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Happy Handpull
An industry report has revealed that cask conditioned beer is outperforming a declining beer market and showing healthy sales growth.
Despite a ream of pub closures and a continuing consumer shift from the on-trade to the take home sector, the value of the cask beer sector grew 5% in the last 12 months and is now worth £1.4billion with 3,000 more pubs now pulling cask on the bar.
In volume terms, 2009 was the first year since 1994 that sales didn’t slump. During the same period, meanwhile, the overall beer market experienced a 2% and 4.1% decline in value and volume respectively.
According to the Cask Report – Britain’s National Drink, 2010-2011, cask ale now accounts for 15.2% of on-trade beer volumes and grew its drinker base by 1.4%. That the number of 18-24 year-old cask drinkers increased by 17% suggests that the beer style is some way to shedding its socks and sandals image.
Author of The Cask Report, Pete Brown, said, “Considering everything else that was happening in the beer market, with continuing pub closures and consumers switching from on-trade to off-trade consumption, it’s hard to view this as anything other than a strong performance from cask ale.”
The report, commissioned by a number of regional brewers as well as SIBA and the Independent Family Brewers of Britain, revealed that 41.8% of all cask volume is sold in London and the south east while Scotland, home to a thriving craft brewing scene, saw an incredible 31% growth last year.
Despite the encouraging outlook, Brown warned against cask complacency and urged the on-trade to improve its attitude to real ale.
“There is clearly still work to do in recruiting new drinkers. We have talked about the importance of providing tasting notes, of letting customers ‘try before they buy’ and other ways of overcoming the obstacles to trial.
“While more pubs are doing this than were four years ago, not enough is being done to make cask a really compelling choice for the new consumers who are needed if the impressive gains of recent years are to continue.”
Ben McFarland, 29.10.2010