The Perfect Pint?

I wonder if he'd like to visit Lancaster. We've been singularly unsuccessful in getting any of the local Cask Marque assessors to come to talk to us. Everyone thinks it would be a fascinating talk but they're very rel;uctant to even reply to us.

Is it true that Wetherspoons are given a blanket Cask Marque with a scaled-down inspection? Because if they are, then that seems to devalue CM in my mind.

Anything that assumes the state of a 'spoons pub to be other than the product of the "manager of the session" is always going to seen as devalued.

We got Mike Parker, a cask marque inspector, who is also brewer at Hesket Newmarket brewery to talk to one of our meetings. He was really interesting and worthwhile. Certainly reassured us about their standards etc.

Lancaster wouldn't be all that far down the M6 for him. Try him!

We once had a Cask Marque inspector talk to our local CAMRA branch. And that bloke could bore for England! He also drank lager, which didn't exactly inspire confidence.

The fundamental idea behind the scheme is great, but unfortunately it seems to fall down in the execution.

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"The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of civilisation in any country." (Winston Churchill)

I used to be totally prejudiced against CM because of the beer quality in the pubs they had 'approved' in my local area. As the scheme has spread I have changed my opinion .

If a landlord was capable of consistently keeping beer in a reasonable condition before accreditation then the beer quality can improve by following CM recommendations/changes.

If the landlord/manager was incapable of keeping a beer in good condition before accreditation then very little changes with being award a CM. The main difference being that you get cold, rather than warm, vinegar.

I still wonder how a brand new pub belonging to a large chain can display a CM plaque a few weeks after opening and was selling beer in poor condition at the time. Surely a CM should indicate that the beer sold is of good quality and not 'has the potential to be good because the manager has demonstrated that he has done it before - in a different pub with different cellar staff''?

That's the real issue.

In many cases the cellarman and the manager are different people and provided the a good cellarman can keep the manager out of the cellar the beer is fine no matter which "manager" is on duty for that session.

Perhaps the key is to get CM to remove the award when the cellarman changes.

After all removing it with the manager would mean several changes of CM labelling per week (or a couple a day in some pubs)

Thanks for that Chris! We'll get in touch with him.

When I see that badge on a beer pump my heart sinks as I think to myself "another crap pint".

do you go to the same crap W'spoons? or do you mean that every CM pub you've been to has sold beer in poor nick?

in general, my recent experience of Spoons beer quality has been OK (nice pint of Beartown Ambeardextrous in Birkenhead last week, cheap too) my main complaint is the mildly plastic atmosphere in most of them. cheers MikeMcG

To my dismay I see that (at least the three I visit regularly) wetherspoons have now added extra teats & sparklers to "enhance" the head on the beer. As this takes an age to settle I guess the idea is that they get less requests for topups.

In message , MikeMcG writes

In Henley (on Thames) they'd got pumpclips for Brakspears Ordinary and Loddon Hoppit. They told us we couldn't have Brakspears so we ordered Hoppit.

Guess what came out of the pipe?

Mainly in the same Wetherspoons but also elsewhere. I find it annoying that my "guarantee" of a good pint is nothing of the sort.

have you tried complaining to 'Spoons HQ &/or CM?

(I bet your letter won't get printed in 'Spoons in-house mag tho ;~)

just out of interest - why do you go back? if i had that many bad experiences (which weren't resolved by decent staff) i would take my thirst & money elsewhere. cheers MikeMcG

I don't understand why you link Camra's funding with the lack of a decent pint - can you explain?

an easy way to get in touch with CM might be here -

if you do, let us know how you get on.

I'd not heard about ther rumour that Spoons have a blanket scaled-down inspection, I'm going to ask CM about it - will post if I hear anything back. cheers MikeMcG

I got a response from CM's Alastair MacNaught re the rumours about Spoons & Cask Marque accreditation. It doesn't answer why some drinkers still regularly receive poor pints in CM accredited pubs tho. He said he is happy to answer anyone else's concerns re CM & beer quality in Wetherspoon's pubs, contact via the CM website or cheers MikeMcG copy of email - "Hi Mike

Thanks for your email. As usual with most rumours it is not true!

Wetherspoons have absolutely no concessions and are treated no differently from everyone else. The reason this rumour was probably started was because no licensee name goes on the certificate in the pub. This option is available to any Cask Marque member and the reason Wetherspoons do it is because they wish to provide credit for all the members of the team in their pubs. However, the award has still gone to the licensee/manager.

We have had comments that Wetherspoons pubs know when we are coming - the only reason this can be is if one pub phones another pub around the corner to say that we have just visited them and are likely to be on our way to see them. But if the beer is poor it is going to fail whether they know we are coming or not and we try and find ways around these problems.

They certainly do not have blanket accreditation. They put forward most of their pubs for the scheme but there are a fair number which are not accredited.

Hope this is useful.

Best Regards Alastair Macnaught Operations Manager

Cask Marque Trust"

One of the things that puzzles me about the Cask Marque scheme is that when a beer gets near the end of the barrel it is drinkable but certainly not a perfect pint. What are members of this scheme supposed to do? Pour it away? I used to drink Pride in the bar inside Marlybone station when I worked out that way and it was perfect 2 times out of

1. This is what I would expect from a real ale unless it had been filtered (does filtering it stop it from being a real ale by definition?). So I had no complaints when I got the poorer one of the three. I would just not have another that day and would wait until the following day.

Their inspection regimen in London can not be that thorough as I do not regard the presence of their badge on a pump any guarantee of a good pint or even a better than normal one. Maybe they should check the 'Spoons Walnut Tree in Leytonstone themselves and see if they get a good pint even out of one of the Cask Marque pumps on any day in a week. I haven't been there for a month but I am sure nothing will have changed.

Sometimes but not always. I've had some fantastic pints that were the last pint in the cask. Some beers seem to finish quickly without deterioration.