The supermarket giant Asda has started selling draught beer in its Milton Keynes store as an experiment, with the aim of introducing the “service” in more outlets across the UK from next year. ASDA have teamed up with a company called Craft on Draft (yes, they use North American English) to run the trial. Craft on Draft says there will be 12 different types of beer to choose from, supplied by smaller brewers but only Redchurch from London, and Fallen from Shropshire get named.

Seemingly, staff will use pub-style beer pumps to pour drinks into one-, or two-litre refillable glass containers that can be kept, reused, or recycled. ASDA say the aim is to help recycling and sustainability, as well as support smaller, local brewers. Very laudable, I just hope the supermarket staff will be well trained in serving beer or there may be a lot of wastage.

A litre of beer or cider will cost from £5.90 to £8.20 - so £2.95 to £4.10 per 500ml. A pint is 568ml. Think how much we pay for a pint locally, these prices undercut many of our local
pubs and bars.

I’m all for new beer and cider experiences but this, if successful, will not be good for the already struggling pub trade. Can’t say I blame the breweries involved though, many smaller breweries also need help and those involved no doubt welcome the extra outlets and income, but supermarkets already sell packaged beer at knock-down prices and are increasingly taking trade away from pubs. This sort of thing won’t help but I hope it will be a short-lived experiment.

Image is attributed to Corporate Asda https://corporate.asda.com/newsroom/2021/11/23/asda-becomes-first-uk-supermarket-to-launch-draught-beer-concept