could sell over 3m barrels once more. Like others, Crawley is wary of the idea of splitting up the beer market and aiming at separate parts, saying: 'Should we keep separating ale and lager? Perhaps we should modernise and reduce the baggage we carry. Deuchars isn't just ale it's a bloody good pint.
The need to provide a product that appeals to people looking for a quality drink, rather than a 'cask ale perhaps comes more naturally to someone located in the heart of the Scottish market, with its historically tiny cask-beer sales.
The future drinkers of ale, Crawley says, 'are people looking for a distinctive, quality, drink. Cask ale at 10°C or below can be just as refreshing as lager at 5°C. Quality ale served at the right temperature and by well-trained bar staff in great surroundings, can appeal to a wide range of drinkers of both sexes. Under those circumstances, he says, 'it can, and should, command a premium price.