Trade quality expert Rachel Evans has joined industry beer quality champions Cask Marque and will be checking beer quality in the Midlands area as well as supporting the Mitchells and Butlers a Cask Marque Corporate Member.
Rachel, joins Annabel Smith as the UK’s only female Assessors, has worked in the drinks industry for twenty years and, until recently, was employed directly by Mitchells and Butlers. She spent fifteen successful years with the company in a range of roles including Drinks Quality Manager, Beer Quality Manager and as a Licensee for their Nicholson’s pub brand.
Paul Nunny, Managing Director of Cask Marque, said “we are delighted to welcome Rachel on board as both an assessor and to support one of our key accounts Mitchells & Butlers in ensuring cask ale gets the focus and care that it deserves.
With a degree in brewing from Heriot-Watt, experience in running a busy city centre cask ale pub and then co-ordinating beer strategy and quality at a large retailer she fits perfectly the profile of what we are looking for in one of our team. Balancing the different viewpoints of pub goers, licensees, brewers and pub retailers can be very difficult but with her background and experience we have no doubt Rachel will be up to the task.”
Rachel commented “I’m pleased to join Cask Marque at such an exciting time for the cask and craft movement. The sector has achieved huge growth in recent years and that’s testament to quality products, great marketing and, most importantly passionate and dedicated people.’’
“Stereotypes and typical flavour profiles of beer have been challenged in recent years and customer expectations are increasing all the time. As an industry we’re delivering, but there’s more to be done and I’m keen to be a part of the drive towards quality – at all stages of the process.”
Rachel specialised in sensory methodology at Queen Margaret University (Edinburgh) and applied this during her time at Scottish Courage as Flavour Co-Ordinator where she ran projects leading the sensory profiling of beer as part of the QA & NPD process.
With a Brewing and Distilling Diploma from Heriot-Watt University and undergraduate in Food Science, Rachel is now tasked with driving the quality agenda forward.
“Quality has to be at the heart of beer at every stage in the process from grain to brewery, cellar to glass, so my aim is to support breweries gain the SALSA accreditation scheme that Cask Marque has recently launched. I will also be supporting Edward Theakston with the Mitchell’s and Butlers account so that we can engage all levels of the business with beer quality’’.