St Austell Brewery in Kent recently commissioned a study into the key components of the ‘Perfect Pint’ to find that they included having a nine millimetre head and drinking through same at 5.30pm on a Saturday afternoon in a beer garden with a packet of crisps.

St Austell Brewery in Kent recently commissioned a study into the key components of the ‘Perfect Pint’ to find that they included having a nine millimetre head and drinking through same at 5.30pm on a Saturday afternoon in a beer garden with a packet of crisps – and without a mobile phone or other device in sight.

The study, undertaken to mark this year’s Cask Ale Week, sought to find out just what beer drinkers believe to be the key to a perfect pint.

The experience should take exactly 28 minutes to enjoy, the poll found, with one in four (26%) considering the right head to be crucial to the Perfect Pint.

Other adjuncts to the perfect pint included drinking it in a country pub with your spouse. Over half (65%) also stated that the food accompanying their beer was crucial to its enjoyment.

Some 17% considered having the correct food or snacks alongside their drink as part of the Perfect Pint scenario. Apart from snacking on crisps, the more substantial food dishes tended to be curries, burgers and peanuts.

But nearly a quarter (23%) warned that they very rarely get a faultless pint while 32% always found the serving temperature to be incorrect. Dirty glassware spoiling the experience was cited by 38% of respondents.

Over the last 10 years it has become harder to find that perfect pint, stated 22% while 40% considered beer too expensive and 26% complained about a poor selection of beer in pubs and bars in the UK.

The right location also contributed to the Perfect Pint for 22% of respondents.

“Our research reveals that there are many important factors ranging from who you’re drinking it with, where you’re drinking it and at what time of the day,” said a spokesman for the brewery, “Taste is key for the majority of beer lovers.”

For the perfect pint over six in 10 respondents believe that taste is essential and just under half want it to be affordable while 44% say correct temperature is vital in achieving the perfect pint. 38% need the beer to be served in a ‘proper pint glass’.

Nearly three in 10 (29%) claim loud music always ruins their drinking experience.

Other factors include the right company (38%); the right time (25%) and drinking it in your local (20%). Just over one in 10 say there is no better way to savour the perfect pint than when you have no worries on your mind and have the right view (9%).

Roger Protz, the renowned beer writer, put the importance of the experience around the Perfect Pint in context when he wrote that the overall experience is about “good taste, ideally-suited food pairings, served in proper pubs by landlords who are obsessed with beer quality and doing things the right way when it comes to the conditioning”.

Oh and not to forget all those of you on the other side of the bar, staff at the pub are also important. 43% of respondents want to be on friendly terms with those behind the bar with 16% wanting to drink somewhere where everybody knows your name…. Cheers!