Decade of quality

The Cask Marque accreditation scheme is 10 years old and growing all the time. Jessica Harvey reports on its birthday celebrations and future plans

CaskForce partner Cask Marque recently reached its 10th anniversary and has plenty to celebrate. Last year's cask ale accreditations grew by 17% and are currently increasing by 22%, with premium cask ale seeing growth for the first time in over a decade.

The Society of Independent Brewers (Siba) posted a 10.7% increase in membership, Fuller's has seen cask ale grow 4% and Greene King noted a 6% lift in volume in its latest reports.

In line with the boost for the category, the organisation is on track to reach a target of 5,000 licensees with the Cask Marque award. The Morning Advertiser caught up with the organisation on the final stretch of its 10th Anniversary Adventure pub crawl .

Beginning at Cask Marque-accredited pubs the Old Bank of England and the Old Bell on London's Fleet Street, the team travelled across London in a Bombardier bus to Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, the Warrington . The Warrington has maintained its pub atmosphere, with traditional decor, rich wood panelling and comfort food .

It seems appropriate that an establishment with the hallmarks of things the British know and love should sell a fantastic range of draught cask ales. The Warrington was presented with its Cask Marque award during the visit, before the team climbed the regal, curving staircase to the restaurant to catch up on trade goings-on.

On the table for discussion were Cask Marque's plans for its accredited outlets to serve Duchy Original, the Prince of Wales's organic bottled beer, as draught during September's Organic Fortnight.

The consumer national press journalists discussed why the national press are often quick to hype negative stories rather than positive. As Joe Mackie put it: "Bad news sells more papers. It's a shock tactic — the media doesn't think about the damage it can do, or how disheartening it can be."

Wells & Young's managing director Nigel McNally said: "There are newspapers that group all alcohol producers together in their coverage of binge drinking. Some even just blame the 'beer market,' but what they fail to realise is that cask ale is not a 'binge-drinking' drink."

Cask Marque's Annabel Smith agreed, adding: "The binge-drinking culture the press is so keen to portray isn't a true reflection of what is actually going on. One of the worst victims of blanket coverage is the beer industry, blamed for 'creating' a binge-drinking Britain — cask is one of the few categories without negative associations. And it's the only category that can't be purchased from supermarkets or off-licences."

The consensus was that the media needs to be educated about cask ale as much as consumers. Often, the delivery of misinformation can affect the beer category's reputation. Consumers have been advised that the colder a beer is, the better it is, rather than understanding the relationship be-tween temperature and tastebuds.

Smith explained: "As soon as you start chilling any food product it starts to lose flavour. That means you tend to consume more of it to get that flavour 'hit'.

"With cask ale, complex flavours get lost, it becomes bland and homogenized, and more importantly from a customers' point of view, the appearance changes and it develops a chill haze. The customer immediately thinks there is something wrong with the product, or the glass is dirty, or the hygiene in the pub isn't what it should be. It damages the brand, the outlet and the customer perception of the category. Cask ale should be served at the same temperature as the cellar — 11°C to 13°C — which, contrary to popular misconception, is not 'warm'. Any host will tell you that if they spend 20 minutes in the cellar, it's pretty cold!"

McNally added: "Cask ale can often provide the balance between refreshment and taste" . McNally said that hosts need to "understand the importance of the perfect serve", which includes the temperature, how to pour the perfect pint as well as "glassware, the serving and the line cleaning."

McNally added: "We have research that shows if a pub is consistently serving good cask ale, it will increase its total pub turnover by up to 20%."

Over the past three years, 210 Cask Marque accreditations have been received by CaskForce entrants.