Cask Beer Question

I don't like cask beers... or nitro... at all. I don't know if it actually tastes different, but it certainly feels that way to me.

 

Can you explain what made it taste drastically different? That would help. Was it at the brewery or a bar? It's relatively easy for people to mess up cask beer. It shouldn't have been like you claimed: "no carbonation" and "warmer than normal" for someone who likes their stouts "room temperature or close to." Regarding the fest, are you talking about Blue Point's?

 

Cask beers always seem warm and flat to me.. Nitro.. Totally useless. So watery.

 

I'm thinking the problem might well have not have been with the cask ale itself but with how it was prepped and cared for before serving. This is something that is not generally well understood by bars and brewers in the US so it is often disappointing. Some signs the problem may lie with the people who cared for the beer and not with the beer at all.

Some signs to watch out for:

1) It is a one time offering at a bar not accustomed to caring for cask ale.
2) It is a one time offering from a brewery without a track record of doing cask ale properly.

There are others as well.

Properly cared for cask ale can be a thing of great beauty and joy if the brewery also knows what it is doing, etc.

Yes it will be served at a warmer temperature (cellar temp) than most folks in the US are accustomed to and expect, but properly brewed it is intended that the cool but not cold temperature provides the maxium flavor benefits.

Yes it will seem to have lower carbonation compared to most US beers, but that can contribute the smoothness/gentleness of the mouthfeel and again impact the flavors that come out of the beer.

But in both cases the brewer and the bar need to know and understand what they are dealing with.

 

You have to dip your feet a lot furthur in than just your first cask beer to be a critic. Nothing sounds off about what you were served. It sounds honestly more like you just are not familiar with cask carbonation. But. A lot of layers are missing to get that picture.
Cask carbonation is a lot gentler than forced, and it will be a much lower volume. The bubbles produce a different shape with the beer which doesn't bite as much. You can almost "taste" forced carbonation after you've experienced a cask beer that moves you. It feels separate if you are able to have both the cask version and the force carbed version side to side.
Cask beer is served at ambient temp, which is pretty much room temp, so outside the beer probably just being served at a much lower co2 vol than what it usually as, and which you are used to. I'm not sure what the issue actually is.

 

@Jm5471, do you have any idea when the cask was first tapped? One of the 'challenges' of cask beer is that once it is tapped the beer 'evolves' since air (oxygen) is introduced into the cask. Over a short period of time (2-3 days depending on the temperature of the cask) the beer will 'turn' due to the effects of oxidation and spoilage (there are unwanted microorganisms in the air that is introduced into the cask).

Different folks will offer differing opinions on when a cask beer is at its peak of flavor. Some will prefer the beer immediately after tapping. Some would prefer the beer about 1 day after tapping when there are some signs of flavor changes due to oxidation but no perceptible flavor changes due to the beer spoiling.

Cheers!

 

A couple of things that can work for or against the beer would be level of carbonation and oxidation. Like others have mentioned, cask beer should be lightly carbonated, but not flat. Carbonation with effect the tongue in a tactile way, but will lend carbonic acid to the taste; if the beer is flat then that would be missing. The lower volume will allow for a softer feel and more nuanced flavors that still have that slight punch to them. Oxidation will change the beer as it ages in the cask, gently nutty at times, but there are obviously instances where this can be overdone.

And, yes, they can also go 'bad' if tapped for too long. At this point it's hard to know just what you experienced without being there. It's supposed to be 'different', but not unpleasant.

 

If done well,cask ale is a revelation and can be an amazing improvement on the non cask version. But the caveat is "done well",it requires skill and knowledge.
Oxidation is viewed with horror by many but a low level of controlled oxidation can make a beer really sing. The improvement in a cask beer over a couple or three days is striking.After that,deterioration sets in.
If it is flat or "stale" the cellarman is not doing the job competently.

 

Chalk me up for another one that finds cask beer flat and watery.

I know many people love cask beer, but to each thier own

 

Squatters in UT does cask very well.

Cheers!

 

If the issue with the beer you drank was age (i.e., it was tapped several days prior) then the style of the beer is immaterial. 'Excess' oxidation and spoilage does not do beer a favor, regardless of style.

You made mention in your original post of "cask festival". The good news here is that all of those beers will be freshly tapped so there will no issue as regards spoilage off-flavors.

A brewery near me (Yards - Philadelphia) will be conducting its annual Real Ale Festival soon (4/30/17). I will be attending this event (again) and enjoying the wonderful cask beers they will be serving.

Cheers!

 

Cask is the first thing I look for when entering a brewery or pub. To me it is great. For our 25th anniversary the wife and I did a pub crawl in England going only to places that served real ale on cask. http://www.camra.org.uk/

Last year we stopped at the same brewery 3x in one week for their cask stout. Of course they could have put a new cask on at some point.

 

My guess is one of a couple things, or some combination.
First, the cask was most likely on longer than it should have been, and possibly warmer.
A cask should be held at 55 degrees (F) - cellar temp. It shouldn't be left alone on the bar.
It should also be "naturally" carbonated. It should never be flat.
Also, because it should be open to air, it will turn in about 3 - 4 days if properly held, 1 - 2 days if not.
Finally, just because a brewery CAN put something in a cask, doesn't mean that they should. Often I've seen that they'll throw some beer in cask, and then toss in weird things to dry-"hop" (not necessarily hops) for aging. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Some styles work better on cask than others - mostly British styles, occasionally porters, rarely IPAs.
I love cask beer, but over the years I've learned to ask the questions before ordering, and usually asking for a sample before committing to a full pint, just to make sure it's good.

 

Good point. Here in the States, it's not unusual for a cask version of a beer to also have fruit, herbs, vanilla, peppers, or whatever added to it (unfortunately). This could be a reason why it tasted so drastically different to the OP.

 

I do, I recently had Coffee Pot & Kettle on cask and didn't like it at all. I also had FBS on nitro recently, which is my favorite beer, and hated it on nitro

 

Cask and/or Nitro take getting used to. It's fun to try a 'normal' alongside a Nitro if possible (I got to try Hardywood GBS like this at the brewery, but Left Hand Milk Stout would be easy enough to find singles of, to do at home).

If I'm at a busy bar I will almost always order at least one cask ale if they have it, but if there's few people I will ask when it was pinned/tapped. Cask, I do like pale ales and ESB the best, Nitro: I love Rasputin or FBS. I don't like nitro "light colored" beers, and those Guiness Nitro IPA cans were the worst thing I've had in a while. /blog

 

Stouts and IPAs are both ales so that is a weird question... but of course style matters, based on your own preferences.

 

Yet all the pubs I visit have signs advertising "Ales and Stouts"
At one time brewers either produced ales or porter/stout. The signs were to indicate that they now brewed both beer types.Probably beause of the decline in Porter sales they had to brew ales.