Cask conditioned beer

Overall I thought the article was pretty good.

During my many trips to Great Britain (and steady attendance to the same pub), it was my personal experience that cask ales improve after a couple days from tapping. The Bitter Ale that I consumed the most was Bass Ale on cask (a totally different beer from the bottle stuff we get in the US). I would notice that when the cask was first tapped the beer was enjoyable but a bit too ‘clean’ from being optimum. The next day that cask was more enjoyable and the second day even more enjoyable. IMO, the flavor changes over those 24-48 hours was by no means an ‘off’ flavor process. The pub(s) that I went to had a fairly quick turnover but from time to time the cask would still being served 3-4 days later; at that point I thought the flavor was indeed ‘off’ and I would then order a Fullers cask beer instead of the Bass. Cask beer does indeed have a limited shelf life if a CO2 breather is not utilized.

In a few weeks I will be attending the Yards 8th Annual Philadelphia Real Ale Invitational. That cask beer event is always excellent; this will be the 6th time I attended this annual event. The folks at Yards certainly know how to properly cellar cask beer. One of the highlights from last year’s event was drinking a recreation of a Double Brown Ale; a historical brew based upon recipe of Whitbread Brewery of 1933. Ron (@patto1ro) helped to brew that beer at Yards Brewing a few weeks prior to the event.

Cheers to cask beer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

When do right, cask ale is a thing of beauty. I love seeing flavor change over the course of a few days. There seems to be more American breweries getting it wrong than right. I do appreciate the effort though. It was pretty frustrating as a Yank living over in England for 5 years when I would get a bad pint. They just figured didn't know. I would whip my CAMRA membership card and see where it went from there. A lot of the landlords would tell me how CAMRA was a load of rubbish as well, I usually found quickly their cellaring skills weren't good ( not always).

 

Well, usually it's an announcement before they tap it. Usually for a Friday night taping.

 

I used to live in England and got used to cask conditioned beers. I miss them (and true pub culture) a great deal. While I am delighted by the advances from brewers in the U.S., there are still certain charms from the original giants (Britain, Belgium, and Germany) that I miss from Europe. This is definitely one example. If anyone visits Baltimore, you should try the excellent Oliver Brewery taps at the Pratt St. Ale House. Likewise, Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis often has excellent cask conditioned offerings.

 

Yup, a beer bar near me will occasionally have a Firkin Friday event. Sometime it would be a Pin vs. a Firkin but it would be one vessel on the bar in stillage and typically that vessel would kick that evening.

There are ways to ‘manage’ the freshness issue.

Cheers!

 

Pratt St. Ale House had pretty good cask when I was there a couple of years ago. Hogshead in Denver really know their shit, too.

 

Has the Town Hall 1800 Old English IPA ever been offered on cask? If so, have you tasted this beer on cask?

Cheers!

 

Yes. I have seen countless times while sitting at a bar talking with groups of people and heard, "We came here because the bar announced they'll have X beer in cask with additional hops." So if I hear 6-8 people in an hour and a half say we came here because of the cask, safe to assume there are plenty others throughout the night doing the same.

 

Good read--thx OP.

Perhaps my favorite find in San Fran two years ago ( well except for Nelson) was local cask ale. Where I went for it sold out every day. The mouthfeel of cask ale is just incredible and so nice to have something so good with a lunch and at 3.8%-still functional after a couple. Subtlety and nuance as opposed to face melting. Mine was a perfect 55 degrees.

Would love to see more East coast examples.

Cannot wait to go back to London this summer.

 

Some of the best beers I've had in recent memory were on cask, a Pale Ale and a Porter. Both were so good, especially the Porter. There is just something right about a Porter on cask...

 

Same here. Take a nice beer and pour it into a glass and leave it in the fridge overnight and you have cask aged beer, at least in my (admittedly limited) experience.

 

unfortunately, i'd have to say it's more than "some" such brewers and bars. or at least far too many of them aren't "totally" clueless, but definitely clueless enough to negatively affect the beer. i also wouldn't necessarily blame the brewer. with the three tier system here in the US, the distributor ideally needs to know how to handle the cask as well. and finally the venue needs someone with experience. temperature control, sanitation, when to switch from soft to hard spiles, when an additional fining agent might be needed, use of sparkler, etc... any one misstep along the way, and : POOF: you've turned yet another drinker off cask ale, possibly forever...

 

hey, you're in MA, so you might be in luck...

https://www.nerax.org/

 

That's good for the bars near you. I never see anything like that. I suspect the "additional hops" might have more to do with it than the cask (see my first post), but maybe I'm too cynical.

 

When I was at Pratt St., they had a cask ale called You Made Me Realize with this description: "a British Table Beer, 2.7% abv, based on a recipe from the Barclay Perkins Brewery circa 1804. This beer is made possible by the exhaustive research of Ron Pattinson."

 

I will say they do a couple of good pints at McNellies in Tulsa, both from Marshall. The Pub Ale is a good as many of the best I had in the UK. However, if the beer doesn't move; all bets are off...

 

in which case it has been served incorrectly. Cask Ale is neither warm nor flat.

 

for those who can make it NERAX is a must, it's many years since I went to it but I was impressed by the quality of the ales on offer. None were warm, or flat.
NERAX works with CAMRA to ensure that GBBF is always well supplied with a great selection of Cask Ales from USA, this year there will be at least 100 on offer. Over the years we've had some stunning cask ales from USA and the best gets the Michael Jackson Award for American Cask Beer, last year it was La Cumbre Project Dank.

 

Racer 5 on cask is a beautiful thing.

 

yeah, i agree that's most likely the case..to try zombie dust with additional hops etc. I also live about a mile from one of the best bars in the Chicago area (Bavarian Lodge) who does a Firkin Friday every week..so maybe I'm not exactly looking at a representative sample population of the overall craft world.