I can't provide a detailed report of any very recent experiences here, but for those who may be reading this thread and traveling in Michigan, I'll mention that two breweries where I discovered in the past year where cask ale is available are Grizzly Peak in Ann Arbor (two beer engines) and Brass Ring Brewing in Grand Rapids (3 engines), where they specialize in English ales. I commented very briefly on these discoveries in my Places review for each brewery. I also recall reading somewhere that Bell's has cask ales, but I've never seen them there. I'm going to be at Bell's tomorrow and will ask (but not partake since it's their Roll Out the Barrel event).
I saw no hand pulls, so I asked an employee in the cafe about cask ales, and he wasn't aware that they have them. He was fairly young, so his memory is limited. Perhaps an occasional keg on the bar with gravity dispense is what might occur, if anything?
“Doing it well depends on doing it right…I don’t know that putting a bunch of crap in a Cask and calling it Art is creative” - Sam Masotto --- A collaborative pub ale that utilizes Sam Masotto’s yeast & Matt McCall’s malts: Batch #1 came out in 2020 - Bonn Place Pennsylvania, USA 1xActive Beer Engine (Angram) Cask-conditioned Cask Tapped: Jan. 20th, 2023 Visit: Jan 21st, 2023 English-style Pale Ale (ESB): Especially Special (Collab w/ McCall) ABV: 5.1% Breather: Yes Sparkler: No Pints x2 Visuals: 6 Sidenote: Sam’s initial approach to guiding “people into traditional cask” required some aesthetics - --- --- Tapping, from the other day - --- Supplementary Data (GABF, UK Observations, Jeff Alworth) - Bonn’s (early) GABF Placements: British Ales - Sam’s UK Observations – Jeff’s ‘Mooey’ Admiration: An Unconventional Pub Ale -
One for Two on cask today. Struck out at Revolution today (Fistmas cask at the Brewpub available tomorrow). Live now, Revolution Eugene at The Beer Temple (on deck Coffee Eugene and another). $8 16 oz cask pour. Delicious!
More Altbier, from the barrel - Notch Massachusetts, USA 1xGerman Gravity Dispense (Stichfaß) Cask Tapped/Spigoted: Jan. 27th, 2023 Visit: Jan. 27th, 2023 Dusseldorf-inspired Altbier (German Old Beer): Altbier @ 4.5% Submerged: No Visuals: 5 ---
February Release/Out Now - The Good Beer Yearbook 2023 - CAMRA shop Touches on - Top 10 beers of the year Alco-free & ‘functional beers’ – what’s the future? – Pete Brown Milds – not just for May – Matthew Curtis Reckoning in the industry – Melissa Cole Colour bar a racial segregation – David Jesudason Sustainability – the move to carbon Zero – Hollie Stephens Why pubs are the best places to drink – Jess Mason and more from: Jonny Garrett Jane Peyton Laura Hadland Adrian Tierney-Jones Roger Protz Tim Webb Andy-Parker
What a wonderful thread as a Brit in New York missing my cask ales. Will have to add a picture and details next time I’m there but one of my favourite discoveries has been Dogwood in Beacon NY, the tap for Old Glenham Brewery. Two casks on. Particularly good is the Weavers ale which the brewer told me is inspired by St Austell Tribute: https://www.chronogram.com/hudsonva...lish-cask-ales-to-beacon/Content?oid=15548220
Recent Cask Survival Strategies – US - Tomm Carroll has a more recent take on MacLeod's strategy to exist, and highlights Yorkshire's approach in the process. While prints are available locally, the site - BEER PAPER - is pending an upload. Consequently, snippets pro tem... --- UK - Greene King hopes to convert more with rugby-themed ales (morningadvertiser.co.uk) "Creating exciting styles and flavors in cask ale is a passion for us as we continue to provide our customers with something new throughout the year to broaden guest appeal and engage new drinkers"
I don’t have the time…planning to swing by tomorrow, as the new addition to this years roster - Seneca Lake via gravity – is too enticing …@Gold89 I’ve spoken to Jason Hicks (JWF) about Ian Hatton several months ago: Dogwood has rough hours, and not sure how the cask is treated…hoping Jason considers/investigates & brings them closer Original Thread - Old Glenham Brewery - Traditional English Cask Ales | Community | BeerAdvocate
Caskiversary - Strong Rope - Red Hook New York, USA 15xGravity Dispensed Cask(s) Cask-conditioned Cask(s) Tapped: Feb. 4th, 2023 Visit: Feb. 4th, 2023 Dubel: Fust Dubbel @ 6.7% Brewery: Seneca Lake Submerged: No Sample Visuals: 2 Ordinary Bitter: Ordinary Brooklyn Bitter (O.B.B) @ 3.8% Brewery: 18th Ward Submerged: No Pint Visuals: 2 ESB: Middling Earth @ 4.8% Brewery: KCBC Submerged: No Pint Visuals: 4 --- Dubel - Ordinary Bitter - ESB - ---
I’ve only had one attempt at this method, at The Silver Stamp in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Silver Stamp is celebrating their second Anniversary Wednesday, February 22nd, and will feature at least one gravity cask. They don’t currently have a hand pump, but are considering purchasing/installing one. I changed my flight to the red eye return once I learned of their plans. Rose and Andrew run an incredible establishment. All should definitely consider at least one visit if you should find yourself in the area. Mohave Brewing in Henderson is the only other cask I know available in the Valley. I will try to make at least one visit to Water Street. I will take pictures of the actual tap for any the casks I come across there over the next two and a half weeks. This was my first Fully Krausened beer since G. Heileman and later Pabst brewed Old Style in that manner. Pabst nixed the method at some point after acquiring, reinstated for a hot minute, and has not fully or "authentically" krausened Old Style since. Old Style is a nice beer, but this one is better. From east of the the High Desert and Kingdom of Nye, Somewhere in Time, with Art Bell (in spirit): August 14, 2022 (The first of two cask gravity pours, at 5:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time) The Beer: Brauerei Heller-Trum / Schlenkerla Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen Special Edition Unfiltered The Keg: The Beer: The Review: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-weekend-108.668434/page-3#post-7587860 The Verdict: Overall: This is a great unfiltered marten by the always great beers from Heller-Trum. Going to straighten out whether this needs to be added to the database this week, but in the interim, I’m going to drink as much possible before the keg runs out. 4.5 We each had two after which that keg kicked (it tapped at 2 PM).
This is a Holzfaß (German Gravity by wood) vs. British Gravity by steel, which is mainly for lagers. In this setting, the secondary fermentation usually takes place within the lagering tank (e.g. horizontal tank), before the faß…have posted a couple faß’s throughout the thread with Notch being the most recent Old post from Chris -
The quality was good the first time and truly excellent the second time but it should have been as Ian was there at the time checking in on the condition, which in itself is a good sign.
@ChicagoJ - You've got the wrong beer in your link. That wasn't the unfiltered Märzen, that was the "Kräusen," otherwise known as "Helles Märzen." It's already in the BA database as Kräusen. I'd be all over that beer if I was there, but people run the risk of over-applying the idea of something being a "cask version" by thinking of it too loosely and automatically thinking of it as a step up. It sounds like that beer is the same product that B United puts into cans in CT, but in this case they put some into a keg for gravity dispense. Is that any different from the canned beer? Could be. Maybe not. If it is any different, I would guess that B United is applying any differences rather than Schlenkerla. Personally, I have little trust in that. I barely trust their cans (no offense to them). Is there any fermentation in the B United keg that would make it similar to English cask ale? Generally speaking, it feels like there's a good deal of superficiality when it comes to the romance of beer packaging. There's a reason why bars in the US bothered to fix up fake cask systems. It's like "double dry hopped" for a different crowd. I would love to know more about Schlenkerla's methods of serving from barrel in Bamberg and how it differs from their bottling (or how it might differ from B United's methods). Can you add anything to this discussion @herrburgess or am I making improper questions?
This was probably more of an issue in the past, when imports had more importance in the US craft scene. The one case that always comes to mind was a place that used to advertise Fuller's from cask... even though Fuller's didn't export cask ale. The bar had beer engines for appearances but they were going to standard kegs. You'd see something similar with nitro (albeit kind of the inverse). Bars would advertise a certain beer on nitro not normally served that way. The bar would use a normal keg not designed for nitro dispense by the brewer and frankenstein it up with the dispense that they'd ordinarily use for Guinness... or something to that effect I guess. Customers like rarity.
