Your guarantee of quality

Real ale is different from most other drinks: it’s real; it’s alive (quite literally), as the yeast in the barrel is a living thing. So, like all living things, it needs quite a bit of TLC, to ensure that it is in tip-top condition by the time we serve it to you.

Now, that’s where Cask Marque comes in. Cask Marque is an independent body, set up with one purpose in mind – to ensure that pubs know, understand and act on selling great beer.

Its team of inspectors (all ex-brewers, or experienced brewery professionals) seek perfection and have the arduous task of visiting and testing beer in our pubs. The poor souls had to test 5,632 pints of our beer last year! 

It’s a very serious business, though: they test for the four key things required to give you the perfect pint:

• temperature – real ale is best served at 10–14°C
• appearance 
• aroma
• taste

They are pretty thorough with us here at Wetherspoon and will look at all aspects of our cellar and even check that we are cleaning our glasses properly.

Around 94% of our pubs are Cask-Marque-accredited venues and are permitted to display the sign of quality – a sign which, by the way, can be taken down, if we fail the continued inspections. So, there is no resting on our laurels. Incidentally, the reason why some of our pubs aren’t accredited is usually because they are newly opened and have to wait for assessment.

You may be pleased to learn that 428 visits to our pubs last year scored a whopping 100% in their assessment. Well, we can all raise a glass to that.