A neat (and necessary) method to measure the quality of draught beer.

What is it about?

Having a beer in a pub - alone or with chums - in one of life's enduring pleasures. That said, where we drink beer in the UK has been changing over time from the pub (on-trade) to at home (off-trade). Indeed, in 2000, 62.3% of total beer sales in the UK were in the on-trade whereas in 2016 the figure was 44.7%. There are a host of reasons for this but cost is a major driver. With four (500 ml) cans retailing in a supermarket for the price of a pint in a pub, consumers inevitably change their behaviors. Accordingly, when they then go to the pub expectations will be greater. A diversity of factors come into play including stuff like parking, the 'welcome', getting a seat/table, ordering the drinks, background music/muzak, food (quality and service) and the generic 'hygiene' (glassware, surfaces, cutlery, toilets etc). Somewhere in the mix is beer quality. The problem with 'quality' is that its hard to define and even harder to measure. The few publications on draught beer quality focus on microbiological testing. In principle, its the right approach as hygiene and microbiology are at the root of most (but not all) quality problems of draught beer. However, microbiological testing is more that a bit finicky! The 'media' used to recover bugs is selective and is designed to grow certain groups of microorganisms .... but not all. On top of this, bugs don't play the game and evade capture by going asleep and being non-culturable. So counting the number of bacteria and yeasts in a sample is at best tricky and its difficult to know how many is good, how many is so-so and how many is a problem? The method we describe here takes the bugs at beer dispense and amplifies them by incubating for a few days in the warm. Low levels of microorganisms post dispense result in good clarity whereas beers with lots of bugs are very cloudy. Measuring the 'absorbance' of the samples enables quantification of quality as 'excellent', 'acceptable', 'poor' and 'unacceptable'. In passing, the basis of the method goes back to the 1870's in Burton-on-Trent when beers were 'forced' to get a sense of their shelf life.

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Why is it important?

In terms of science, beer quality in general and draught beer quality in particular is way, way down the list. This probably explains the lack of interest in draught beer quality over the decades. Its also a tricky area in the 'no mans land' between the brand owner and the retailer. It was ever thus even in the 'good old days' of vertical integration before the beer orders! Whatever as a consumer, draught beer quality is important to me and to my fellow consumers. I can articulate what's wrong but surely its sufficient for Joe Public to say the beers 'off', 'wrong', 'not right' 'different to usual/last night' or whatever. Increasingly consumers have a choice of buying beers from a supermarket or going to the pub. You pay more at the pub but its a way different experience tahn sitting at home. That said at £3.50-5/pint or (increasingly) more, beer quality and drinkability should be good. So - and to cut to the chase - our method enables beer quality to be measured at the point of dispense. Armed with this, quality can be quantified and yes, improved. Hopefully, this method will find application in the measurement of draught beer quality. Certainly we've used it to good effect in assessing trade quality and - together with accounts - the impact of best practice on draught beer quality which will be reported in two further papers. It will be a slow burn but over time it will hopefully make a difference to beer quality in the on-trade. I hope this will be more than wishful thinking!

Perspectives