I Was Right Then

Did you know that Cask Marque has an area on their website where you can report beer quality problems directly to them? Well, it has. To the point, it is called "Bad Beer Reporting Tool". That's what you need - something that tells it as it is.

I once used it a while ago and can't exactly remember when, where or why, but I was moved to do so again after a recent experience in London, which, as part of a piece about a recent Belgian Trip, I mentioned here.  To recap, I paid £7 for an extremely lacklustre pint of Landlord in the Cask Marque listed Hoop and Grapes in Aldgate, which is a Nicolson's pub.

Now I have had many a pint in Nicolson's pubs and while they aren't always brilliant, they are usually dependable, though often a bit unadventurous. In fact, I praised them here, for great pints in the Lord Aberconwy adjacent to Liverpool Street Station and I don't think that is untypical.  Of course, it is a truism that the pub is only as good as the boss that runs it and sets the standards, a fact that is rather unwisely overlooked.  Check out the person in charge if you can, and watch how they operate to get a feel for the pub. If the boss is slovenly, it is likely that the pubs will be the same. The best managers are always keeping a darting sideways eye on things, even when doing something else.

But I digress. What of my complaint about the Hoop and Grapes? In a reply to me, Cask Marque advised me that they failed their recent Cask Marque inspection visit  - hopefully after my complaint - and they will be inspected again, after which they will let me know the outcome. 

Well, I at least am not at all surprised to learn that, but it is good to know. It clearly wasn't just a duff pint on the night, but a general failure which presumably resulted in countless substandard pints.

So, it is worth a complaint to Cask Marque, particularly if you feel the problem is likely systemic rather than a one-off?   You can easily look up a pub's inclusion or otherwise on the internet. They sign up to all this, so you aren't grassing them up, rather, you are holding them to their side of the bargain. 

And what can be fairer than that? After all, it is your money and experience that is immediately at stake, and in the wider sense, the reputation of cask ale.

Incidentally, Nicolson's were included in my original and subsequent complaints on X. Either they chose to ignore it - surely they have meedja persons employed for such things? - or they didn't notice it, which is poor

Next, they should actually put prices on their beer, so you can decide or not whether to pay the ransom for a pint in the quality lottery.  Given price inflation, that is something all pubs need to do. Where else do you buy something without knowing the price first?