Friday 31 May 2019

Marston's ditch cask in Scotland

Here's a short story which broke earlier today, and which caught my eye. I thought I'd share it with you ahead of the next article about my recent visit to China. So for some news of a story which is happening much closer to home, read on.

Marston’s, who are one of the UK's major pub owners, and a leading brewer of cask and bottled beers, are to withdraw cask ales from all but one of their twenty-one managed pubs  in Scotland, and replace them with keg beer.

The move is due to what the company describes as “poor throughput” of cask, and means that by early June, the only pub in the company’s Scottish managed estate offering cask ales will be Lockards Farm in Dumfries.

The cask lines in all other outlets will be taken out and replaced with keg versions of Marston’s Pedigree and Hobgoblin IPA. Marston’s have said they will continue to supply cask beer to their Scottish free trade customers.

A company spokesman said the decision had been taken “with a heavy heart” but that the company’s policy on cask ale in Scotland “is no different to anywhere else in the UK”. Mark Carter, who is head of the drinks management category at Marston's, went on to say, “Our criteria is set by throughput to ensure we maintain the quality control expected by our customers.” 

“We will continue to sell cask ale in those pubs where there is a demand which matches this. Unfortunately a recent review identified that a number of pubs do not sell sufficient volumes to support the sale of cask ale, therefore ensuring that the beer on sale is not of a quality that we deem suitable for our customers.”

Understandably the decision has come under fire from CAMRA, whose Scottish spokesperson Pat Hanson, said, "Removing cask ale from pubs in Scotland,  is taking us back to the mad days of the ’60s and ’70s when cask beer was ripped out, and keg beer put in all over the country”.

Quite a few of the pubs affected, are in places which are not exactly awash with cask ale, or even have they many pubs. CAMRA's view is that pub owners, such as Marston's, might be putting on too many cask ales, thereby diluting sales across too many different lines.

So, as Hanson suggests, "Rather than doing away with the option of cask altogether, why not tailor it in line with local demand?"

According to the most recent Cask Report, UK sales of cask ale have continued to decline; a situation attributed, in part, to pub closures. The report also cites Scotland as one of the UK regions where people were least likely to have tried cask ale.

My view is that providing Marston's are not over-reacting, and using a sledge-hammer to crack a walnut, they are doing the right thing. There is no point in leaving cask on sake, if no-one is drinking it. There is nothing more likely to put people off from trying the category, than a warm, flat, rancid beer that has stat round for far too long.

It's far better for a company like Marston's to cut its losses and remove cask altogether from its outlets north of the border, especially as the category has never really done well in Scotland. Whether the move is part of something larger from Marston's remains to be seen, but it is is nobody's interest to continue with cask if they are struggling to shift the stuff in any volume.

8 comments:

Tandleman said...

Sorry to see you use the Royal Standard of Scotland to illustrate your article. See below.

"Used historically by the King of Scots, the Royal Standard of Scotland differs from Scotland's national flag, the Saltire, in that its correct use is restricted by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland to only a few Great Officers of State who officially represent the Sovereign in Scotland.It is also used in an official capacity at royal residences in Scotland when the Sovereign is not present."

Unless of course you have become a Great Officer of State in the past few weeks. (-;

Ian Worden said...

Can't say that I've ever seen a Marston's pub in Scotland but looking at their website they seem to be more restaurant than pub so I can understand a lack of cask throughput. I did peruse a couple of the menus and found no mention of any beer being sold. They didn't even have haggis. There's plenty of decent beers to be found in Scotland without Marston's so why not stick to the local stuff?

Paul Bailey said...

Looks like I should I replace it with the Saltire then, TM.

I will do so this evening, so apologies to any Scottish royalists out there!

Martin Taylor said...

I agree, Paul. If they've given it a chance and it hasn't sold, take it out.

Scotland's Beer Guide cohort includes (proportionately) a lot of Wetherspoons and the other major dining chain pubs e.g. Marston, Brewers Fayre, Vintage etc.

I haven't noticed these places offering a vat range of beers. As an example, the Steam Wheeler in Renfrew is a Marston pub with Pedigree plus one guest. The Brewer's Fayre in Glenrothes just had a (dreadful) Doom Bar on last year.

Looking back at my posts from Scotland over the last couple of years (including during the Dundee AGM), the number of times I comment on no cask being pulled is striking. And actually the pubs themselves have been quite busy. Tennents drinkers aren't daft.

Martin Taylor said...

Oh, and just for an English perspective. The latest Tweet in my timeline is a chap visiting all the pubs in Peterborough, many of them suburban diners keeping a couple of cask beers on, and he's complaining about the lack of choice in them. There really is nothing wrong with a Greene King pub offering IPA & Abbot, a Marston pub offering Pedi and Wainwright etc etc.


CAMRA members, whether formally in branch magazines or informally, still seem obsessed with improving choice rather than quality.

Paul Bailey said...

Cask seems to struggle north of the border Martin, and I don’t think anyone can quite put the finger on it. The Scots embracing lager, much earlier than the English, may have something to do with it, but whatever the reason if it isn’t selling, then take it out.

Marston’s should be applauded for this action, not criticised, but CAMRA seems to have trouble grasping the reasons behind the decision. A flat, oxidised pint that is hardly ticking over, does no-one any favours, and is certainly unlikely to win any converts, so why keep on trying?

There does seem to be this misconception amongst the CAMRA hierarchy, that it’s the size of the cask range which matters, rather than the quality. They forget that this was never the case back in the early days of the Campaign, when the owning brewery’s bitter, and possibly their mild, were the only cask offerings in many pubs.

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