In Faversham Eye Issue 3, we commissioned a highly experienced team of four real ale tasters to sample the Master Brew bitter produced by Faversham brewers Shepherd Neame and sold in ten of the central Faversham pubs. The results we published then showed a remarkable variation in condition and quality of the drinks served to our researchers.
That was in April 2019, so it seemed a good idea to revisit the same ten public houses nearly five years later to discover how much, if anything, had changed. It is important to note that a significant number of the establishments have had management changes since the first survey.
As before to ensure uniformity, all the beers were tasted on the same evening over a single four-hour period. As all the samples must have come from the same brewing batch and have been delivered to the pubs on roughly the same date, the difference in the quality of the beer being sold would be a good indicator of the care taken by the different establishments in their cellaring and line hygiene procedures. Allowance was made where possible for beer served from the end of a barrel.
The research team were led by Prof Glyn Roberts, Honorary Fellow of the University of West Ospringe.
Generally, the relative order of the pubs, in terms of quality of beer they served, was reasonably consistent with the previous ratings - the exception being the Railway Hotel which had been highly praised in 2019 but failed to impress our tasters this time with a
bitter that had a nasty metallic aftertaste.
The Three Tuns in Tanner Street was unanimously judged to have served the best glass of Master Brew in the ten establishments visited, an improvement on their third place five years earlier. It is also notable that in this pub the average annual price increase of a
pint was the lowest at 3.5%.
The three pubs that were judged worst in 2019 were also at the bottom this time and ironically these were also the ones that had increased their prices the most.
On the assumption that Shepherd Neame cares about the retail condition of their flagship product, especially in their hometown of Faversham, it is somewhat surprising that in their managed and tenanted outlets at least, they don’t make a greater effort to ensure it is kept and sold in better condition.
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