Hamish Champ: Cask Ale Week? Wot Cask Ale Week?

Did you realise that last week was National Cask Ale Week? Yes, it was, really.

Now I know this because I work for a trade publication that ran a number of stories about the event. Heck, I even mentioned it in passing on my City & Business pages.

But I have to admit that without this 'inside track' as it were I would have darn-near been blissfully ignorant of the festivities.

With one notable exception - thank you, the Three Compasses in Hornsey, North London - none of the near-dozen pubs I visited last week were doing anything out of the ordinary to celebrate our national beverage.

Which is a crying shame. Those with an interest in supporting cask ale in pubs - and you know who you are - have spent a chunk of their time in recent months preparing for what is one of the most important weeks in their year.

I think cask ale is what makes a pub special. I reckon that a pub's bartop is not complete unless it has at least a couple of hand pull devices. But then maybe I'm in the minority.

Of course I didn't visit every pub in the UK last week. I'm sure many put on a good show to support cask ale. And besides, 'proper beer' is one of the few products sold in pubs that's managing to hold its own in a market which is declining faster than my standing in the headquarters of some cigarette manufacturers.

Still, I guess a lot of pubs don't stock cask ale because the demand simply isn't there. While I find such a notion hard to comprehend, it clearly is the case in many outlets. The Publican​ web site ran a poll last week asking readers how many of you were doing something to mark the event, and at the last time of looking it seemed around two thirds of respondents were saying 'No'.

Why is this? Is it, as one of my Publican ​colleagues suggested, because many people continue to think of cask ale as an "old man's drink", consumed merely by the distinctly unfashionable? Given all the work being done in certain quarters to jazz up cask's appeal to a new generation of drinkers why should this still be the case?

But never mind its image, aren't we told how much a part of our cultural heritage cask ale is? Shouldn't this count for something, given the place beer occupies in every Briton's heart? Perhaps you dear reader can enlighten me as to why cask's appeal is not as considerable as in my book it should be.

However, if you and your pub did​ do something to celebrate cask ale last week I'd like to doff my hat in your general direction. Who knows, there may have been thousands of you out there.

Besides, the chances are you were too busy changing barrels to respond to our survey. And let's face it, who could blame you?