Cask ale appreciation thread

Some crazy number like 95% is cask. Sussex Best is 85% of what they brew.

 

It’s certainly not what it was but Youngs Bitter is still OK. I don’t see that they have ruined McEwans ales – the new cask beers are nothing to do with the old ones, a decision I find rather odd, but they haven't ruined anything because these beers never existed before. The new McEwan’s IPA is a pleasant enough, unchallenging pint, but it does just taste like a Wells beer. (I was struck by the similarity when I was in a Wells tied pub for the first time relatively recently and had Eagle Bitter).

 

What do you think of Fullers 1845? It's so nice that they could make a new Burton with enough popularity to make it viable to sell regularly in Supermarkets? Or does it not count as a proper Burton?

On a not unrelated note some work colleagues and I won a pub quiz last Monday, and I got to contribute the answer about the origins of the phrase "gone for a Burton".

 

After my family cask beers are the greatest love of my life. The abbot ale of the 1970's is probably the closes thing to a religious experience I will ever have. If only CAMRA would remove their heads from their arses and sanction cask breathers pubs could keep the beers better and longer and end the nightmare of being served a stale off pint.

 

No one is stopping anyone from using blanket pressure, Camra aren't the Stasi. Remember a little oxidation can be a welcome thing and adds to the character of the beer over its optimum serving span.

 

Fullers should bring back Old Burton Extra as a regular winter beer. I'd prefer the 1930's version, but I could live with the 1950's one.

A revival of Barclay Perkins KKKK would be great, too. Never going to happen, though.

 

Forgot to answer your question. I love 1845. One of my favourite beers. Not really a Burton in the 20th-century sense. But a wonderful beer.

 

KKKK was a cask beer.

 

Why's that? Victorian recipe is it?

I loved the Past Masters Old Burton Extra they did. Must have drunk 2 or 3 cases of the stuff.

 

i

I hope someone tries it, the brown ale you did with Head in a Hat was one of the nicest cask beers I've had. Certainly the nicest brown ale.

 

Yeah, it worked out pretty well. Pretty things in the US did a 1950's Whitbread DB that was really nice, too. Especially the cask version.

 

1845 is a lovely. That reminds me to make I drink some tomorrow, when I'll be staying in a Fullers hotel.

 

As an American that has spent a significant amount of time in London pubs, I must say that I am 100% on board with cask ale. If it were done well here I would drink it nearly exclusively.

 

I just have to say that reading through this thread made me realize how much I have been neglecting cask beer lately, and English ales in general. I remember attending a few cask/real ale festivals circa 2004-2008, but they seem to be getting few and far between in the US. Not to mention the difficulty of finding properly maintained cask beer around these parts. It made me go back to The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver and re-read the entire "British Ale Tradition" chapter last night. By the end of the night I was lying in bed looking up flights to the UK.

 

Maybe attend this year’s Yards Real Ale Invitational?

Last year it occurred on May, 1 2016. He is a short write-up/description: http://www.phillyvoice.com/drink-cask-ale-at-the-annual-yards-real-ale-invitational-2016/

I have attended the majority of these festivals over the past nine years; good beer, good food and good bands. Can you ask for anything more?

Cheers!

 

I drink about 50/50 cask vs tap. Biggest issue for me is that >90% of the cask beers are bitters, and it is hard to find other styles when you are in the mood for a certain something. My favourite cask beer ever was the 4.5% cask version of Old Engine Oil, but it only comes out once a year and isn't easy to find. I haven't even seen a winter warmer on cask yet this winter.
If you asked me 6 months ago, I would have also said that the really hoppy cask beers seem to fall a bit flat (on the nose), but then I had the amazing Dark Star Green Hop...which I'll probably never see again.

 

I had a nice pint in a Fullers pub recently - half London Pride, half ESB. Nicer than Pride on its own but I do love ESB.

 

Out of curiosity, where are you based captain? I think we must be unusually lucky in the North. I never really drink anything other than cask in my small hometown (craft keg only in London if I have to). I'd say our small town has at least five pubs that will always, always have three very distinct styles of cask beer at any time, as a rule. You would always be able to get anything from bitter, pale, burton, IPA, mild, ruby every kind of stout/porter, Old Ale on any given night. Certainly, nothing like more than 90% of the beers would be bitters. Perhaps 40-60% would be bitters and ambers, golden ales, pales. It did astonish me that when I was in London, I couldn't automatically get a dark beer if I fancied it (whether mild/ruby/stout/porter), even in a BA approved/lauded place, as a matter of course. In fact, I was in The Rake, having just enjoyed the variety of food at Borough Market only to be mortified by the barman informing me that 'they don't really do dark beers.'!

 

That is unusually lucky. It's rare to have a town with a customer base that means they can afford to put those kinds of beers on, knowing they'll be drunk up and not wasted. At least here there's such a variety it's not hard to find at least one pub that will have what you want.