COUNTDOWN TO CASK ALE WEEK

 

National Cask Ale Week 2010 runs from 29^th March – 5^th April (up to and including the Easter Bank Holiday weekend).  It is backed by SIBA, Camra, Cask Marque and many of the regional cask brewers and is a great focal point for everyone who cares about our national drink. 

 

For cask ale brewers, Cask Ale Week is an opportunity to capitalise on the increased interest among licensees, drinkers and the media to increase interest in, and sales of, your own beers.  So, if you haven’t already made plans to capitalise on this celebration of cask, read on for ideas, advice and a template press release. 

 

Cask Ale Week – background

 

The first National Cask Ale Week ran last year, with POS, tastings, ‘meet the brewer’ evenings and other events taking place in 8,000 pubs. This year, the organisers are aiming to reach 10,000 pubs, with the same goal of encouraging new drinkers to try cask ale.

 

SIBA is one of the main sponsors of Cask Ale Week 2010. 1,000 DDS customer pubs have taken one of our SIBA-branded Cask Ale Week kits, which means our logo will be on display on bunting, flags, drip mats, pump clips, posters and banners. 

 

Cask ale – the ‘rising star’ of the UK’s beer market

Recent years have seen a revival in cask beer’s fortunes and it is now the only sector of the beer market in growth. The Cask Report, published last October, showed:

 

·         1.5 million new cask ale drinkers in 2008  (around half of them women)

·         Distribution in 3,000 new pubs between June 2008 and June 2009.

·         CAMRA membership hit the 100,000 mark

·         A record 64,000 people visited the Great British Beer Festival  in August 2009

·         71 breweries opened in the UK last year, taking the total up to 660 – the highest level since World War II

 

What you can do for Cask Ale Week

 

• Open your brewery for brewery tours – perhaps a group from your local CAMRA branch, or one of the pubs selling your beers might like to offer it to a group of interested customers?
• Talk to local pubs that sell your beers about activities that could be good for both of you - driving traffic into the pub and raising awareness locally of your beers.
• Suggest a ‘meet the brewer’ evening, or perhaps some simple beer and food matching, working with a local food supplier?
• April 1^st is FemAle Day – an opportunity to introduce women to cask ale. According to Camra’s research, the number of women drinking cask ale doubled last year. And it’s a topic that always attracts media interest.
• Contact your local CAMRA branch to see what they have planned for Cask Ale Week as there might be opportunities for you to get involved.

 

Information sources

• The Cask Ale Week website: www.caskaleweek.co.uk has a list of all pubs that are marking Cask Ale Week in some way.
• You can find contact details for your local Camra branch on their website: http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=100283
• For cheering facts and figures on the renewed consumer interest in cask ale, visit www.caskreport.co.uk

For the template press release Click here

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.