Black Sheep Brewery enlists hip-hop star for cask rap

22-Sep-2022 - Last updated on 22-Sep-2022 at 14:20 GMT

Rhyme time: rapper Jester Jacobs has made a rap focused on cask beer for Black Sheep Brewery

Masham-based Black Sheep Brewery has teamed up with British hip-hop star Jester Jacobs to record a rap video in a bid to reignite flagging sales of cask beer.

The video has been released to coincide with national Cask Ale Week, which runs from 22 September until 2 October.

The Yorkshire brewer highlighted the plight of cask, stating volume sales of the beer category are down by 25% in 2022 compared to 2019.

The rap video, which can be seen by clicking here, is part of Black Sheep’s year-long Drink Cask Beer awareness campaign – an attempt to attract younger drinkers to the category and help to reposition cask beer as a diverse, progressive and relevant drink in today’s broad market.

Further strain

Black Sheep Brewery said: “It may be Britain’s national tipple, but cask beer is under threat. Having been in steady decline for over a decade, pub closures during lockdown saw the industry take a serious hit. And now the cost-of-living crisis is putting further strain on the drink – with recent CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) predictions suggesting the price of a pint could hit £20 by 2023.”

The brewery commissioned Jester Jacobs to write and perform an honest, light-hearted rap about all things cask beer – detailing everything from the qualities of the drink to the unique brewing process, as well as the wider issues facing the cask beer industry and British pubs.

Black Sheep Brewery chief executive Charlene Lyons said: “Cask beer is facing unprecedented challenges right now. As a drink that can only be enjoyed at the pub, the cost-of-living crisis is having a double impact on cask beer – not only are increasing energy prices making it more expensive to brew, the cost-of-living crisis also means people have less disposable income to spend on evenings at their local.”

Younger drinkers are key

Lyons continued: “At Black Sheep, cask beer is, and always has been, our passion. We firmly believe the cask category needs genuinely disruptive campaigns like these to help it back into growth. We know that younger repertoire drinkers are key to the future of cask but these drinkers need cask brands to be more visible, vibrant and relevant – both at the bar and away from it too. We’re hoping that, through our partnership with Jester Jacobs, we can help broaden the appeal of cask beer to a younger and more diverse audience.”

Jacobs added: “It’s easy to forget how much we missed pubs when we couldn’t visit them. They are often a place of sanctuary and need our support more than ever.

“It’s my pleasure and privilege to write a rap for Black Sheep Brewery, go to the pub with my pals and for this to be considered a positive contribution to a struggling industry.”

The Drink Cask Beer campaign has previously seen the brewery partner with comedian Maisie Adam to address the haters of cask beer directly, as well as opening a pop-up pub ‘The Breathe Inn’, beneath Yorkshire’s iconic Ribblehead Viaduct, serving its carbon-neutral cask beer, Respire.