Now Cask Marque have launched a similar scheme to give pubs star ratings for cellar hygiene. Obviously there’s everything to be said for promoting clean cellars, but it’s a touch disingenuous to suggest that it will help improve cask ale quality. Serving a good pint over the bar is a combination of various factors, not just hygiene, but also turnover, temperature control both in the cellar and in the lines, and maintaining condition through correct tapping, venting and spiling procedures. It’s not rocket science, just diligently following straightforward routines.
Good hygiene alone will not produce good beer if the other elements aren’t there. It’s significant that “One of the first pub groups to endorse the scheme and act on the findings has been named as the budget pub chain Wetherspoons, owned by Tim Martin, which now has 95% of its pubs with 4*/5* ratings.” Yet Spoons’ beer quality can be distinctly variable, and all too often their beer lacks condition and tastes as though it has been pulled through a very long pipe.
We will all have come across pubs whose public areas don’t give the impression of a scrupulous adherence to cleanliness, and yet reliably manage to serve up a good pint. Maybe they do have spotless cellars, but I have my doubts. As a product that is kept in sealed containers, and where the alcohol content has some preservative quality, beer has something of a natural resistance to contamination anyway. Schemes of this kind tend to involve a significant element of ticking boxes to confirm meticulous record-keeping. Some catering establishments end up with one-star ratings purely because they haven’t done their paperwork.
Nobody can argue against promoting hygienic cellars, but don’t imagine that a five-star rating will guarantee a five-star pint.
It's the grot that gives cask ale it's character. In a clean environment it just comes out like lager.
ReplyDeleteThe point of cask marque was to give a quality assurance mark "the bitters not crap here"
ReplyDeleteAll to often it is unreliable. To give it credit, it is a more reliable sign than a CAMRA award. CAMRA give some dreadful pubs with awful beer awards so long as it is independent and has a lot of pump clips. At least cask marque is an objective inspection of the bitter. Whether this addition makes a cask marque sticker a more reliable indicator is to be seen, I guess. It won't make it worse.
But anyone that cares about cask beer should hope it succeeds and improves the reliability of the sticker. It's a form of brand. Something that is intended to indicate a recognised sign of reliability, trust and quality. If drinkers recognised and trusted it, pubs would shift more cask beer.
Cookiee,
ReplyDelete"At least cask marque is an objective inspection of the bitter" or is it ?
The CM Inspector gets the first half out of the line that day, suggests it's too warm and so gerts a satisfactory replacement and then, hey presto, the pub gets the award that it's paying for.
I could name the pub and publican but won't.
"According to Cask Marque, the cellar audit consists of an 11 point checklist which includes assessing cellar temperature, stock rotation, safe use of gas cylinders, clean beer lines and clean glassware plus an inspection of the hygiene surrounding the glass washing and ice machines".
ReplyDeleteSo no worries then in West Yorkshire and around Edinburgh !!!
"We will all have come across pubs whose public areas don’t give the impression of a scrupulous adherence to cleanliness, and yet reliably manage to serve up a good pint."
ReplyDeleteNot sure about this. There is a difference between an otherwise clean but shabby, lived in, tatty pub and a dirty grotty pub.
We've all had a decent pint in the former but likely had a stinking hangover after a pint in the latter.
If the tables are sticky and the bogs horrific, imagine what it's like behind the closed door?
If it's clean but a little more lived in than you'd keep it, you'll be fine.
One example that springs to mind is the Coach & Horses opposite Piccadilly Station, which regularly got into the GBG despite being a complete dump.
DeleteCask Marque is no reliable indicator of quality. The plaque was on the wall of a new-build GK food pub nor far from where I live before they'd even had their first delivery. It's no stretch to suggest they're in cahoots with their funders who are primarily the national brewers and pubcos.
ReplyDeleteIn general, such accreditation schemes tend to be run by the industry they cover. The main objective is to keep licensees on their toes rather to act as a guide to decision-making for pubgoers. Although the GBG isn't necessarily a reliable indicator of quality either ;-)
DeleteIndeed. It's pubcos and major brewers marking their own homework.
DeleteI can't imagine anyone would pick a pub to use based on Cask Marque, they're much more likely to look for a Spoons as a mark of consistency (or GBG inclusion for a few).
ReplyDeletefunnily enough alot of Spoons are Cask Marque, to the point you should question the quality of the ones that arent.
DeleteDidn't the old adage of clean toilets means a clean pub and good beer, serve as a kind of rule of thumb in the old days?
ReplyDeleteI was pulled over by a cop yesterday in the middle of nowhere on the Florida Panhandle doing 62mph in a 45mph stretch of fast straight road.
ReplyDeleteNice chap. He let us off after I erroneously confided Lady PPT was desperate for a dump and needed it fast - even though we'd just passed a filling station.
He was a nice chap too. Said you'd better turn back to the filling station as there wasn't another shitter for an hour and even that was dreadful.
Anyway karma reared its ugly head about five hours later after the old girl had eaten a basket of very hot wings for lunch when she suddenly announced she really was desperate for a No 2 and Google Maps showed we were 15 miles from the nearest pit stop and there was no way I could pull over at 70mph on a busy freeway.
By jove, that was a dicey few miles trying to stifle my laughter as beads of sweat formed on the old girl's forehead.
Spoiler alert - we made it by seconds and no need for a hazardous waste clean-up team to be called.
I knew how she felt - the call of nature was strong for me a few days earlier when our transatlantic cruise called into Bermuda and we struck out for a drinking den I knew about a mile from the Royal naval Dockyard. It's funny how these things arrive unexpectedly.I just made it too.
Talking of cruises if anyone is interested in how to spirit 3 litres of gin, 45 cans of Fevertree tonic and four bottles of wine on board when you're not supposed to let me know.
And they were needed - the robbing bastards were charging £11 for a single can of Guinness.
Anyway, 85F here today and the pool beckons.
An interesting anecdote, Prof, but not sure of the relevance to the original post.
DeleteMaybe so Mudgie old sport but wouldn't life be terribly dull if everyone stuck to the script?
ReplyDelete