Cask vs keg since 1980

More numbers. This time, including sales by method of dispense. Such as cask and keg.

They kick off in 1980. When "traditional" keg outsold Lager almost two to one. And cask by more than that.

Apologies for the incompleteness of the figures. The Statistical Handbook hasn't always broken sales into the same categories. Nor included the same things in their tables. Hence the big holes.

Cask held steady in the early 1980s, went into a slow decline, before recovering in the second half of the 1990s. And its been pretty much downhill all the way since then. The 2024 figure of marginally over 5% is pretty worrying.

Though, in comparison to the fortunes of keg and nitrokeg, cask has come off pretty well. "Traditional" keg dropping from 39% in 1980 to a dismal 1.6% in 2024. Cask outselling keg beer three to one would have sounded good in the 1990s. Now, it just means treble bugger all.

Nitrokeg has fared a little better, though it's still seen a 75% drop in sales since 2000.

Stout is the only type to see growth over the period 2000 to 2024. And only by a small amount. Even draught Lager couldn't dodge the downwards trend. Though its share of the draught market increased from 53% in 2000 to 64% in 2024.  

Cask defeated keg. A sort of Pyrrhic victory, really, given the current tiny sales of both. 

UK draught beer sales by type (%)
Year	Cask condi-tioned ale / stout	Nitro-keg ale	Tradit-ional keg ale	Stout	Lager	Total
1980	16.8		39.0		23.0	78.8
1981	17
1982	17
1983	17
1984	17
1985	17
1986	16
1987	15
1988	15
1989	15
1990	14.3		24.4		32.5	71.2
1991	15
1992	16
1993	17
1994	17
1995	16
1996	14
1997	12
1998	11
1999	11
2000	9.4	10.5	5.0	4.4	33.0	62.3
2001	8.8	10.0	4.4	4.3	33.1	60.6
2002	8.3	9.4	4.0	4.2	32.8	58.6
2003	7.8	8.9	3.5	3.9	33.2	57.1
2004	7.4	8.5	3.1	3.8	33.2	56.0
2005	7.2	8.2	2.7	3.8	33.4	55.2
2006	7.0	7.7	2.3	3.7	33.0	53.7
2007	7.1	7.5	2.0	3.7	32.1	52.4
2008	7.2	7.0	1.8	3.7	30.5	50.2
2009	7.5	6.9	1.6	3.6	30.3	49.9
2010	7.3	6.4	1.4	3.5	29.6	48.2
2011	8.0	5.7	1.5	3.3	29.3	47.8
2012	8.1	5.4	1.6	3.2	29.4	47.7
2013	8.2	5.0	1.5	3.1	28.7	46.4
2014	8.2	4.7	2.0	3.1	28.5	45.8
2015	8.3	4.7	1.8	3.0	27.8	45.1
2016	8.1	4.4	1.3	3.0	27.9	44.7
2017	7.6	4.1	1.4	3.0	27.2	43.4
2018	7.0	3.8	1.5	2.9	26.7	41.9
2019	6.6	3.4	1.6	3.0	26.4	41.1
2020	3.5	1.6	0.6	1.4	13.4	20.4
2021	4.3	2.0	1.0	2.0	18.4	27.7
2022	5.6	2.9	1.3	3.2	25.0	38.0
2023	5.5	2.7	1.4	3.8	25.0	38.5
2024	5.1	2.5	1.6	4.6	24.7	38.6
Source:
BBPA Statistical Handbook 2025, page 13.

 

Let's Brew - 1990 Youngs Light Ale

I was surprised at just how much Light Ale Youngs were brewing in 1990. 300-odd barrels at a time and reasonably frequently. Not as much as Ordinary or Special, but still a decent amount. There must have still been a lot of Light and Bitter drinkers in their pubs.

Having said that, I don’t have any single-gyle brews of it. Just parti-gyled with either Ordinary or Special. This one being paired with the former.

Quite a simple recipe.  Four types of pale malt, a touch of crystal malt, flaked torrefied barley and No. 3 invert. Oh, almost forgot the small amount of enzymic malt, just there to adjust the pH.

The brewing records include the lab results for colour and bitterness. The latter being 32 EBU. Dead handy to know this. But, using the correct hop quantities, the bitterness came out half of the measured value. My solution was to double the hop quantities.

Now, Light Ale would usually a bottled beer. But the quantities being brewed seem a bit big for that. Was it kegged, too? Pretty sure it was never sold in cask form. 

1990 Youngs Light Ale
pale malt	6.125 lb	87.50%
crystal malt 120 L	0.125 lb	1.79%
torrefied barley	0.50 lb	7.14%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.25 lb	3.57%
Fuggles 70 min	2.00 oz
Goldings 10 min	0.50 oz
OG	1031
FG	1006.5
ABV	3.24
Apparent attenuation	79.03%
IBU	32
SRM	6
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	167º F
Boil time	70 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s. 

Franconia 2011 part two

 More Franconia, with a visit to Barnikel Brauerei in Frensdorf and Gold-Ochsenbrauerei in Spielbach. Along with a walk through Rothenburg ob der Tauber. 

UK beer sales and strength 1961 - 2024

Yet more numbers today. And more to come. I need to build up a buffer of posts to cover my trip to Brazil in a couple of weeks. I'm really looking forward to getting away from the cold weather.

This time I didn't have any problem with older numbers. So I've added some going back to 1961. The only slight hiccup was with the sales figures, which I had to convert from barrels to hectolitres.

Let's start with sales. Which in 1961 were just starting to increase after more than a decade of decline. That rise in sales continued until 1979. Since when, other than a blip in the late 1980s, has been falling steadily. And is now below the level of 1961. The drop is more considerable, really, given the substantial increase in population between 1961 and today (52.8 to 69.5 million.).

The fall in sales between the 1979 peak and 2024 is 38%. Will they ever increase again? I wouldn't like to guess. It's impossible to predict how thirsty drinkers will be for beer in 50 years' time.

You'll have noticed that beer strength is measured in two different ways. First in original gravity, then in ABV. There's a reason for that. The change in the tax system from one based on OG before fermentation to one based on the ABV of the finished beer. The numbers are derived from the tax paid.

During the OG period, there's bugger all variation: low of 1036.9º, high of 1038.2. Just 3.4%. In the ABV period, it jumps around a lot more: 4.06% to 4.57%. That's an 11.2% variation. There's no clear long-term trend, either. With it going up and down a few times. I've no idea why that should be. Recent tax changes favouring beer up to 3.4% ABV might have an impact in the next couple of years. 

UK beer sales and strength 1961 - 2024
Year	thousand hl	Average strength % abv	Average gravity
1961	47,100		1037.41
1962	47,500		1037.70
1963	47,800		1037.70
1964	50,100		1037.66
1965	50,100		1037.67
1966	51,300		1037.63
1967	52,200		1037.46
1968	53,400		1037.36
1969	55,700		1037.14
1970	57,302		1036.90
1971	59,647		1036.90
1972	60,500		1036.90
1973	63,600		1037.00
1974	65,400		1037.10
1975	66,600		1037.30
1976	68,000		1037.50
1977	67,000		1037.50
1978	68,200		1037.60
1979	69,500		1037.60
1980	67,095		1037.60
1981	63,600		1037.30
1982	62,000		1037.20
1983	62,600		1037.20
1984	62,400		1037.40
1985	61,815		1037.40
1986	62,289		1037.50
1987	62,803		1038.00
1988	63,277		1037.70
1989	63,215		1038.20
1990	65,207		1038.00
1991	63,073		1037.70
1992	60,881		1037.30
1993	59,177		1037.43
2000	56,570	4.57%
2001	56,659	4.56%
2002	57,512	4.53%
2003	58,099	4.49%
2004	58,330	4.53%
2005	57,121	4.45%
2006	56,377	4.47%
2007	54,261	4.48%
2008	51,523	4.45%
2009	49,448	4.40%
2010	47,707	4.48%
2011	46,605	4.42%
2012	44,239	4.17%
2013	44,186	4.14%
2014	44,336	4.16%
2015	44,139	4.20%
2016	43,734	4.21%
2017	44,051	4.06%
2018	45,306	4.08%
2019	46,012	4.16%
2020	39,493	4.26%
2021	41,819	4.10%
2022	44,217	4.28%
2023	43,485	4.32%
2024	43,153
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1971, p. 45
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2005, p. 7
The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1988, page 9.

 

UK sales of packaged beer by strength and type

More lovely numbers today. Again about beer sales by type. But this time of packaged beer (bottled and canned) rather than draught.

I would have included some older numbers as well. Except in the older figures the types were defined differently. Which is a bit irritating.

Let's look at Bitter first. Which is now split into four classes. I assume that the first three remain the same:

Class I <= 1034º
Class II 1035º - 1039º
Class III >= 1040º

I'm guessing that class IV was >=1050º.

Just as with draught beer, since 1990 there's been a noticeable shift from Ordinary Bitter to Best Bitter. With the latter taking the lead in 2011. The strongest class Starts out with minimal sales in 1990, dropping to nothing in 2011. Not really sure what the pooint of the category is when there's nothing in it for half the years.

The Stout figures are fascinating. Kicking off with a very reasonable 7% in 1971. But falling to not much over 1% in the early 2000s, before rising again in the 2010s. There is a simple explanation for the collapse: Guinness.

That 7% figure will have been mostly bottled Guinness. Which was available in every pub. At a time when draught Guinness wasn't very common. The rise of draught Guinness will have really eaten into bottled Guinness sales. Hence the dramatic drop. That doesn't explain recovery in the 2020s, though.

In Lager there's also a shift from standard to premium strength. With the latter taking the lead in 2000. Ending in 2024 with sales almost treble those of Cooking Lager. While the super-strong Lagers of class IV show a steady decline from not very much to fuck all.

In the last few years there's been growth on low- and non-alcoholic beer. And, in 2024, it caught up with bottled Stout. Considering how much it's been pushed and how many brands there are out there, its market share isn't that impressive.

I wonder where all the trendy craft IPAs and Pale Ales fit into these figures. I'm guessing that they're lumped in with Bitter.

UK sales of packaged beer by strength and type
Year	Bitter		Strong ale & barley wine	Stout	Lager			No/low alc beer	Total packaged
					standard	premium
1971	16.1		0.6	7.0	2.8			-	26.5
1980	9.7		0.5	3.2	5.4	2.3		-	21.2
	Bitter I + II	Bitter III	Bitter IV		Lager I + II	Lager III	Lager IV
1990	5.5	2.4	0.2	1.7	9.9	7.9		0.8	28.4
2000	3.9	2.2	0.1	1.4	13.3	15.3	1.4	0.2	37.7
2001	3.7	2.3	0.1	1.4	13.8	16.7	1.3	0.2	39.4
2002	3.4	2.3	0.1	1.3	14.3	18.6	1.3	0.2	41.4
2003	3.3	2.3	0.1	1.4	14.9	19.5	1.3	0.2	42.9
2004	3.2	2.2	0.1	1.4	15.6	20.0	1.3	0.2	44.0
2005	3.1	2.3	0.1	1.3	16.6	20.1	1.2	0.2	44.8
2006	3.0	2.4	0.1	1.4	17.5	20.8	1.1	0.2	46.3
2007	3.2	2.4	0.1	1.4	18.8	20.5	1.0	0.2	47.6
2008	3.2	2.6	0.1	1.4	19.8	21.7	1.0	0.2	49.8
2009	3.2	2.8	0.1	1.5	19.6	21.9	0.7	0.2	50.1
2010	3.0	3.0	0.1	1.6	20.1	23.1	0.8	0.2	51.8
2011	2.9	3.1	0.0	1.5	19.5	24.0	0.8	0.3	52.2
2012	2.8	3.4	0.0	1.6	19.1	24.3	0.8	0.2	52.3
2013	2.9	3.7	0.0	1.6	20.1	24.4	0.8	0.2	53.6
2014	2.7	4.0	0.0	1.4	20.2	24.9	0.6	0.3	54.2
2015	2.6	4.5	0.0	1.7	19.2	26.0	0.5	0.3	55.0
2016	2.5	4.9	0.0	1.7	18.2	27.2	0.4	0.4	55.3
2017	2.3	4.9	0.0	1.7	18.1	28.8	0.4	0.5	56.6
2018	2.1	4.9	0.0	1.6	17.6	30.8	0.4	0.7	58.1
2019	1.9	4.7	0.0	1.5	16.5	33.1	0.4	0.9	58.9
2020	2.5	6.4	0.0	2.4	22.9	43.8	0.4	1.1	79.6
2021	2.2	5.9	0.0	2.3	19.2	41.0	0.4	1.3	72.3
2022	1.7	5.0	0.0	1.9	14.8	36.9	0.3	1.4	62.0
2023	1.5	4.8	0.0	2.1	14.0	37.3	0.3	1.6	61.5
2024	1.6	4.5	0.0	2.1	13.1	37.6	0.3	2.1	61.4
Source:
The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 2025, page 16.