Cask is building on craft ideas

Back in the 90's I traveled frequently to the UK for business. For those trips that took me to London we would always stay at the same hotel (my company used a per diem for travel charges and there were not a lot of hotels in London that matched the paltry per diem value) and right down the street was the Crown & Sceptre Pub which we would frequent. When they had a new cask beer they just tapped the following day (and perhaps one more day if it lasted that long) you could 'follow' the evolution of that beer. While I enjoyed a given brand when freshly tapped I did notice, and preferred, that beer later (e.g., 1-2 days). We were fortunate that the Crown & Sceptre Pub was a popular place to be for the locals and all of the casks (that I drank) were kicked before the beer went 'off'. I have had a few cask beers that were starting to go 'off' at other pubs; needless to say a lesser enjoyment but those beers were never at the awful stage.

Cheers!

 

Oh, and one more observation of US cask - I have at times consumed US served cask beer that was too cold. They would store those beers in their cold room with the other kegs (i.e., they did not have a separate cellar for the casks). I would try to warm those beers up a bit by cupping my hands around the glass which helped warm it up a bit. If I was going to drink a second glass of cask beer I would order it when I was about halfway done the first glass and let the ambient environment warm the beer up prior to me drinking that second glass.

Cheers!

 

One year I went to the Blue Point Cask beer festival in February. The beers were gravity fed from tables in a tent. Weather was cold, and so the beers were also too COLD. Memorable event, but I don't really have much recollection of the beers I tried. I have the glasses from the event, though.

 

Firkin Fests are the best!
Long live Real Ale!
It's a shame that not enough U. S. Brewers brew the proper beers for cask conditioning. Victory Storm King Imperial Stout was one of those beers. It wasn't bad, but I think a more "traditional" style would have been better.
Pickin's are slim around my area.
At the Pub I used to work at, we had a beer engine with the Co² gizmo on it to preserve freshness and kept it in a separate beer meister to serve at proper temperature. We definitely had the demand for cask beer, but there were only ever 4 different beers that we were able to get, so people got bored with them. Plus, one of those was the Victory which wasn't as popular and didn't move as fast as a Mild or Bitter.
I've been to several bars with a beer engine, but nothing tapped. That is very disappointing! Total buzz kill.
So, to any Brewers reading this, brew more bitters, E.S.B's.,browns, milds & cask them please!

 

Trust me, I know about cask breathers.... but it seems a lot of those restaurants don't - or didn't; I haven't seen cask on for a while other than in some specialized cask beer pubs that do know how to treat them, and the customers know how to drink them.
I don't know that even a breather will help for months, but certainly a couple weeks.
The one I had in mind in my post literally had the pin sitting up on the bar, a gravity spout, and that's it. Definitely no breather or anything on there.

 

Just finished the last episode, fun series to watch. It would have been interesting if they'd asked the breweries the visited about how they interact with publicans about cask ale (I don't know if there is much of that as I'm not sure what, if any, distributor system there is in the UK). Like do they push to educate newer pubs that might not carry cask, push for more bar space for cask vs keg, etc...
I most definitely added micropubs to my list of things to do the next time I'm in the UK.

 

I have no knowledge of beer distribution in the UK.

As I have discussed before the 'challenge' for the retailer (e.g., pub owner) is that there is a need for a knowledgeable cellarperson to 'complete' the beer at the retailer. Also, any of the cask beer that is not consumed in a timely manner is wastage so that is a liability as well.

I suppose will see if cask beer is still around in the next decade (or not)?

Cheers!

 

Mmmmm, mushy peas.

 

I credit Peter Austin and Alan Pugsley for truly honoring the real ale tradition by being very selective with "their" estate of cask accounts in the early days of craft beer here in the US, and that came with a demonstrated commitment to proper cellarmanship and presentation from the pub owner. Furthermore, I wholeheartedly and unequivocally endorse the appropriate use of cask breathers, particularly for retailers seeking to establish a consistent real ale clientele. I miss a proper pint of outstanding real ale.

 

Since watching that series I’ve been fiending to go back to a local brewery that does cask ale, managed to make it in today for a couple pints (Yorkshire pale ale and best bitter; yes they do keg beer as well as seen in the background, not purely a cask brewer).

 

The exception to that rule, which i generally agree with, is Two Hearted Ale. If I'm at the Eccentric Cafe and it is on cask, I'm having a couple.

 

I can't see passing that up, especially there.

 

First time on Cask was there, and i was hooked. Had it a couple of other times in beer bars, it was in good shape in those. Best is at the Cafe.

 

I was trying to remember if the one good beer bar in my area got Two-Hearted casks in their heyday of having a couple craft (and actually imported English) ales on the beer engine every week.

Too long ago for me to recall.

 

I will def give you that!

 

NERAX should be returning this year or next. The organizers held an event at Long Cross in Medford recently and I was lucky enough to go and have a couple beers on cask and ask them questions.

You should head to Back Beat brewing, and also Gentile Brewing, both in Beverly. Literally a couple minutes walk from each other. They both put proper English styles on cask weekly.

In fact, Back Beat's casks are so popular, they recently had to add a FIFTH.

Similarly, Notch will have a Stichfaß every now and then (as I'm sure you probably know). Those kick same day every time they have one. One time it kicked in 45 minutes.

 

Hoping they return this fall, but if they have to put it off till next spring to do it right, I'mOK with that.

|I'd hope that breweries have the knowledge to do cask right, and the clientele to know about it.
What |I have in mind is some restaurants that claim to be beer-centric, but don't really know. The specific example I had above was British Beer Company - Overall I enjoyed them, good food and a decent beer selection, (it came and went over the years, but they had no idea about cask. For a place that styled themselves as am English Pub, they should have been better.
That said, some places do it right. Union Brew House in Weymouth used to do Firkin Fridays - and did it right. When I was working nearby there, and going to the Cape many weekends, I'[d stop there for a pint or 2 and some food while I waited for traffic to die down.
Unfortunately, Beverly isn't an easy ride for me right now - between family and time.