Black Sheep Brewery First Northern Brewer to Achieve Prestigious Award
Black Sheep are the first brewery in the North of England to have won a prestigious national award for our supply chain. The highly prized Cask Marque Distribution Charter Award sets the highest standards for storing, transporting and delivering cask beer and is a crucial part of the system that helps pubs to serve the perfect pint.
‘We are extremely proud of this award,’ remarked Paul Theakston. ‘We strongly believe that cask beer should be nurtured and cared for every step of the way from the brewing process right through to the beer pumps on the bar of your local pub. One of the key stages of this process is distribution and we have invested a great deal in establishing rigorous procedures to ensure that our beers are delivered to pubs and hotels in tip-top form’ added Paul Theakston.
Black Sheep Brewery’s distribution centre is based at Well near Masham and their operations were assessed during August and in November.
‘Cask ale is a live product which needs to be cared for from production to the pub and quality has to be the watch word’remarked Rob Theakston, Assistant Brewer and Distribution Manager. ‘If this is neglected at any stage, the consumer will not get the pint they deserve. At the production level there are many quality control checks in place, but once the cask leaves the brewery it is in the hands of the distributor and the level of quality control can slip. By having the Cask Marque Distributor Charter at Black Sheep it demonstrates that the high quality standards set by the production team are being upheld right through to storage and distribution. A huge congratulations to the distribution team at Well, continuously setting the benchmark standards.’ added Robert Theakston.
Annabel Smith, Cask Marque National Account Manager says:‘Congratulations to Black Sheep for being the first Northern brewery to achieve our award. This is a rigorous assessment of standards and service levels, which clearly demonstrates the company’s continued commitment to quality. The first assessment was carried out at a particular tough time during the hot weather in summer
