Hackney\u2019s Five Points Brewery is committed to producing cask beer. Ed Mason, their managing director recently told the Morning Advertiser, \u201cThere is still a massive market for cask beer in the UK and people really respond to seeing a newer brewery such as Five Points producing cask beers well. Cask beer is not an occasional limited-edition experiment. We are completely committed to cask beer as a core part of our range. People like the fact we merge the best of traditional with the best of new, and focus on producing balanced, drinkable beers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To demonstrate this, Five Point\u2019s sales of cask beer were 20% of\ntheir sales in 2018 and rose to 26% in 2019. As a proportion of their\nproduction, this means that cask sales effectively doubled and this is at a\ntime when cask beer sales generally are at best holding their own. Moreover,\nlast spring, they introduced a new core beer, Five Points Best, a classic Best\nBitter brewed with British Fuggles hops. Despite the style becoming an\nendangered species with the advent of golden ales, Five Points have sold over\n100,000 pints of it since its launch, with it now representing 3% of total beer\nsales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sensibly, Five Points know that, apart from at their own pub, the\nPembury Tavern, there is always the risk of their cask beers not being sold in\ngood condition. They take the view that their responsibility as brewer does not\nend once a cask has left the brewery. They appreciate that in the customer\u2019s\neyes, a poor quality pint is as much the brewery\u2019s fault as anyone else\u2019s.\nConsequently, they have established a Cask Care Scheme, which will be led by\ntheir Cask Ambassador. There will be monthly training sessions for customers,\nheld at the Pembury Tavern, which will provide training on the principles and\npractice of serving top quality cask ale in the best condition. The training\nwill focus on cellar and serving temperatures, together with the importance of\nconditioning time and cleanliness in all aspects of serving. To encourage\nattendance, discounts on cask beer will be offered to participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cask Ambassador is Ed Davy, the Sales and Account Manager. Ed explains, \u201cCask is, generally, perceived as a high-effort, low-GP product that doesn\u2019t sell well. This does not have to be the case. We hope that this scheme will help pubs more easily look after their cask ale, whilst improving GP, yield, rate of sale and customer satisfaction. Our on-trade partners deserve to have the best cask experience possible<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Worryingly, as we go to press, a threat has emerged to Five Points\nand a number of neighbours. We have mentioned previously that Network Rail had\nsold many of its railway arches to a company called the Arch Company, which is\nbacked by investors Blackstone and Telereal Trillium. According to the Evening Standard (6 March),\ndespite promising to be a responsible landlord and to work with its tenants,\nArch Company are increasing rents across London\nby substantial amounts. Arch Company say that their rent reviews are dealt with\non a case by case basis and a number have been made at below market level but\nFive Points are facing a 300% increase on their brewery in Institute Place. Ed Mason told the Hackney Gazette that their rent,\ncurrently \u00a328,350 per annum, was due for review in April 2020 but a week before\nChristmas they were told that it would increase to \u00a3110,000. Five Points were\nthe first brewers in the country to become an accredited Living Wage employer\nand they now employ over 35 people. They are committed to the community in\nHackney but, unless Arch Company have a rethink, Five Points could be forced\nout of the borough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tony Hedger <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (From a Five Points press release) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hackney\u2019s Five Points Brewery is committed to producing cask beer. Ed Mason, their managing director recently told the Morning Advertiser, \u201cThere is still a massive market for cask beer in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brewery-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":889,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}