Need Cask Help

Your point it so clear. Thanks for the cultural education.

 

I do not have any specific suggestions in terms of ingredients but I would suggest that you judiciously add amounts. At a Cask Ale festival I had the non-pleasure of drinking a cask beer where they added key limes to the cask and that beer was awful due to overpowering flavors from the cask inserted key limes. I almost spit out my small pour right in front of the server. I did promptly dump the remaining beer in the bucket nearby.

Cheers!

 

It's insane that you have to reiterate this. Obviously, some people feel their perspective should overrule that of your client.

 

So... they requested you put something in them. If you are letting your accounts control your beer, why don't you just ask them what they want inserted into the casks to screw up the beer?

 

But if you're to do cask do it properly or don't effing bother. I've drunk some excellent cask beer in the US. None of it had arbitrary shit thrown into the cask. Even if you do decide to do that crap, I'd start off just getting the hang of straight cask-conditioning.

 

Truth be told what you posted first sounds lovely---question is what do you feel is missing from those two delicious sounding beverages? They sound near perfect.

 

Who said this guy ain't "got the hang" of straight cask conditioning?

 

One is a firkin (10 gallon) of Black Currant Amber. Great malt character, slight hop bitterness, very light fruity tartness from the currants.

I would try mix of dry tart and fresh apple (cut and rubbed with lemon immediately to stop browning, lightly to avoid the lemon input) - maybe Granny Smith and Fuji, with this one. And I agree with restraint " go a shade lighter" is my mantra with choosing paint colors and seasoning something delicate.

 

How about this for the second, lightly toasted Sichuan peppercorn ( a little mouth heat) and more orange peel and/or fresh orange sections? Make sure no pith (the white layer under the skin) or the bitter will blow up the IBU scale!

But I have to agree with prior post, this one sounds like "leave it alone" unless the flavorings are really muted.

 

How about some isinglass?


*runs*

 

What is innovative about putting things in a cask? I have seen casks with all kinds of dumb shit, three examples being gummy bears, graham crackers, and kids cereal. I don't know about you, but nine out of ten times I have cask beer in America it is naturally carbonated. Admittedly I don't typically attend events where these gimmicky casks aimed at the casual drinker are served. The BA community as a whole is probably not the ideal group to ask, since they are typically not the target group for these experiments and many appreciate the subtlety of the classic cask process.

As far as innovative, is new always better? I don't remember ever seeing artificial flavors in beer until a few years ago. Now I am seeing them more and more often. Just because you can doesn't always mean you should.

 

His initial post said nothing about being requested to put anything extra in the pin/firkin. I think that's why he got some of the answers he did. Why should we automatically assume that there was a request to put more things in the beer?

If it were my bar, all I would ask for is the 'normal' beer in a pin or firkin.

 

So you're one of those "CAMRA types", then?

 

Nail on the head.

 

Aaaaannyway.

These are a couple challenging brews to try and come up with new flavor combinations to compliment them and make them more interesting. They are already plenty interesting sounding!

I love @sgulner's suggestion of adding smoked peat, but I would actually add that, and some extra hops and extra currants, to the Black Currant Amber. Some smoky flavor will go great with fruitiness, but you want to amp up the fruitiness so it isn't lost. And then, just to flip the switch, you could dry hop with small amounts Amarillo and maybe El Dorado.

As for the Saison, how about something like white grapes, or chardonnay grapes even, halved, along with a little more orange peel, and a small amount of bergamot? Or there's the more herbal route. You could add some white sage and lemon basil, and again, maybe some hops, this time something more "American-style," like Citra and Cascade.

 

Why should anyone have assumed that since 'an account' requested some beer served via cask that it automatically had to have extra ingredients in it? I've drank beer at plenty of 'accounts' that was served on cask that had nothing extra added to it. Just cask-conditioned.

 

Ah, fair enough. I just know I've had saisons with white sage in the past and loved every second of it. And I've also had hoppy saisons which I really enjoyed (I love saisons in general). I've had a Tank 7 steeped with earl grey tea that was really good too.

I think I would either go with the hops for the saison OR the herbs, but probably not both. Not sure. You don't want to completely overwrite the saison's saisonniness.