The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) has produced new guidelines to support the industry in deciding how best to approach the safe retrieval of containers from pub cellars.
The BBPA estimates that some 1.9 million containers of beer are currently left in pub cellars, following the rapid closure due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
The new guidelines, which have been created by the BBPA with input from its membership, outline some of the key factors brewers and pub businesses will need to consider when formulating their preferred approach to the recovery of containers from cellars; including health and safety, and environmental and economic considerations.
Where such decisions include permitting remote destruction of beer by a licensee, the guidelines are also aligned with the flexibility recently introduced by HMRC to allow licensees to destroy beer in the pub once they have received instruction from a brewer.
The BBPA best practice guidance, supported by HMRC, has also been updated to reflect that a common-sense approach can be taken to verification and audit of this process and facilitating collaboration by brewers to achieve this.
BBPA chief executive, Emma McClarkin, said: “These latest guidelines the BBPA has produced further help all parts of our sector to decide how best to recover containers from pub cellars in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.
“The guidelines should help facilitate the monumental task of re-stocking pubs in advance of re-opening and once lockdown restrictions have been lifted.”
