The Cask Webinar, sponsored by Greene King, brought together co-founder and CEO of Thornbridge Brewery Simon Webster and three stars at Greene King including head brewer Jack Palmer, on-trade category manager for insights Angie May and head of internal sales and engagement John Malone.
To watch a recording of the Cask Webinar, simply click here and fill in a few details and access will be yours – and it will cost you nothing.
So… what were the burning questions that we have got answers for now?
What do you attribute the increase you've experienced in cask growth post-Covid to? Are there specific outlet types or occasions?
Webster: We have two areas here, one is the strive for constant perfection in how we brew and cellar beers, and the other is trying to innovate in a category that can sometimes seem quite stale.
May: We have continued to invest in the category with our core cask beers, including the launch of our Greene King Proud to Pitch In scheme that supports grassroot sports clubs across the UK, with much needed funds.
We have also continued to invest in media spend for our core brands to drive mental availability.
The refreshed cask seasonal calendar that we have launched for the past two years allows us to also be creative with limited-edition brews and offer something exciting for the relevant season.
Cask’s heartland is community pubs, food pubs, high streets and sports/social clubs, and this is where we see a strong customer base.
What levers can we pull?
May: From a category perspective, there are three ways to grow and that’s to either bring more people in (more of the same or a new demographic), have them drinking the category more often, or spending more by either trading up or drinking one more pint.
Simply put, it’s one more person, one more occasion, one more pint/pound.
Those levers will vary by venue but it’s about having a range that appeals to wider customers, taps into the occasions they are going out for (sport/Christmas, for example) and is of the best possible quality and presentation.
Malone: For me it boils down to three key things in pub; it’s having the right range of cask for the venue and customer, ensuring that the merchandising and presentation of cask on the bar and in the venue is a high standard and making sure staff are well informed, inspired and ready to share those recommendations with customers on a great cask beer to try.
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Do you have any insight into the beer types that are in growth?
Webster: For ourselves, it’s often the more modern styles, so Green Mountain is our hazy pale ale and sells well in cask, since we launched it this year.
May: From a cask perspective, we see the beer style performance change by season.
Golden cask beers grow in popularity in the summer, whereas the amber and darker cask beers are more popular in winter, which reaffirms the need for venues to ensure the range on the bar is right for that season.
What insight is driving the development of your seasonal beers?
May: The insight that really drives our seasonal beers is a mix of reviewing previous year’s performance, having regular dialogue with key stakeholders and we also look at what beer styles are growing and upcoming key trends, take stout, for instance.
We also have amazing creative brewers who like to experiment and if it tastes great and is a style we think will resonate with customers then we look to fit this into the calendar.
We also have great input from our collaboration partners too that means we can build an exciting calendar for the year ahead.
Webster: Our insight suggests that customers are looking for interesting styles which aren’t necessarily driven by the season, more the style.
Is Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) on to something with its ‘fresh ale’ and is Greene King or Thornbridge considering entering this category?
Webster: At Thornbridge, we won’t be doing that because it’s not technically cask beer, there is no live yeast in the cask.
Will ‘fresh ale’ harm overall volumes or provide opportunity for other brewers?
Webster: It has to provide opportunity. Also, we were lucky enough for CMBC to gift us a set of Burton Unions that we have used to great effect in premiumising cask beer.
What’s behind the regional use/non-use of a sparkler? Why aren’t they used down south?
Malone: Our stance on sparklers would be that it is what is right for the venue and its customers.
We do see a trend that generally pubs in the north use sparklers and pubs in the south don’t, however, our advice wouldn’t be based on region.
Webster: It’s difficult for me to give a correct answer here because, as a ‘northerner’, we just prefer a beer with a nice tight head, pulled through a sparkler.
How many weeks on the best before date when it leaves the brewery?
Webster: We tend to work on six weeks.
Is there any advice on price point you can provide?
Webster: Price point is driven by the cost of ingredients and ABV of the beer, so it really depends on those things.
- To see the recording of the Cask Webinar yourself, click here.
