Satisfaction Guaranteed

<editor's note>
Maybe this wouldn't win an Oscar, or be the best movie of the year; but it's 
definitely got it's place. Maybe the club ought to buy a copy as a Xmas gift 
for Bob and Ed?

This column originally appeared in the Morning Advertiser. 4 Dec 2002 
By Roger Protz
</editor's note>

From cellar to glass, new Cask Marque video deals with the quality of the pint 
served in the pub

Watching a video on a wet Thursday in November on the need to keep beer lines 
clean doesn't sound the most riveting viewing of the year. But while Cask 
Marque's new production -- Satisfaction Guaranteed: A Bar Person's Guide to 
Real Beer -- may not match the latest James Bond epic for excitement it is 
one of the most important production's of the year. 

It's not just about beer lines. From cellar to glass, it's concerned with the 
quality of the pint served in the pub. 

The format is both professional and entertaining. By using video, Cask Marque, 
the industry-supported body set up to improve the quality of cask beer in pubs, 
knows it will reach people who do not have the time or the patience to wade 
through pamphlets or booklets. 
When he launched the video last week, Cask Marque's director Paul Nunny made 
the telling point that one bad pint of beer could mean that the pub in question 
has lost a customer for good while cask beer in general may have lost a drinker 
to lager or nitro-keg. Everyone's a loser. 

The beer business has changed so dramatically in recent years that quality of 
service and product are now paramount. In the early days of Camra in the 1970s 
I was sent to carry out the first survey of pubs on the Channel Islands for the 
Good Beer Guide. 

In pub after pub I was served warm, cloudy beer. In one case, the beer had a 

hop leaf floating on top. Complaints were met with the response: "That's the 
way real ale is meant to be served." 

Time has moved on. Mass advertising that concentrates on cool, clear pints has 
changed consumer conceptions of what constitutes acceptable beer. 

Cask beer's position has changed equally dramatically. While many regional and 
micro-brewers are seeing a revival of their fortunes, with cask beer sales 
clambering out of a black hole, it's now a niche product rather than a mass 
market one. 

In the age of global brewing giants and pub chains driven by maximising 
profits, a perishable product such as live cask beer will never be a big 
volume sector again. 

That is why it's essential to the survival of the independent brewing sector 
that cask beer is seen as a quality product. The Cask Marque video, produced 
with the expertise of the Sky Pub Channel, addresses the problem brilliantly 
by showing how beer is made and looked after in the cellar. 

It covers the essential tasks of tapping and venting casks, ensuring that 
cellars are spotlessly clean and hygienic. It also deals with the right and 
wrong ways to pull pints at the bar, and the necessity for bar staff to be 
warm, friendly, engaged, and knowledgeable about the beers they serve. 

And it points to the all the modern technology available -- such as pythons 
with cool water wrapped round beer lines, and coolers fitted under beer engines 
at the point of dispense -- to help deliver perfect pints every time. 

It's a skilful production. It's not hectoring. It's not telling grannies how to 
suck eggs, talking down to hard-pressed licensees and bar staff. 

The approach is informal, chatty and amusing. Attractive young brewers and 
those that run pubs are used to good effect to drive home the message that 
beer quality is paramount. 

Beer is never off duty: yanking too hard on a pump handle can disturb the 
sediment down below, while forgetting to replace the hard peg at the end of 
a session can lead to an entire cask going flat. 

It was fitting that the launch of the video was held at Fuller's Brewery in 
west London. The brewery has invested massively in beer quality in recent 
years, so such effect that London Pride and its other brands are now national 
best sellers, bucking the downward trend of cask beer sales. 

I cannot recommend the video too highly. It's essential viewing. It costs £10 
plus VAT and postage: full details are available from 01206 752212 or 
www.cask-marque.co.uk. 

All of us who care passionately about saving cask beer will benefit from 
seeing the video and ensuring that never again will warm soapy pints with 
hop leafs on top cross the bar. 

Back to December 2002 front page