Cask Ale Week began on Thursday 21 September and runs until Sunday 1 October so there’s still time to get plenty of customers in and get them onto the magic of fresh cask beer at your pub.
Head brewer and sixth generation family member Alex Arkell (pictured right) said: “I’ve drunk beer all over the world and cask is easily my favourite; it’s beer in its purist form, complex, unadulterated and delicious.
“Cask Ale Week is the perfect opportunity to shout about it and we’re very proud to do so.
“At Arkell’s, we’ve been brewing beer for 180 years this year, and I still believe cask beer is the greatest. If I get my way, we’ll be brewing cask beer for the next 180 years.”
Fabulous ale
Meanwhile, Ye Olde Red Lion, a tenanted Arkell's pub run by Jo and Dougal Nicholls that serves its beers, is also celebrating Cask Ale Week.
A recent post on Instagram stated its first beer for the week was Arkell’s 3B bitter (4% ABV), of which the brewer said: “Originally known as Arkell’s Best Bitter Beer. First brewed in 1910 and affectionately known as BBB or 3B by customers ever since. A copper-coloured ale with a pleasant fruity and malty nose. It has a lingering bitter-sweet flavour of balanced Maris Otter malt and traditional Fuggles and Golding hops.”
Ye Olde Red Lion's post read: “National Cask Ale Week starts today and it’s first beer of the day is Arkell's Brewery's 3B. We are very proud to serve this fabulous ale and it is definitely our best-seller. Perfect with a Red Lion Sunday roast, our homemade pies, or just with a jar of our perfect pork scratching.! We’d love to pour you a pint or two.”
Eight out of 10 drinkers claim cask ale is a vital constituent of UK pub culture, according to Greene King.
Discover something new
Not only that, Greene King also claimed beer fans are open to trying new drinks, with the enjoyment of discovering something new and enjoyable to drink the most popular reason for trying cask ales, according to almost a third of UK beer drinkers (30%).
Arkell’s Brewery was established in 1843 by John Arkell. Arkell’s is Swindon’s oldest business, and one of just 29 family breweries left in the UK. Arkell’s has 180 years in the brewery business and has four members of the Arkell’s family still remaining at the helm: chairman James Arkell; his cousin Nick Arkell, head of sales, and James’s sons George and Alex Arkell are managing director and head brewer respectively.
The Arkell family work at the brewery alongside generations of other local families, brewing real ale and looking after nearly 100 pubs across Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire.
Arkell’s ales include Award-winning beers such as Wiltshire Gold, 3B, and Hoperation IPA. Special ales are brewed regularly, with Alex keeping the art of craft ale alive, offering drinkers new tastes and flavours all hand crafted in their brewery.
- If you have any events or advice you think could help other licensees showcase their cask ale offer, email the details to gary.lloyd@wrbm.com with hi-res landscape images.
