Going for gold
With less than three weeks to go until the final winner of CaskForce is announced, over the coming issues, the MA talks to the seven readers hoping to win their rent paid for a year
November winner - Gary Woods, the Britannia
Gary Woods has been in the licensed trade for more than 10 years, and has been running the Britannia as a freehouse in the village of Rowley Regis, in the West Midlands, since 2005.
Why did you apply for CaskForce?
I applied because I used to work as a drayman, and I wanted to take the next step up to improve my knowledge. I wanted to know how to keep and sell cask ales, so that I could start selling guest beers.
What does cask ale mean to your business? And your customers?
Cask ales really help to give my customers a bigger choice. A lot of youngsters come here, but even they want variety. Cask ales provide a wide range of tastes and strengths.
And I want to give my customers something different to try every week.
What is the future for cask ale, in your opinion?
I believe that sales of cask ales will increase. Even the youngsters who were brought up on bottled beers want a variety of tastes.
Once you've done all the lagers, it's easy to move on to draught beers.
Do your staff know and understand about beer quality? If so, how?
I try to make sure all my staff understand the importance of looking after beers properly, and how to keep and pour them.
Even my daughter has attended the Marston's training course. This helps me to have confidence that they can cope when I'm away, and helps to make sure customers are getting beers in the best condition possible.
How has training helped with your overall approach to lager, beer and soft drinks?
The ABCQ training is important because it builds on your knowledge. You never stop learning: you always find out something new in every course. Anyway, it never hurts to be reminded of the basics.
What has being a monthly winner meant to you?
I was over the moon to be the CaskForce winner for November. I've only been here for just over a year and it meant I could give something back to the customers - I used my month's beer as a way of paying them back for everything they've done for me.
What would being the overall winner mean to you? And how would you invest the year's rent?
I don't think I can describe how becoming the overall winner would make me feel.
Sometimes it's been a struggle here, but Marston's has been fantastic. It has done loads more for me than the people I used to work for, so being the overall winner would show how much I've gained. It would be brilliant.
October winners - Wayne and Jenny Massey, Crown Inn
Wayne and Jenny Massey took on the Crown Inn in Hyde Lea, Staffordshire, four years ago. It was their first pub and they have made it a real magnet for cask ale fans.
Why did you apply for CaskForce?
We sell a lot of cask ale. When we first came here, there was only one cask on the bar. Now we have six and they're all doing well - it's a real selling point.
What is the future for cask ale, in your opinion?
It helped to get us into the Good Pub Guide last year. That's made a real difference to how people see us - these days, they'll actually come off the motorway to try to find us. We find that people travel quite a way to come and drink in our pub.
What does cask ale mean to your business? And your customers?
Cask ales are the beers of the future for me. More and more people come here looking for proper beer with a real taste, which is something they just can't get from keg beers. They can get it from us, and we give them a really good choice, too.
Do your staff know and understand about beer quality? If so, how?
They appreciate what we do for beer. Jenny and I only employ two other staff members, but we send them on every course that we possibly can.
They're both doing the NVQ course in hospitality, which includes cellar management, and I'm trying to teach them everything I know about keeping and serving beer.
How has training helped with your overall approach to lager, beer and soft drinks?
We did the Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (W&DB) beer and cellar management course when we first took over the pub, and we've been awarded the Cask Marque three years running now, so we learned a lot.
What has being a monthly winner meant to you?
The recognition was good. It's important to be seen as a good pub by other publicans and companies, because they will then offer us products that we can pass on to customers.
What would being the overall winner mean to you? And how would you invest the year's rent?
Winning the overall CaskForce award would be just fantastic.
It would be a real achievement for us here at the pub, and show just how much work we've been doing over the years, and the fact that it's all paid off.
We're in the Good Pub Guide, we've been awarded the Cask Marque, and we've been recognised by Camra.
As for the money, we'd invest it right back into the pub to make it even more welcoming for our customers.
