Cask Marque will ask drinkers to check a pub's cellar rating before they go

Cask Marque is launching a campaign to get drinkers checking a pub's beer and cellar rating, The Morning Advertiser reports. It begins in early 2027. Drinkers will be pointed to an online directory, and to the star ratings some pubs display outside.

What the rating is: one to five stars across 11 checks, from the cellar to the glass. About 7,000 UK pubs have four or five stars. Cask Marque wants at least 30,000 by the end of the decade.

Where pubs fall short: cellar temperature, the condition and cleanliness of glassware, line and coupler cleanliness, and the cleanliness of glasswashers.

The claims: its director says a trial found almost half of pints served do not meet basic standards. It also says better cellar practice lifts beer yields by 10%. Those are Cask Marque's own findings.

On your shift: these four things are habits you can own. Run a glass check at the start of service, and pull a taste from each line before you open. Tell your manager early if a cellar reading looks off, or if a line tastes wrong. A pint that goes back is a pint you pay for twice.