Cask Ale: Intangible Cultural Heritage

Tessa Munt Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Westminster Hall

[Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you as Chair, Sir Desmond, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier) on getting this debate. It is brilliant that we are sitting here this morning and recognising the production and serving of cask ale as intangible cultural heritage.

Intangible cultural heritage is about the traditions and skills that are passed down through the generations that have shaped our communities. The UK’s cultural heritage is a national treasure. Our creative and tourism industries contribute billions of pounds to the economy. The latest research from Historic England is very clear: the heritage sector contributed £15 billion to the economy in 2022. Pubs are at the heart of our communities. They provide much, much more than somewhere to have a pint—and in my case, a good old-fashioned Somerset ploughman’s with a decent chunk of Cheddar cheese. I am not a drinker, but I do appreciate hugely the people who work in the industry in my part of Somerset.

It would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to mention some of the cask ale producers in my part of Somerset. They include Butcombe brewery, which is located a little outside my constituency, but has three pubs within it. There is Badgworth Brewhouse and the Cross brewery, which is based at the White Hart Inn in Cross near Axbridge, which I had the pleasure of opening a short number of months ago. Cheddar Ales is probably known across the nation because it is stocked so frequently in many of our supermarkets, as well as our best pubs, and we have the Bason Bridge Brewing Company and the Beer Shed. Several of those locations are places where I have run my surgeries in the past, and I thank the publicans for the support that they have offered. Pubs bring people together and help tackle isolation, which is particularly key in a very rural area like mine. They carry a lot of history and help our culture.

Brewers and pubs are struggling. When a pub closes, community cohesion is weakened significantly, so we need to make sure we support the tradition. I ask the Government to make sure that they listen to people and communities, uphold the traditions and ensure they are supported so that they can continue and be shared for generations to come.

At a time when cask ale faces challenges, the Government should consider how its cultural significance and the skills associated with its production can be supported and recognised. The craft sector alone contributes thousands of jobs every year and over £400 million annually. Cask ale represents one of Britain’s most distinctive brewing traditions. Unlike filtered or pasteurised beers, it is a living product that continues to mature and develop flavour after it has left the brewery. The beer undergoes secondary fermentation in the vessel from which it is served, and each brewery’s unique yeast, creating natural carbonisation and complexity, cannot be replicated through industrial processes. It is unique. It involves a high level of skill both in brewing and in the cellar.

I am aware that the Government were asked to recognise the production and serving of cask ale as an intangible cultural heritage under e-petition 716686, which closed on 1 October 2025 and had a marvellous 41,026 signatures. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it would welcome a submission from the cask ale community to the UK inventory. Cask ale would be included if the submission met the criteria.

The United Kingdom ratified the 2003 UNESCO convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage on 7 March 2024. We became the 183rd state to join UNESCO’s convention, which came into force on 7 June 2024. UNESCO’s convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage recognises traditional craftsmanship, oral traditions and expressions, social practices, festive events, knowledge and practices related to nature and the universe. To this end, the UK Government launched their public consultation in January 2024 on the creation of a new register, on to which communities across the country could nominate their most cherished local traditions. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed beer culture in Belgium on the representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. We Lib Dems would like some of that, please, Minister.

As passionate supporters of craft beer and brewers and the publicans who pull the pints, I would be delighted if the Minister could recognise the passion, love, commitment and contribution to the community of good brewing and good beer—enjoyed so often, as I said, with a ploughman’s—and back the campaign.