OPINION: Give cask the chance it deserves

Global businesses want to do standardised things wherever they operate on the planet. I know, I worked for the world’s biggest for a while. It’s what makes them successful. 

To many of us the term ‘regional’ might mean ‘West Midlands’ or ‘south Wales’, to a global business it often means ‘Europe’ or ‘Africa’. Once you understand that broader perspective, it’s easy to understand why Carlsberg, like other dominant global brewers, are beating an exit from brewing cask beer. 

Cask beer is fresh, sold in reusable containers, ecologically sound (typically drunk close to where it’s brewed) and uniquely British. 

In pretty much any other product category, those features would be centre of any marketing campaign as they play into everything young people tell us are important to them. 

Drinkers do want cask

Sadly, they are counter to global brewers drive for ubiquity and efficiency. “Why do we need to brew that cask beer for Britain alone?” I can hear the question being asked in boardrooms as I write.

But now for some good news... 

Within strong demand for independent beers, demand for independently brewed cask beer remains buoyant. In 2023, SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers & Associates) members reported cask beer production up 14% v 2022. Don’t believe the fallacy that drinkers don’t want cask beer anymore, they do. The figures speak for themselves. 

Just ask your average community publican. What better way of endorsing the community credentials of a pub than supporting the local brewer from the same community. 

But now the red flag. Just because cask beer doesn’t fit the agenda of the global brewers, they must not be allowed to limit the opportunity for brewers for whom it does. A vibrant beer market has room for beers of all styles, formats and ownership types. 

Would the French talk Champagne down?

SIBA members consistently tell me that access to market is their biggest trading issue. They are confident in the demand for their beers, all they ask is that pubs make their beers available for the drinker to decide.

Back to Mr Brown. It was he who offered a perspective giving evidence to a parliamentary enquiry that cask beer is “Britain’s Champagne”. Unique to our country, part of our DNA and what, in many ways, we are famous for. 

Can you imagine the French talking down Champagne the way we do cask beer? Me neither. 

Covid taught us that the British want to socialise with friends and support local businesses of all types. There is demand for our national drink, it just needs space and a fair opportunity for that demand to be met.

• To read Pete Brown's opinion article on the sale of the remaining Marston's brewing business, click here​.​