Cask and Nitro

I would love to see more cask beer, not interested in seeing more nitro though. With that said, the entire service industry in the US is seemingly set up to handle force carbed kegs, to see a switch from that would take a hell of a lot of demand from consumers, which I think is doubtful.

 

I do not like to group cask and nitro beers together. I have often seen the argument that nitro is a poor attempt at duplicating cask beer. If that is the reason someone were to use nitro, they may be an idiot. I believe the qualities of the two are distinctly different and enjoy each when appropriately used. Now to get back to the heart of the conversation started in the original post....

Nitro. I do not see nitro becoming a huge trend though I could see more craft breweries utilizing nitro cans/bottles. I love Left Hand Milk Stout nitro bottles. If the appropriate use of nitro leads to more bottles of beer like this I am all for it.

Cask. I believe we will continue to see the use of casks increase moving forward. I think this ties into the increased demand and greater awareness of craft beer. You see casks at a lot of special events and tap takeovers, the more bars you have hosting these events, the more demand you will see. Casks also allow the breweries to have a bit of fun and experiment with variants on a small scale. While I like the trend I hope it coincides with an increase of knowledge of how to properly use and serve cask beer.

 

As for the firkins and handpumps I can see this opening up as a regular thing at local craft breweries and places the such, not necessarily on a larger scale. Nitro cans for sure. I just had a young's double chocolate tall boy they had a nitro ball in it...didn't even notice it was nitro until I cracked one, very pleasant surprise. I believe Left Hand has nitro bottles as well but when I had the nitro bottles version of the milk stout it wasn't much different IMO

 

Agree the signs are that there is increased popularity of cask (leaving out the nitro). Indeed there's a Philly brewery which has organized a cask event for the last couple of years that brings in beers from other sources as well. Its typically sold out well in advance and gets good reviews from those who've paid the admission fee, etc.

There are also a few places within easy drive of where I'm sitting now who routinely have something on cask. Not all the time but often enough.

 

Cask and nitro are night and day in my opinion. I guess cask could take off in specialist beer bars where there's a market for it and it will turn over fast enough, though I'd imagine it will remain a minority interest in the craft beer scene.

 

I would love to see it happen BUT - it has to be done properly and well.Bars have to be prepared to risk drainpouring beer which didn't sell in time.Unlike keg, a bar owner needs to be able to judge expected daily sales in order to have cask available at all times yet minimise waste.
Unlike the UK, the infrastructure doesn't exist. It does require expenditure on either cold rooms or cooling jackets but above all on training staff.
Good luck to you in this; the superb beer you are brewing deserves better than being stuck in kegs.
As for nitro, I'm surprised the word is even allowed on a website called Beer Advocate. It's not Beer Murder Advocate.

 

Id love to see cask become more prevalent. Its probably not cost efficient tho. Even bars that have great beer lists rarely know about cask. Hell half the people in this site probably know nothing about it.
I dont see nitro becoming any more of a trend than it already is. It can compliment certain styles to an extent but not many.
I surely hope there was no indication that cask and nitro are anywhere similar or that nitro is supposed to simulate cask. That would be means for having your beer card removed.

 

Yep, that would be the Yard's Real Ale Invitational which is occurring tomorrow (4/6/14). I will be attending, I have gone to this event for the past 5 years. A wonderful event with lots of great cask beer (including a few firkins imported from the UK).

Cheers!

 

Nitro is the devil's work.

 

I'm not even in favour of nitro mixes. Yeah, they save a lot of spillage/money for the proprietors but even they get dumbed down somewhat.

 

Indeed. Enjoy! BTW do you ever get over to Lititz for any of the Bull's Head cask events? That’s another that I always seem to have conflicts to prevent getting there.

(*According to my wife there are things in the the world more important than beer... )

 

is cask the same thing as a gravity machine?

 

I'd say that the availability of cask beer has grown quite a bit throughout New England over the past 7 years (how long I've been drinking in bars). Look at the growth of festivals like NERAX and you'll see that the demand is there, and beer engines are now standard issue in the best beer bars.

 

I don't seem to like nitro much and for cask beers I always come away thinking that mouthfeel!!!! I was not prepared for it! It's always in an afterthought that I recant my first opinion and say "oh that beer was better than I thought at first." I should get out more.

 

Properly handled/maintained cask beer is the bee's knees. Nothing else comes close. Nothing.

 

Cask has definitely become more popular in my area. Local brewery always has 2 casks going and one of my favorite beer bars is making a move towards cask ale as well.

As for the nitro - in cans and bottles, it's okay, doesn't offend me in any sense.

Firkin fests are becoming more and more popular so I welcome the change to cask ale for people. I don't think a bar could survive doing only cask but I like the chance to try it and even do a side/side comparison with people who are new to cask ale. Local place usually has something on cask that they also serve "standard" with a keg system.

It's a great way to educate people.

 

Always I order first the cask offer when I am in a bar, no matter the style, and if I like it I will order more and then run around the room spreading the good word. Cask is still rare in my area, and usually a real treat. One problem is that the full flavor of Cask drops off fairly quickly once tapped. One of the local bars has something like this to extend the life of the keg without compromising the beer engine. I need to get down on the science of their setup, the cabinet the beer engine/keg is housed in somehow has purified air to draw from as well when you pull the handle.

http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/cask-conditioned-dispensing-pid-CASK-B.html