At the Cask Seminar on 25th September 2014, held at Brew Wharf London, Pete Brown presented his 8th volume of the Cask Report to a selection of prominent brewers, pub companies and journalists.
There’s a beer revolution going on in Britain – and cask ale is right at its heart. Sales of cask beer, the number of people who drink it, breweries who make it, and festivals that celebrate it, are all increasing as good quality, flavoursome beer continues to gather mainstream interest and popularity. People may be going to the pub less often, but when they do go, in increasing numbers they’re looking for something special, something different from discounted supermarket lager brands. And that’s why more of them are drinking cask ale. There are more brands, in a wider variety of style and flavours, than there has ever been before.
The cask ale market is worth £1.72bn. This is up 23% since 2010, when it was worth £1.4bn.3 Since cask ale significantly drives footfall, and cask ale drinkers attract other drinkers to the pub and spend more when they visit, the value of cask ale to individual pubs is greater than the value of actual cask sales – and should not be underestimated.
As described in previous editions of the Cask Report, cask ale drinkers tend to be male, upmarket and slightly older than the population average. But cask drinkers are an increasingly diverse group: 49% of all that drink alcohol – equating to a third of all female drinkers and two thirds of all male drinkers – have tried cask.
You can download a copy of Pete’s presentation here which contains some of the key points from the Report and is Powerpoint presentation.
As well as reading the main points from the Cask Report, you can also use this presentation yourself within your own organisation as it makes a compelling argument for cask ale and the potential for cask to help businesses build success and profitability.