As well as tasting delicious, drinking Real-Ale helps the local economy. Every time you guzzle down a pint of your favourite tipple, you are giving our booming brewing industry an additional boost. This helps to create jobs and keep our pubs open. 70% of real ale drinkers understand the pivotal role cask ale plays in supporting the economy.
The uniqueness of real ale
cask conditioned real ale has a limited shelf life. Brewers create a fresh product containing live yeast without adding any gas, and once transported to a pub’s cellar, a second fermentation process will take place. For this reason, the cask conditioned real ale is unique to the pub and can’t be bought in shops.
Pubs and Breweries
There are currently over 1,700 breweries producing more than 10,000 different cask ales a year between them, and this is on the rise. According to the latest Cask Report, 72% of pubs serve cask ale, 82% of them say that cask sales are growing, and 58% of ale sold in pubs is cask.
Despite the success of breweries, pubs are closing, up and down the country at a rate of about 21 per week. This I know from personal experience, as the pub I ran many years ago in Leicester city centre is now a Sainsburys, and my old local is now a leisure centre.
Each pub has its own unique character, but the one thing that connects all good ale pubs together is that they are the heartbeat of the real ale community. How gutted were we all when The Vaults in Leicester closed its doors for the last time!
So why are pubs closing? (Take note Landlords)
We asked Real Ale lovers why they thought pubs were closing, and it came down to two main issues: Cost, and more importantly Quality.
Cost
The increase in the cost of living means people have less disposable income to spend on beer.
Quality
Poor quality of beer appears to be by far the main reason ale drinkers choose not to frequent certain establishments. Ale drinkers choose where to drink based on quality rather than convenience, and tend to only drink in places where they know the beer is kept well.
What can I do?
Unfortunately, the closed pub is an increasingly common sight, and it’s a cause that needs YOUR help.
If you love drinking real ale and would like to help promote your favourite ale pubs and breweries, take a look at Snizl’s Love Real Ale promoters page
https://www.snizl.com/team/love-real-ale-em/p