BarTalk

How important are real-ale sales in your pub?

Matt Jackson

Sun Hotel, Lancaster

Cask ale accounts for about 30% of our wet sales at both the pubs we run, so it's obviously a key element of our business. Our company also has a stake in the local Lancaster Brewery so promoting real ale is within our own interests. I would say cask ale is our reason for being, and the beers' importance to what we do cannot be over-stated. We stock a mix of different brands including Thwaites

and a selection from Lancaster.

Paul Bowes

Black Bull, Wylam, Northumberland

It's a growing sale for us and currently accounts for 10% of our overall beer-and-lager sale. When we arrived here no cask ale was served, but we now have between three or four pumps on the bar. It's been very successful for us because this part of the country is not a renowned cask-ale region. People do like to experiment with different brands, so we try and create a point of interest.

Alan Sherratt

Church House Inn, Bollington, Cheshire

Cask is an essential part of our product mix and we make four real ales available to our customers. It accounts for about 30% of our wet sales so it's a very important part of what we do. We try and get a mixed choice, which includes Spitfire and Black Sheep, but we also try and support local micros. Camra is very strong around here, so there is lots of support for cask ales.

Fiona Hornsby

Thomas Rigby's, Liverpool

We have eight real-ale pumps on our bar at all times and four of them are rotating guests. There are always three beers from the pub's owner, Okells from the Isle of Man. We tend to take beers from the bigger regionals and local micros, but we source from different beer wholesalers to widen the choice. Cask ale makes up about 40% of our wet-trade sales.