tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post90156462664553066..comments2024-03-28T17:11:52.333+00:00Comments on The Pub Curmudgeon: It won’t lie downCurmudgeonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-316496747995178852019-10-05T09:39:00.818+01:002019-10-05T09:39:00.818+01:00That's the point, Cookie. If a pint of Dogs B...That's the point, Cookie. If a pint of Dogs Bollocks was as superior to a pint of Unicorn as a Saville Row suit is to a Primark garment then there would be a case for premium prices. But the real comparison is Primark against Next<br /><br />And that is before you consider that a well cellared pint of quickly turned over Unicorn can be superior to a badly kept and served Dogs Bollcks IPA. Saville Row clothes wouldn't command a premium if half of them were badly stitched and fell apart the first time you wore them.<br /><br />And the so called superiority of premium cask is often merely a matter of preference not a genuine superiority.dcbwhaleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06768155388883272240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-35691796521667045742019-10-04T07:59:48.707+01:002019-10-04T07:59:48.707+01:00There’re 2 main types advocating for this. Self-in...There’re 2 main types advocating for this. Self-interested small-scale brewers who want a higher price for their products and a small number of beer enthusiasts who want to try the keg DIPA on cask and appreciate it won’t as cask exists in a lower price bracket.<br /><br />Both arguments deserve examination outside the wider mainstream beer market and are features only of the small-scale market. Small scale production in other fields commands a premium as customer pay for enhanced product or service. Tailoring is a good example of a product with many price bands where bespoke services command the highest price. So why isn’t there a premium band for small scale cask?<br /><br />Maybe a large amount of small-scale brewing really doesn’t offer a premium over the mainstream and can only exist at a discount supported by a tax break?<br /><br />Having a pop at a value pub chain who’s whole usp is a cheap pint, is missing the point. Most markets have a discounter. Producers have the capacity to avoid their products being discounted if they choose who to supply and can produce something special enough to warrant being highly sort after.<br />Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-41553395478067464422019-10-03T11:19:56.782+01:002019-10-03T11:19:56.782+01:00Spot on as always. Particularly taken with the 5th...Spot on as always. Particularly taken with the 5th bullet. <br /><br />Most cask is consumed by ordinary drinkers, not beer enthusiasts. <br /><br />Despite what CAMRA promotions may suggest.far more Banks's Amber, Greene King IPA and Doom Bar is drunk by ordinary folk than the small quantity of Citra, DIPA and sours sipped by enthusiasts. retiredmartinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15429804437739227082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-61409445239755206432019-10-03T10:30:00.427+01:002019-10-03T10:30:00.427+01:00That's the irony - the mainstream cask beers t...That's the irony - the mainstream cask beers that are a genuinely premium product tend to be those that suffer most in quality terms from poor turnover per container and poor cellaring. Landlord's often iffy quality is very much a result of the brewery marketing it nationally, losing the quality control they used to have over being careful who it was sold to. With cask 'craft' quality issues and brewing faults are often disguised by flavourings and absurd hopping - one example I found earlier this year was a railway arch brewer proudly boasting about his beer's butterscotch notes - which was actually a high level of diacetyl from his poor brewing skills.electricpicshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09144970068645280352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-20236593113957821852019-10-02T16:02:56.136+01:002019-10-02T16:02:56.136+01:00Still no draught Peroni in Spoons. But you're ...Still no draught Peroni in Spoons. But you're right - premiumisation in the on-trade is much more to do with outlets than brands. Compare the Baker's with the Boar's on Stockport Market Place.Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-36692316175669540412019-10-02T15:54:34.082+01:002019-10-02T15:54:34.082+01:00It's the pubs which hold the premiumisation. I...It's the pubs which hold the premiumisation. It's hospitality. Some folk will pay more to drink in a venue that keeps the rough arses out. So us rough arses go down spoons. It's the same Stella, either way.Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-76003006308743541992019-10-02T15:40:06.377+01:002019-10-02T15:40:06.377+01:00The only thing I'd add to that is that premium...The only thing I'd add to that is that premiumising specific cask brands is very much dependent how well they are kept in individual pubs. To be fair, Timothy Taylor's seem to be very alert to the possibility of this happening with Landlord, although I'm still distinctly dubious about it in most pubs.Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-53941560253422199662019-10-02T15:10:32.362+01:002019-10-02T15:10:32.362+01:00One may as well ask if soft cheeses should be prem...One may as well ask if soft cheeses should be premiumised. Or manual cars. Or stringed instruments.<br /><br />The cask sector is simply far too vast to be able to make that kind of generalisation. Some cask beers are rightly perceived as 'premium' and sold as such. Some not so much. Some are, in my view, *wrongly* marketed as premium. Some are not which arguably should be. <br /><br />But, crucially, it really does depend on the specific beer. The strength, the quality of the ingredients, the time and effort taken to produce it, the cost of raw materials etc. This is true for bottle, can and keg as much as it is for cask. <br /><br />For example, canned beer used to be seen as the downmarket, bog-standard option. This is now not the case, and the reason is because it wasn't the canning that made a beer inherently cheap and rubbish, just the fact that until relatively recently it was only really cheap and rubbish beers that were widely available in can. Whack decent beers into the canning line, and folks will pay £5 a go.<br /><br />'Craft keg' is seen as a premium product not because it's keg, but because it's 'craft'. It's not all just marketing wank - there is some genuine substance in there too. Without it the marketing wank wouldn't have found its way in in the first place.<br /><br />Trying to premiumise an entire sector seems to me to be futile and undermines our credibility as cask-preferential drinkers. Ben Viveurhttp://www.benviveur.co.uknoreply@blogger.com