The paper was published in the Proceedings of the Venice Congress on CD-ROM - to download a pdf (with the kind permission of European Brewery Congress) of this article click here or to download the slides click here.

In October 2007, a further two dispense papers were presented at the International Brewing Convention and Cellar to Sellar conference on, respectively, innovation and quality.

This paper looks in some detail at the world of draught beer in, primarily, the UK.  It kicks off somewhat pessimistically by considering the market statistics over the last 20 years and, via a PEST analysis, reviews some of the triggers for these events.  Of these, one of the key drivers is the variable product quality of beer in the on-trade, a consequence of numerous issues and complications from the cellar to the glass. 

The upside is that the on-trade stakeholders have collectively recognised that the only way to stop the long-term decline is to do something about it.  The PubCo's are actively driving training and education programmes, cooling issues are being addressed by innovation in the cellar and under the bar.  Data logging of beer fonts enables informed decision making about throughput and temperature whereas line cleaning can be seen as improving account profitability (and not wasting money!)  Further, novel and inventive solutions have been developed to deliver quality draught beer in low throughput accounts and, at long last, the importance of clean (and the right) glassware is some serious attention. 

This is very much a beginning and it will take time for Consumers to pick up on the better quality beer and pub experience.  Over the next few years the statistics will (hopefully) reveal the benefits of a change in attitude to beer quality ... we shall see!