How the sector celebrated Cask Ale Week 2024

Cask ale week is an annual celebration of cask beer, a drink only enjoyed in its truest form at pubs, that takes place in September with a view to encourage more people to try real ale.

This year’s festivities ran from Thursday 19 September to Sunday 29 September.

One pub that embraced the spirit of cask ale week is the Fitzherbert Arms in Swynnerton, Staffordshire, which is a Cheshire Cat Pubs & Bar site.

Cheshire Cat, which is owned by Tim and Mary Bird, has a strong emphasis on cask beer across its north-west locations and celebrated beer’s the tributary ‘week’ with a cask focused menu.​

Five members of staff, including Tim, picked out their favourite choices as accompaniments to a variety of meals served at the Fitzherbert.

Attracting new customers 

Hen Cloud IPA 3.9% ABV by Wincle Brewery in Macclesfield was Tim’s choice, which he described as a “delightful low in weight IPA, high on taste”, as a pairing for chef Andy’s homemade chicken tikka masala with fragrant rice and naan bread at £16.95.

Meanwhile, the pub’s general manager Rebecca’s favourite was the Cheshire Cat Blonde Ale at 4% ABV from Weetwood Ales, which was matched with the pub’s pan-fried lemon and parsley salmon fillet, roasted new potatoes, tenderstem broccoli and butter-roasted carrots for £19.95.

Data from Greene King​ also showed seven in 10 (72%) people’s perceptions of cask beer has improved over time – and half believed the idea of it being a drink for old men as a false image.

The research further indicated younger and diverse generations have embraced the drink while women were also shown to driven the change in the segment with some 30% regularly enjoying a pint of cask ale.

In addition, eight in 10 punters (86%) said they order the same drink every time they visit the pub, prompting the brewer and pub operator to encouraged people to step out of their comfort zone during Cask Ale Week and visit their local pub to try something new.

Elsewhere, cask enthusiast pub the Salisbury Ale House in Manchester, which is a Star Pubs site, ran a tasting promotion for Cask Ale Week​, something it also offered for last year’s celebration.  
It had eight cask ales on tap and promotion participants received a Salisbury branded one-third of pint glass with a cask measure poured in the glass as well as seven tokens for £13.95, or eight tokens and no glass.

"We continue to invest in the product because we are determined for it to not only have its space on the bar for many years to come but also to be a product pubs are proud to serve and celebrate.”

The pub paid £672 for the glasses and £13 for 2000 tokens with some 1,700 pints sold over a 10-day period. Participants were able to use unused tokens at a later date.

Manager Sam Rowlinson said: “Cask Ale Week is great for attracting customers. We advertised our promotion a week before with a specially made A-board, posters and Instagram and Facebook posts.”

This year also saw the launch of multiple new products, including from Nicholson’s and Sharp’s.

Nicholson’s Pub Collection joined forces with organic brewer Stroud Brewery to launch a limited-edition beer, GAIA.​

Named after the Greek goddess of Earth, GAIA is a 4.2% ABV organic pale ale that will be available for a limited time across all 81 sites of Nicholson’s British pubs.

Meanwhile Sharp’s introduced a limited-edition beer called Orange Haze in honour of Cask Ale Week.

Ensure quality 

Orange Haze​ (5.2% ABV) is said to offer a full blood orange experience with a fresh citrus aroma, a sweet but sharp taste and an assertive bitterness.

The south-west brewer added the cask ale has been developed from a cross-brewery team competition specifically for Cask Ale Week.

Closing off the week, Greene King celebrated a successful year​ since the introduction of the 4.5-gallon cask ‘pin’ to its customers.

A smaller vessel than the usual cask container, which holds nine gallons, the pin was first distributed with the brewer and pub operator’s seasonal cask ales front of mind.

The Suffolk-based firm introduced pins to help licensees minimise wastage, ensure quality and prove cask could still be viable on the bar by providing a smaller throughput.

To that extent, the brewer has seen an uplift in quality with Cask Marque scores in stockists of Greene King beers using pins rising by 1.2% since the launch into pubs.

Greene King head of internal sales John Malone said: “Cask ale is Greene King’s heritage and the core of a great pub, and we continue to invest in the product because we are determined for it to not only have its space on the bar for many years to come but also to be a product pubs are proud to serve and celebrate.”