Is the end in sight for cask beer?

Traditional cask beer sales are under threat due to a shift to online sales and at-home drinking, according to a new report by the Society of Independent Brewers.

A new report published today shows the shift in the UK Brewing industry over the last two years, with traditional cask beer under threat as consumers order more online and drink more at home.

The SIBA Craft Beer Report 2022 was produced by the Society of Independent Brewers.

It showed that beer sales across the whole market were down 14.2% in 2021, compared with 2019 pre-pandemic figures.

Independent breweries suffered most during this period, as production levels dropped by an average of 40% in 2020 and 16% in 2021 compared to 2019.

“Cask beer was sadly a casualty of the pandemic, as when pubs close small independent breweries lose the only place they can sell traditional cask beer,” said James Calder, SIBA chief executive.

“Because of this we have seen a huge wave of breweries creating webshops and on-site brewery shops, and many putting their beer into bottles and cans for the first time.”

As such, cask beer, which can only be served in the on-trade, was the worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report found a 21% drop in the proportion of cask beer made by craft breweries, down from 67% in 2019 to 46% last year.

In contrast, one in three SIBA members launched an online shop during the pandemic, and 40% now have a physical shop to sell beer direct to consumers.

But will the pandemic be the trigger for the eventual demise of cask ale?

Pete Brown, consultant and British Guild of Beer Writers’ beer writer of the year, told db this morning that cask beer “can go one of two ways from here”.

“The current messages that work well with cask devotees won’t resonate with a broader audience. Either the industry needs to work together with a serious budget on repositioning cask in people’s minds, or it should retrench and become a specialist niche, served only by people who are passionate about it.

Brown suggests that cask beer producers should give the category “scarcity and mystery”, allowing it “to become the premium product it should be, and slowly build back from there”.

Outside of the UK, tapping into cask ale’s scarcity has already become a trend. Bradley Gillett, a pub owner in Syracuse, New York, is championing craft ale across the pond.

Seneca Lake Brewing is one of a handful of breweries in the US making cask ale, tapping into the traditional British beer method for American drinkers looking to try something new