Cask beer allowances explained

Last updated: 29 June 2026

Most pub licensees leave money on the table when it comes to cask beer allowances, and they don’t even know it’s happening. You’ve paid for a full cask, but you don’t get to pour every drop — some of it belongs to the brewery as part of the deal, and some of it is yours to claim as an allowance. The problem is that most pubcos don’t explain it clearly, your accountant might not ask, and you end up treating it as invisible loss instead of a legitimate cost recovery.

I spent my first two years running my Marston’s pub thinking cask allowances were just a line item on my monthly statement. I didn’t ask questions. Then I realised I was effectively writing off 3–5% of my beer spend without understanding why — or what I could claim back.

This guide explains what cask allowances actually are, how much you’re entitled to, and how to make sure you’re not being undercut by your pubco or brewery.

What are cask beer allowances?

A cask beer allowance is a negotiated percentage of the purchase cost of a cask that the brewery credits back to you to account for natural loss. When you buy a 36-litre cask, you don’t get 36 litres of saleable beer. Some of it evaporates, some of it is trapped in sediment at the bottom, some is lost during line cleaning and changeover, and some is spillage. The allowance is the brewery’s way of saying: “We know you’ll lose X amount. That’s on us, not you.”

This is different from wastage or stock loss. Wastage is accounted for separately and is often your responsibility. The allowance is built into the price you pay and is meant to cover legitimate operational loss that nobody can prevent.

The key difference is this: you do not make a separate claim for an allowance. The allowance is either a credit on your invoice, a discount percentage, or a built-in margin in the price you negotiate. If your pubco or brewery does not mention it, it is almost certainly hidden in the price — and you are not managing it.

Where the allowance money goes

The allowance covers three main losses:

• Evaporation: Beer naturally loses volume over time, especially in warm cellars or during summer months.
• Sediment and yeast: The bottom 1–2 litres of most casks contain sediment that is not drinkable. You pay for it, but you cannot sell it.
• Operational loss: Spillage during delivery, line cleaning waste, temperature changes causing gas expansion, and changeover loss when you switch taps.

None of these are your fault. The allowance is the industry standard way of sharing that responsibility.

How much allowance are you entitled to?

Standard cask allowances in the UK pub industry range from 2–5% of cask volume, depending on your supplier, contract terms, and whether you are a wet-tied or free-of-tie licensee.

Here is what that looks like in practice:

• Marston’s: Typically 2.5–3% on standard casks, sometimes higher on craft or guest beers.
• Fuller’s: Usually 3% on most lines, negotiable on volume.
• Samuel Smith’s: Often 2–2.5% (they control their own supply chain tightly).
• Craft breweries: Highly variable — anywhere from 1% to 5% depending on cask condition and handling.
• Free-of-tie suppliers: Often lower allowance (1.5–2.5%) because they assume you have better control over cellar conditions.

The allowance can also vary by season. Summer allowances are sometimes higher (3–4%) because warmer cellars mean more evaporation. Winter allowances can be lower (2–3%).

Your contract should state the allowance percentage explicitly. If it does not, ask your rep or account manager. If they avoid the question, that is a red flag — it usually means the allowance is not being applied at all, or it is hidden in a bulk discount that does not appear on your statement.

How to calculate your allowance in pounds

If you buy a 36-litre cask at £60, and your allowance is 3%, here is what you recover:

• 3% of 36 litres = 1.08 litres of free product.
• At an average selling price of £5 per litre, that is worth approximately £5.40 in GP.
• Or, the allowance is a £1.80 credit on your £60 invoice (3% of £60).

Over a year, if you go through 50 casks a month (600 casks annually), at an average price of £60 per cask with a 3% allowance, you are entitled to approximately £1,080 in annual allowance value. That is not negligible.

But here is the problem: most licensees do not track this. They assume the pubco is applying it. Sometimes they are. Often, they are not — or they are applying a lower percentage than the contract allows.

Why cask allowances matter to your bottom line

A 1% stock loss on wet sales quietly costs a typical pub £3,000–£5,000 a year. That includes unmeasured allowances, over-pouring, and line waste. If you are not claiming your cask allowances, you are handing some of that directly to the brewery.

But more importantly, if you do not know what your allowance entitlement is, you cannot manage your cellar losses properly. You will not know whether a weekly variance of 2% is normal operational loss (covered by your allowance) or a sign of theft, poor temperature control, or bad line cleaning.

I went through my first year of running the pub thinking my cask losses were just part of the game. My EPOS told me I had sold £800 of bitter that week, but my physical stock was only down by £750. I assumed it was spillage, or over-pouring, or natural loss. It never occurred to me to separate the allowable loss from the loss that was my problem.

Once I understood my allowance, I could see the real picture. Every cask was entitled to a 3% allowance. If my actual loss was 3%, I was spot on. If it was 5%, I had a 2% problem to solve. If it was 1.5%, I was actually over-recovering (which sometimes happens in winter, and that is fine — it evens out over time).

The number that actually matters is wet gross profit by line, not a single headline stock figure. Spirits hide losses in over-pouring (a free-poured 25ml is often 32–35ml). Draught hides it in poor cellar temperature, bad line cleaning waste, and sediment loss. Most stock “theft” is actually measurement error and forgotten wastage. Once you know your allowance entitlement, you can tell the difference.

How to claim your cask allowance

Your cask allowance should never require a claim. It should be built into your agreement and applied automatically, either as an invoice credit, a discount, or a margin built into your negotiated price.

But many pubcos do not apply it unless you ask. Here is how to make sure you are getting it:

Step 1: Check your contract

Find the paragraph that mentions allowances, returns, or ullage. It should state a percentage. If it does not, send an email to your pubco account manager and ask for clarification in writing. Keep the reply.

Step 2: Check your recent invoices

Look at the last 10 beer invoices. Look for a line that says “allowance”, “returns credit”, “ullage”, or “adjustment”. If you see it, note the percentage. If you don’t see it at all, it is not being applied.

Step 3: Calculate what you are owed

If you are not seeing the allowance on your invoices, calculate it yourself. Take your total beer spend from the last three months, multiply it by your contracted allowance percentage, and send that figure to your account manager with a request for a credit or adjustment.

Most pubcos will respond quickly. Some will push back and say the allowance is already factored into your price (which may be true). Ask them to quantify it. If they can’t, escalate it to a regional manager or finance team.

Step 4: Reconcile weekly

This is where most licensees fall short. You need to reconcile your cask dips against your till data every week. StockTap pub stock app makes this much easier than a spreadsheet, because it flags variance against your allowance automatically.

At a minimum, you should be recording:

• Cask volume at delivery (full cask = zero dip).
• Cask dip at every line check (dipstick measurement).
• Till sales for that line for the same period.
• Any spillage, waste, or line cleaning loss that week.
• Final cask change-out volume (how much was left when you replaced the cask).

Reconcile these numbers. Your actual loss should sit around your allowance percentage. If it is consistently higher, you have a cellar problem or a till problem. If it is lower, you are in profit on that line (and that is fine — it evens out).

Common mistakes licensees make

Mistake 1: Not asking for the allowance percentage upfront

If you sign a beer supply contract without seeing an explicit allowance percentage mentioned, you are accepting whatever the pubco decides to give you — or none at all. Always ask. Always get it in writing. It should be on the contract or in an email from the supplier’s finance team.

Mistake 2: Assuming it is the same for all beers

Cask allowances can vary by beer style, supplier, cask age, and seasonal factors. Craft beers sometimes have higher allowances because they are more fragile or more prone to settling. Guest beers might have different terms than core range. Check each invoice line if you can — or ask your rep if there is variation.

Mistake 3: Confusing allowance with waste

An allowance is not the same as authorised waste. Allowance is a credit for unavoidable loss built into the cost structure. Waste is loss you are responsible for (bad temperature control, line damage, theft, over-pouring). Do not lump them together in your P&L. They are different lines.

Mistake 4: Not tracking actual loss to verify the allowance

You cannot argue your case if you have no data. If a pubco tells you that you are over-claiming allowance, or that your allowance is being reduced, you have no comeback without weekly dip records and till reconciliation. Most licensees lose this argument because they have not tracked volume properly.

Mistake 5: Only claiming once a year at year-end

Cask allowances should be applied or credited continuously, not as a lump sum at year-end. If you find out in March that you have been missing allowance since January, that is money in the pubco’s account instead of yours. Check monthly. Escalate if it is not there.

Tracking cask waste properly

To manage your cask allowances and spot real losses, you need a simple, repeatable system. This is where most pubs fall down — they have a vague routine, and it is not consistent enough to produce reliable data.

Here is a working method that I use:

Weekly line check routine

• Every Monday morning: Dip every cask on tap using a simple plastic dipstick (£3 from any homebrew supplier). Record the depth in mm to the nearest 5mm.
• Same sheet: Note the till sales for that line for the previous week (EPOS should give you this in seconds).
• Temperature: Record cellar temperature. High temps = higher expected loss.
• Changeovers: If you changed a cask that week, record the final dip on the old cask before removal.
• Variance calculation: Expected loss (sales minus allowance) versus actual loss (volume dip).

A simple spreadsheet works fine. But if you have multiple lines or multiple pubs, SmartPubTools has a cellar tracking module that saves time and reduces error.

Monthly reconciliation

Once a month, pull together four weeks of data and calculate:

• Total volume delivered (casks invoiced).
• Total volume sold (from till, adjusted for price per litre).
• Total allowance entitlement (volume sold × 3% or whatever your percentage is).
• Actual physical loss (volume delivered minus volume sold minus allowance).

That “actual physical loss” number should be close to zero. If it is consistently 2–3% negative, your cellar temperature is too high. If it is positive, you are over-recovering (which is fine, but unusual). If it swings wildly, your measurement is not consistent.

Why scales matter

Dipsticks are good for relative measurement — they tell you how much the level has dropped. But they are not precise for absolute volume, especially on partial kegs. A set of electronic scales (£20–£50 from Amazon) is more reliable. Weigh the cask when it arrives, weigh it again at line check, and weigh it when you remove it. The difference is exact.

At my own pub, I was running stock on a tangle of spreadsheets and still losing track of partial kegs and spirit measures. I built a simple count routine around a dipstick and a set of scales, and the weekly variance went from guesswork to a number I could trust within a fortnight.

The investment in 30 minutes a week and £50 of equipment paid back in three months. Once I could see my real loss numbers, I spotted a draught line that was consistently 8% down instead of 3%. Turned out the temperature controller was faulty. Fixed it, and that one line recovered £40 a week in gross profit.