A few days ago, I started a thread entitled: What are your FIVE BUCKET LIST BEERS!?! https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/what-are-your-five-bucket-list-beers.681119/ The motivator for starting this thread was a video made by Nate Lanier (Tree House Brewing) where he discussed five beers, he had already tasted, which he thinks are worthy of being placed on a bucket list. In the OP I listed five beers which I thought were bucket list worthy with one of those beers: “Timothy Taylor Landlord I am a fan of cask ales and on a couple of occasions I have had Timothy Taylor Landlord (once on cask and once bottled) but that was a very looong time ago. On my bucket list is a visit to the UK to drink Timothy Taylor Landlord in a cozy British pub.” As you can read above, I have had the pleasure of drinking Timothy Taylor Landlord but I hope to someday have this beer in the UK. Closer to the source if you will. Earlier today the below embedded video was dropped on YouTube from The Craft Beer Channel guys entitled: Cask beer is the ultimate craft beer. In the opening scene after seeing waves of grain (barley), fermenting beer, whole flower hops, is an enticing pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord sitting on a bar with a handpump in the background. I salivated upon seeing that! I found the entire video to be quite interesting and hopefully some other BAs will enjoy watching it too. At around the 4:45 mark there is some intriguing discussion that cask beer and craft beer should not be viewed as two separate things since they have more in common vs. not. That discussion continues later in the video as well. Cheers! Message to the Moderators: Please do not move this thread since cask beer is produced elsewhere (e.g., US) and this topic is relevant to BAs outside of the UK.
In the above video, Jonny made mention of beer class/pricing in the UK: · Super Premium being craft beer (e.g., American style IPAs) · Premium Lager (where he stated that these beers are not really premium) · Cask beer (the lower priced of the three classes) In my area (Philly area) cask beers are priced at the same level as craft beer (e.g., $6-7 per pint). So, simply from a pricing perspective cask beer = craft beer in my area. Cheers! @vurt
Whenever I encounter a beer on cask, that is my first pour. Often the only thing I'll have. Shame that it is even rarer in the states now than it used to be. A couple of months ago, I stopped into Ardent in RVA as a break while looking at apartments. Figured I'd have a couple of half pours of different things, then head back to my friends' place. Saw they had an "English pub ale", so I asked for one of those. The bartender asked "cask or draft?" "You've got it on cask? Full pour of that please!" Ended up staying for 2 full pours and chatting with the regulars. There's something about cask and conviviality, it goes hand and hand. It was great.
There is indeed a great deal of potential alignment between cask and craft. Often, it's only the passionate brewer of real ale who makes it available in any given community. And it's the rare and truly committed craft brewer that educates worthy publicans on the critically important point of purchase, storage, cleaning, and serving protocols. Sadly lacking in most American markets and disappearing altogether too quickly in the UK. Real Ale, done well, is a damn proper pint.
I bet that bartender appreciated that you were one of the few who didn't have to ask for an explanation of the difference. I assume they have to do that often, sadly.
But hopefully the bartender is capable of properly educating the customer on the topic of cask beer and how it influences the sensory qualities of the beer. And in this specific instance they have the same beer (English Pub Ale) available via both formats. If that place offers free sample tastes the bartender could provide two samples and let the customer taste the differences. When it comes to craft beer (e.g., cask beer) educating customers is a very good idea. A more informed/knowledgeable customer will hopefully result in repeat business in the future. Cheers! P.S. And for my own jealous reasons since I am a fan of cask beers, the more customers choose to drink cask beers the greater the likelihood they will be available for sale.
Can confirm Landlord is the business. I’ve had it on cask and will be back in London next month to do it again!
Is cask priced the same because the increased labor is offset by reduction in other production costs, or marketing?
Maybe I don't get out enough, but for more years than I can remember I have never seen a cask beer on the West Coast or in Colorado. I only know about it from trips to England where I drink nothing else.
There was Yorkshire Square in Torrance CA, and they had a great cask program. But they got acquired by Project Barley a few years ago. I think they’re still open but the focus has shifted.
Do you have a place that you target to get Landlord on cask? I'm going to be in London next month too and I'm aiming for one of the places on the Timothy Taylor website that says it has cask and keg for comparison (The Salisbury). I have this fear that they'll be out of one or the other and a verified back-up will be nice to have. It sounds like Landlord is fairly easily found, but cask and keg at the same place is my goal.
Where do you see the info about cask and keg? Is Landlord available in keg in pubs? Maybe you’ll find what you want, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up for this comparison.
I don't have a definitive answer here but I suspect the breweries that serve cask beer price them based upon what they think customers are willing to pay. Cheers!
I did about the same thing….used the website to find cask locations. Sometimes they were out (more than you’d expect), so had to walk to the second pub, which fortunately never is very far. I don’t recall seeing it by keg anywhere though. I do however usually grab a few bottles at the market and stash them in the hotel fridge, Good luck! Take pictures!
https://www.timothytaylor.co.uk/pint-finder?tab=pintfinder-list This doesn't look like the list that I had on my desktop, but I'm not at home right now to check it again. And maybe I misinterpreted what I was looking at on that list. It had only 9 places (I think) in London instead of all those on this link. I'll look again when get home later.
A brewery on the West Coast which always serves beer on cask is Machine House Brewing located in Seattle. https://www.machinehousebrewery.com/ Worth a visit if you are ever in Seattle. Cheers!
