When does the ‘Best' become the worst?

Akey ingredient in our continued growth since buying the pub, and the factor that enables us to avoid major advertising costs, is consistency of product.

We restrict our opening days and hours to offer food only when I'm cooking, and every dish that leaves the kitchen is checked by myself or Helen. We hope that by doing this we avoid what I term "chef's day-off syndrome" - a disappointing meal failing to live up to expectations because the chef is off and the backup is not of the required calibre.

Similarly, we now choose to serve our cask beer out of aluminium containers rather than from wood because it eliminates any unpleasant "off" flavours associated with casks.

I readily acknowledge that purists, traditionalists and coopers would rather see the continued use of wooden casks, but in our bar they do seem to be continually outnumbered by those who want the same taste every time they buy a pint.

We have gradually built up a drinking trade based on a locally produced Best Bitter, which now accounts for more than half of our barrelage.

So it came as a shock to be told by a brewery representative that the brewing of our Best Bitter was likely to be moved to a large regional brewery that, to date, we feel has been unable to reproduce the taste, smell and flavour of our beer.

On one occasion when we were sent beer from the wrong brewery, customer demand forced us to return it all - quite simply, they thought that I was trying to poison them.

This inconsistency seems likely to pose a serious problem. Do we change brewery to find an acceptable session beer, or persevere with a different flavour?

Removing our Best Bitter could wreck several years of hard work in establishing the beer and maintaining the quality. But to continue with an inferior product could also do us untold damage.

The beer may not be the main element of our business - that is undoubtedly the food - but it is the evident factor seven days a week, all year round, and we do not want to disappoint our drinkers.

The solution may be to invite our regulars to a blind tasting of local beers to find out which they like best. It would have to be blind due to the partisan approach to beer-drinking in Yorkshire, but it could produce some eye-opening results. n

IAN VIPOND is chef-patron of the New Inn, a free house pub in Hunton on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales

Next diary from Ian Vipond: 22 March