Britain’s leading cask ale specialist

Small Beer Are Winners – Tony Eastwood (right) collects the award from Tim Sprake of Wells & Youngs brewery

The owners of major cask ale wholesaler Small Beer are celebrating a top industry award.

At the recent National Drinks Distributors awards, Small Beer were awarded the accolade of ‘Cask Ale Wholesaler of the Year’ for 2008.

At a black tie dinner held at the Millennium Gloucester hotel in London, Tony Eastwood was presented with his award by Tim Sprake, Sales Manager for Wells & Youngs brewery (pictured).

Tony said “When we started in this business in 1980, our mantra was to provide great beer to all those that wanted it. We have stuck to this over the years and with great support from Brewers all over the country, we have managed to gain a standing in the industry that we never dreamed of 29 years ago”.

Tony was accompanied on the evening by his wife Judith who is also co-owner of the business. On reflection in the days after the award, Judith commented that “We are over the moon at winning this award. Everyone at Small Beer has worked so hard over the years to build up our expertise within the cask ale sector and this is great recognition for them too”.

Cheers on the evening came loudly from Chris Lynch, Sales Manager, and Rob Eastwood, Commercial Manager, who also attended. Chris said “We were amongst so many great friends on the night and their support for us over the last few years has been tremendous, we couldn’t have done it without them”.

Rob, who joined the company from Batemans Brewery in September last year, has taken over a lot of the buying and promotional activity on cask ale since he started. “It is amazing the renaissance that cask ale is having at present. We are supplying beer festivals all over the country more and more. I think people are starting to realise that a pint of hand pulled cask beer is the one product you cannot get in the supermarkets.”

Small Beer were also nominated for ‘Wholesaler of the Year’, but narrowly missed out on the clean-sweep on the evening.