The beginning of Autumn marked the start of a new era for East London-based Truman’s. The Hackney brewery, which we speak to in detail elsewhere in this issue, made its foray into bringing three of its beers to the market in keg.

The reasoning, was simple. To offer drinkers more choice, and to broaden the brewery’s route to market. For a respected brewing name that celebrates its 500th anniversary next year, it marks a considerable step in the latest Truman’s journey.

Is the brewery’s decision to move into keg indicative of the market as a whole, though or perhaps more pertinently, what does it matter? As an increased choice for the beer drink is surely only a good thing. 

“There is big trend, one we cannot ignore, and that is the consumer driven move from cask to craft keg,” explains David Beswick, sales director at Close Brewery Rentals, which has had involvement in around 650 UK breweries during the last 12 months.

“Around 15 months ago, we launched a 30l eurokeg for small brewers wanting to move into keg. Uptake was initially slow, but in the last six months though, the demand has gone through the roof, we are talking increases in 100% multiples.”

For Close Brewery Rentals (CBR), the numbers speak for themselves. While you can’t simply take a broach brush approach to the figures, CBR operates a fleet of 130,000 9 gallon casks, while it has 30,000 kegs in the field.

However it took CBR nine years to accumulate its cask fleet while demand for keg has resulted in the growing keg number hit in little over a year.

He adds: “From speaking to a considerable number breweries, we are seeing people move away from cask to keg. In my opinion, and I hate to admit it, it feels as if we are following the North American route.

“However, I am frequently told, and informed that full bodied hops, and, often, high ABV is something that new breweries in the UK and Ireland are increasingly trying to reproduce. This, in my eyes, ties in with the premiumisation of beer with people drinking lower amounts but looking at quality over quantity. People are becoming more considerate about what they drink and keg has obviously come a long way in recent decades.”