Better beer, better business
I've just returned from a beer and food 'master class' hosted by Beautiful Beer for a group of licensees, which has filled me with optimism about the future for our national drink.
Licensees are some of the most customer-focused people I know - they have to be to stay in business - and if they're prepared to give up a precious half-day to learn more about beer, they must see it as an opportunity to engage their customers, and to make a contribution to their pub's sales and profits.
Certainly, all the signs point to growing interest in beer. Trends in the food and drink arena revolve around seasonality, provenance and local sourcing. It's all about creating simple meals from fresh, in-season ingredients, and informal, relaxed dining out of the home. While only a small number of consumers are actually buying their produce at farmers' markets, many more share a desire to get back to basics in their food and drink.
Exploit the trend
Against this consumer mood, beer would appear to tick all the right boxes: it is our native drink, made from natural ingredients and inextricably linked with the land and all the good things that come from it.
When it comes to matching drink and food, many chefs now agree that beer is at least as good as wine at partnering any number of foods. And beer lends itself to informal eating and drinking, its lack of pretension and low alcohol content - relative to wine - making it an easy, accessible drink.
So far, so good. The challenge for our industry lies, surely, in turning all these positives about beer into an offer for consumers that excites them and encourages them to choose beer in the pub - or, even better, to choose a pub for its beer.
The Beautiful Beer Awards are designed to achieve just this, by giving customers a 'quality seal' that helps them to find a pub where great beer is guaranteed. The awards reward those licensees who are already doing a first-rate job with their beer, while giving others an incentive to raise their game, and in the process improving the 'beer experience' for customers in those pubs.
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to Neil McMahon, licensee at The Gate Hangs Well in Bromsgrove, West Midlands, the first freehouse to achieve a Beautiful Beer Gold Award back in July.
Since then, he says, beer sales in his pub have grown seven per cent by volume. And this was a pub that already had a reputation for its beers, holding Cask Marque and two awards from the Campaign for Real Ale. So improving beer quality and presentation in our pubs isn't just a 'nice to do' - better beer really does build a better business.
We all know that beer is a beautiful drink, so let's make sure our customers' experience of it is a beautiful one, every time. I'll certainly drink to that (from a stemmed, half-pint glass, of course).
Ros Shiel is public relations manager for the Beautiful Beer campaign at the British Beer & Pub Association
