The biggest brewing trade bodies have formed a company that will attempt to persuade more breweries to register their beers on the Cyclops tasting notes scheme.

Cask Marque, The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) last week launched a new partnership with Everards, the Leicester brewery that founded Cyclops, to try to attract more of the circa 600 UK breweries to join, and to raise the scheme’s profile among consumers.

So far, 150 brewers’ beers have been registered.

Each of the four parties owns a 25 per cent in the company, which will be run as a not-for-profit organisation.

Cask Marque will take responsibility for the scheme’s administration, CAMRA for promotion to consumers, and SIBA for promoting it to brewers, while Everards will continue to produce the notes based on beer samples.

Brewers must pay to have their beers put on the scheme, but SIBA last year began offering to subsidise members’ applications. Members have to pay £100 for notes on upto five beers, a 60 per cent reduction on the standard charge.

A new consumer-facing website for Cyclops will be launched in mid-2010.

Francis Patton, Cask Marque chairman and Cyclops company secretary, said: “Each of the organisations involved has a complimentary skills sets. If we have a position where the consumer is demanding Cyclops notes and the breweries are buying into it, then this can only help the growth of cask ale.”

Taken from:  The Publican