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05-11-2023, 11:30
Visit The Pub Curmudgeon site (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/11/cleaning-up-your-act.html)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7gaWzy81rSzaWQSuuUj-rN0nC4-nGBUE3maO27RsBy2LYuuGisj5Y0ZFjL1p_dnCGoBygSOIXY42S nc5pRkG-ji-sHQOPGNnYx9BjRkZQV5JofCsQit4i0kE_vXqR6pVSRFLVZXjcc 8h-EmrbvWsYsD2SUBYbU6JkIt795i53bUSmU8_m1S7BdbrfHo4/s320/Cellar-Hygiene-rating.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7gaWzy81rSzaWQSuuUj-rN0nC4-nGBUE3maO27RsBy2LYuuGisj5Y0ZFjL1p_dnCGoBygSOIXY42S nc5pRkG-ji-sHQOPGNnYx9BjRkZQV5JofCsQit4i0kE_vXqR6pVSRFLVZXjcc 8h-EmrbvWsYsD2SUBYbU6JkIt795i53bUSmU8_m1S7BdbrfHo4/s640/Cellar-Hygiene-rating.png)
In one job I worked at, we were planning a Christmas lunch, and the women of the office checked out the hygiene ratings of the various restaurants in the town to decide which was best. I couldn’t help thinking that they’d rather got the cart before the horse there. It might have made sense to narrow it down to those with good scores, and then choose from amongst those, but they seemed to be using that as the primary criterion. But having an immaculate kitchen is no guarantee that the actual food will be any good, and indeed we ended up having one of the worst Italian meals I can remember.
Now Cask Marque have launched a similar scheme to give pubs star ratings for cellar hygiene (https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2023/11/can-cask-ale-quality-be-improved-with-a-new-star-rating/). Obviously there’s everything to be said for promoting clean cellars, but it’s a touch disingenuous to suggest that it will help improve cask ale quality. Serving a good pint over the bar is a combination of various factors, not just hygiene, but also turnover, temperature control both in the cellar and in the lines, and maintaining condition through correct tapping, venting and spiling procedures. It’s not rocket science, just diligently following straightforward routines.
Good hygiene alone will not produce good beer if the other elements aren’t there. It’s significant that “One of the first pub groups to endorse the scheme and act on the findings has been named as the budget pub chain Wetherspoons, owned by Tim Martin, which now has 95% of its pubs with 4*/5* ratings.” Yet Spoons’ beer quality can be distinctly variable, and all too often their beer lacks condition and tastes as though it has been pulled through a very long pipe.
We will all have come across pubs whose public areas don’t give the impression of a scrupulous adherence to cleanliness, and yet reliably manage to serve up a good pint. Maybe they do have spotless cellars, but I have my doubts. As a product that is kept in sealed containers, and where the alcohol content has some preservative quality, beer has something of a natural resistance to contamination anyway. Schemes of this kind tend to involve a significant element of ticking boxes to confirm meticulous record-keeping. Some catering establishments end up with one-star ratings purely because they haven’t done their paperwork.
Nobody can argue against promoting hygienic cellars, but don’t imagine that a five-star rating will guarantee a five-star pint.
More... (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/11/cleaning-up-your-act.html)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7gaWzy81rSzaWQSuuUj-rN0nC4-nGBUE3maO27RsBy2LYuuGisj5Y0ZFjL1p_dnCGoBygSOIXY42S nc5pRkG-ji-sHQOPGNnYx9BjRkZQV5JofCsQit4i0kE_vXqR6pVSRFLVZXjcc 8h-EmrbvWsYsD2SUBYbU6JkIt795i53bUSmU8_m1S7BdbrfHo4/s320/Cellar-Hygiene-rating.png (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7gaWzy81rSzaWQSuuUj-rN0nC4-nGBUE3maO27RsBy2LYuuGisj5Y0ZFjL1p_dnCGoBygSOIXY42S nc5pRkG-ji-sHQOPGNnYx9BjRkZQV5JofCsQit4i0kE_vXqR6pVSRFLVZXjcc 8h-EmrbvWsYsD2SUBYbU6JkIt795i53bUSmU8_m1S7BdbrfHo4/s640/Cellar-Hygiene-rating.png)
In one job I worked at, we were planning a Christmas lunch, and the women of the office checked out the hygiene ratings of the various restaurants in the town to decide which was best. I couldn’t help thinking that they’d rather got the cart before the horse there. It might have made sense to narrow it down to those with good scores, and then choose from amongst those, but they seemed to be using that as the primary criterion. But having an immaculate kitchen is no guarantee that the actual food will be any good, and indeed we ended up having one of the worst Italian meals I can remember.
Now Cask Marque have launched a similar scheme to give pubs star ratings for cellar hygiene (https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2023/11/can-cask-ale-quality-be-improved-with-a-new-star-rating/). Obviously there’s everything to be said for promoting clean cellars, but it’s a touch disingenuous to suggest that it will help improve cask ale quality. Serving a good pint over the bar is a combination of various factors, not just hygiene, but also turnover, temperature control both in the cellar and in the lines, and maintaining condition through correct tapping, venting and spiling procedures. It’s not rocket science, just diligently following straightforward routines.
Good hygiene alone will not produce good beer if the other elements aren’t there. It’s significant that “One of the first pub groups to endorse the scheme and act on the findings has been named as the budget pub chain Wetherspoons, owned by Tim Martin, which now has 95% of its pubs with 4*/5* ratings.” Yet Spoons’ beer quality can be distinctly variable, and all too often their beer lacks condition and tastes as though it has been pulled through a very long pipe.
We will all have come across pubs whose public areas don’t give the impression of a scrupulous adherence to cleanliness, and yet reliably manage to serve up a good pint. Maybe they do have spotless cellars, but I have my doubts. As a product that is kept in sealed containers, and where the alcohol content has some preservative quality, beer has something of a natural resistance to contamination anyway. Schemes of this kind tend to involve a significant element of ticking boxes to confirm meticulous record-keeping. Some catering establishments end up with one-star ratings purely because they haven’t done their paperwork.
Nobody can argue against promoting hygienic cellars, but don’t imagine that a five-star rating will guarantee a five-star pint.
More... (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2023/11/cleaning-up-your-act.html)