British Beer Breaks EXCLUSIVE
By Phil Mellows
Cask Marque data obtained exclusively for British Beer Breaks ahead of Cask Ale Week, which begins on Thursday (September 17-27), has revealed the UK’s top destinations for cask beer quality. And it’s Nottingham that heads the list, followed by Swindon and Oxford. Manchester, Birmingham, Lancaster and Dorchester, in Dorset, are also contenders.
Inspection scores at Cask Marque-accredited pubs, combining ratings for beer and cellar and beer in glass, were averaged by postcode prefix to come up with the cities and towns that can claim to have the best cask.
While Nottingham boasts the strongest all-round performance, finishing in the top three on both counts, Oxford tops the chart for five-star rated cellars and Swindon for the quality of beer in the glass. On a per capita basis, Dorchester has the most perfect pints per head of population, followed by Swindon and Lancaster.
Although these results don’t guarantee the quality of cask every time, Cask Marque accredits more than 10,000 pubs around the country, making 20,000 inspection visits a year, so there is a good objective basis for calling out the best destinations.
Nottingham, too, earns a chapter in our book, Beer Breaks in Britain, and its “thriving, defiant beer scene” was last week coincidentally the focus of an article by campaigning journalist Pete Blackburn in the award-winning online magazine Pellicle.
When it comes to cask ale, specifically, the city no doubt benefits from its independently operated pubs and bars and the presence of Castle Rock Brewery, with its roots in the Campaign for Real Ale – the business was founded in 1977 by former CAMRA chairman Chris Holmes.
Its pubs, scattered around Nottingham and the east Midlands, are open to stocking a range of beers beyond its own brews, and its tap house, the Vat & Fiddle, has 13 cask lines.
Perhaps that sets a standard for competing pubs, such as the Brew Tavern micro within the walls of Nottingham railway station, and its newly relocated sibling Brew Cavern in Sneinton Market, where you can also find Castle Rock’s Fox & Grapes and the quirky King Billy.
Castle Rock last week announced plans to move out of its base in the centre to anther historic brewery building in Basford, where you can already find Black Iris Brewery and another great cask beer pub, the Lion.
Kate’s travel notes
If you’re supping beer in Nottingham during Cask Ale Week take time out to catch ‘Alan Lodge: Common Grounds – Counterculture & Confrontation Since 1976’, which opens at the Bonington Gallery on 25 September.
Nottingham-based photographer Alan Lodge has been chronicling British counterculture, protest movements and grassroots activism for 50 years, his work appearing in TV documentaries and national newspapers and magazines, as well as exhibitions in top UK galleries.
This showcase of his work looks beyond mainstream narratives across Britain while also zooming in on Nottingham, from capturing scenes from Reclaim the Streets protests to cultural gatherings such as the Sikh Vaisakhi Parade, and, in a special section called ‘Local Nottingham Journalism’, life on Saturday afternoons in the city’s Market Square.
One of the best beer cities in the UK. Very under rated!