Which one goes on next?
You have four handpumps and a stillage for eight casks. On a Friday there are three casks on sale, one about to run out, two settling, one just delivered and one waiting to be stillaged. You know which is which, mostly. The bar staff do not. When the pump starts spitting at nine o'clock, the young barman goes down and changes over to the nearest full cask, which was delivered yesterday and has not settled.
Meanwhile a guest ale has been on sale for longer than you would like, and it is going to be poured down the drain on Monday because it sold slowly. You meant to take it off earlier, but you forgot when it was tapped.
Why cask tracking lives in one head
Cask ale is the most hands-on product in a pub. Each cask arrives, is stillaged, needs time to settle and condition, is vented and tapped, goes on sale and has a limited life once it is open. The timing depends on the beer, the brewery and your cellar, and good cellar practice is learned, not written down.
So the landlord or cellar manager holds the whole picture. The chalkboard helps, when someone updates it. When the person who knows is off, or the relief manager is in, the picture is lost and decisions are made by guesswork. This is about records, not cellar technique, which remains yours.
The cost of guessing in the cellar
| Mistake | Result |
|---|---|
| Wrong cask put on | Beer served before it is ready, complaints and returns |
| Casks left on too long | Beer poured away at the end of its life |
| Nobody knows what is ready | Pumps off for part of the evening |
| No record of how fast ales sold | Guest ales ordered by guesswork |
| Pump clips and the board wrong | Customers ordering beers that have run out |
Cask quality is a reputation thing. A few bad pints and customers stop ordering cask, and once cask sales slow, casks stay on longer and quality drops further. Good records help break that circle.
A cellar board that follows every cask
- When casks are delivered, they are added to the board from the delivery check, with the beer, brewery, size and any dates the brewery supplies.
- Each cask moves through simple statuses: delivered, stillaged, settling, ready, on sale, finished. Moving it takes a tap on a phone in the cellar.
- You set your own rules for each beer or brewery, such as how long it usually needs before it is ready and how long you like it on sale. The board uses your rules, not ours.
- The board shows which casks are ready to go on, in the order you prefer, so whoever changes a barrel knows which one to use.
- Casks approaching the end of your chosen sale period are highlighted, so you can push them on the bar or decide to take them off.
- Each finished cask records how long it was on sale, which feeds into what you order next and how often each guest ale is worth repeating.
- A what's-on list for the bar, website or a screen can be produced from the board, so the chalkboard and the pumps agree.
A Friday change-over with the board
The pump spits at nine. The barman checks the board on his phone, which shows the cask marked ready, not the one that arrived yesterday. He puts on the right one. On Saturday morning the board shows the slow guest ale is near the end of your usual window, so you put it on a promotion board. At the end of the month you can see which guests sold fastest.
- Every cask's status visible to anyone on shift
- The right cask put on during a change-over
- Fewer casks poured away
- A record to guide guest ale choices
Is your cask rotation like this?
- Only one person really knows which casks are ready.
- A cask has been put on before it was ready.
- Casks have been poured away because they were on too long.
- The chalkboard and the pumps do not always match.
- You order guest ales without a record of how previous ones sold.