Cask Ale Week etc

It's been a couple of weeks since I lasted posted because I have been busy with this and that and spending more time in the kitchen than previously (note: This post is dated 17th March, it should say 28th, which is when I wrote it) .

We have a lot of questions already for Quiz 100 on Thursday, but there's still time to get yours in if you have been to a previous quiz. Deadline is Wednesday evening.

The Oxford Mail has had a couple of articles about breweries over the past couple of weeks. Abingdon has a new one, so will be contacting them in due course.

Peter at Pitstop has also had a bit more PR for his world record attempt, "The Hop".

Which brings me to National Cask Ale week. It runs from tomorrow until next Monday, 5th April. There was a big feature in The Independent about it. I had been racking my brains for something to do for a while, and had many ideas including a Meet the Brewer, doing something for FemAle day on 1st April, a beer festival and various other things.

So what are we doing to celebrate this week long National event? Nowt. Or, at least nothing more than normal, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I think any attempt to promote cask ale is laudable, but let's put this in context.

We are a small rural locals pub and free house that deals directly with small local breweries and one regional brewer - Hook Norton. National Cask Ale Week is the brainchild of several organisations, but mainly Cask Marque and CAMRA with some strong associations to Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns. To get official POS (Point Of Sale) kit for National Cask Ale Week, we would have had to shell out £25+VAT (OK, you get alot of stuff, fair enough, but £25+VAT for a load of paper when it's coming out of your own pocket is plenty). SIBA, the Society of Independent Brewers, did have some free POS kits to give away, but these were only to pubs of their Direct Delivery Scheme, and as mentioned, we deal direct with the breweries. We got some POS material from our friends at Hook Norton instead.

CAMRA: A consumer organisation; SIBA: For the brewers; Cask Marque: For the beer, by the big boys.

On the events side, is having a meet the brewer or a FemAle day going to attract new trade? Ed, the Shotover brewer, gets in here all the time, so I could have asked him to do a talk, but who is going to attend? Non-ale drinkers? Doubt it. I'm sure it would be a fascinating talk and we would sell plenty of Shotover Prospect, but only to the initiated who wanted to support the event, not to people new to ale; so we can do that sort of thing anytime.

A FemAle day? Well the 1st April is Quiz 100, so that'll keep us busy anyway, but I just feel we're not that sort of place where something like that would work. We do get plenty of lady ale drinkers and I am scheduling Vale's Ninkasi next (named after the ancient Sumerian Matron Goddess of Beer. Borne out of fresh sparkling water, she is the goddess made to "satisfy the desire" and " sate the heart"), but our ladies that drink wine and spirit/mixers, should I be really trying to convert them to cask ale? It's all about balance and what's good for trade, not what's good for the brewers: Big or small.

We will be giving away free beer. Tasters. But then we do that anyway, as any cask ale pub should. Whether Vale Ninkasi will appeal to our lady drinkers - most of whom seem to either prefer milds and stouts or golden ales - will remain to be seen.

A beer festival? Had one last month, which was great. Too soon for another one.

No, for a free house like us, National Cask Ale Week is something that everyone else does. We do cask ale all of the time, not just one week of the year.