Stopped at Dancing Gnome Brewery (Pittsburgh, PA) and they have a beer engine with their English Mild on cask. It was tasty.
Wow, I had no idea there were this many places doing cask in the US. And so many in Pennsylvania too, what's going on there to make it more common there compared to other places?
That is an interesting question. Firstly, PA is a pretty big state and I am only familiar with the beer scene in Southeastern PA (Philly and surrounding counties). The craft beer scene is very vibrant in this area which includes a fair number of places with cask delivery and lately also Lukr side-pull faucets. I suppose there is just a desire/demand by local craft beer consumers for alternative delivery of draft beer. Cheers!
I think that a lot of how much you see cask has a lot to do with how early a certain area adopted craft beer as a thing.
From what I gathered from some folks in this thread, it is if you go to the right bars. You ever go to the Dandelion? They always had something good on cask there, but a bit pricey. Always a great British cheese plate Speaking from over a decade ago, though.
No, I never made it to Dandelion. In the past I did regularly visit The Victoria Freehouse to drink cask beers. Unfortunately that place closed a few years ago. Cheers! P.S. I suspect the majority of my Philly cask beer consumption was at Dawson Street Pub starting with cask Yards beers like ESA starting in the 1990’s
It really seems like we never have been to the same places in Philly from back when I lived there. That's what makes Philly great! So many places that are awesome and you get your pick of what makes it great for you!
A decade+ ago, the craft beer scene in Philly was mostly the craft beer bars. For example, Dawson Street Pub opened in 1988: "The Dawson Street Pub in Manayunk, Philadelphia, wasn't a new opening in the 1990s but was purchased and run by Dave Wilby starting in 1988, evolving from its previous incarnation as a biker bar called Uncle Charlie's, with the pub gaining prominence for pouring Yards Brewing's first beers in 1995." Over the past decade the craft brewery scene has expanded and going to brewery taprooms became a thing. As discussed above, Yards opened in 1995 with the original brewery being basically a garage in the Manayunk neighborhood. More recently the other Philly breweries are places like Love City, Human Robot, Triple Bottom,...And Yards now has a HUGE facility on Spring Garden, Street. Back to the Yards and Dawsons Street Pub connection. Last year I posted in a thread discussing the annual Yards Real Ale Invitational event: "I attended this year’s event (May 19th) and had a great time. This year was special since it was also a celebration of Yards 30th anniversary and they served a special firkin of Yards ESA which was dry hopped in the firkin with East Kent Golding hops and this firkin was tapped by Dave Wilby of Dawson’s Street Pub. I discussed this in the Mild Ale thread: “I recently attended the Yards Real Ale Invitational at Yards and this year’s event was also a celebration of their 30th anniversary. They had a ‘special’ cask of ESA there (dry hopped in the cask with East Kent Golding hops) and they let Dave Wilby who is the owner of Dawson Street Pub tap that cask.” With the opening of many breweries in Philly over the past decade, the craft beer scene there has gotten even better. Cheers!
I lived in Philly from '11-13, and my experience there was that you could get great beer damn near anywhere. The food was excellent, as well. And if you wanted to go to a friendly dive, it was there as well. My experience was mostly centered around West Philly and Center City, though. Back then, Spring Garden was a dividing line. Folks were amazed that Vetri opened up a couple of places north of it. Alla Spina was an amazing gastropub. There were great places for food and beer in west Philly just south of Market between 30 and 40th. You could get a great beer anywhere in center city or old town at a nice place. The FOH manager at the place I worked complained about allocations for beers that you see everywhere now. Saved Beer Lass from a parking ticket. There's a spot in the concrete outside of Dandelion that is just right for regrinding a whetstone for sharpening knives. Anyhow, the beer bars in Philly did more for the cause than any brewery ever did.
Checking out Forest & Main's new location in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philly. Starting with a mug of Tiny Tim from the beer engine, a tasty 3.8% abv Bitter
Also had a tankard of Crown and Cane, a 4.8%abv golden colored Bitter that is a collaboration with The Dandelion. Fitting to @MrOH and @JackHorzempa discussion above.
Dancing Gnome, glad to see them represented. Probably the first top tier brewery I visited on the summer after I finished my undergrad degree. My girlfriend (now fiancee) really likes their stuff, so it's always easy to come to a compromise where we share a beer when we're in the area. They also have great distro in PA and have fresh kegs at a lot of local spots, so it's simple to grab a pint to split when we're getting lunch too.
It has been a while since I posted in this thread... A local brewery for me, Saint Arnold has done an "English Week," this week. A handful of English style/inspired beers and foods... The English Dark Mild was particularly really well done. 3.3% ABV. Big on the baked bread flavors, nutty, toffee, just a hint of sweetness, just a hint of fruity esters. Subtle but very nice. This has that perfect cask body, that makes this feel bigger than it actually is. Ultra smooth and fine carbonation. Something I can come back to, and down in big gulps. A very nice example of an English Dark Mild. Typical American examples of the style can often seem to roasty for me. This however, has a lot of great baked bread, and nutty, malty nuance that is way more than just roast. The cask conditioning is spot on as well. A very moreish offering that I wish I could have more often. Also a good beer to have while reading JP Donleavy... Then later on their Christmas Ale on cask is always amazing. This to me, is a dead ringer for something like Old Peculiar, it really holds up as an "Old Ale" in that vain. With an odd but interesting take on a "Cottage Pie" really just a braised beef and potato dish, but worked really well with the cask.
Since my last visit at The Beer Temple, I note their Cask Marque certification, not that they necessarily needed the external validation as they have always held a high commitment to excellence. Poured here is Revolution Eugene Porter. It’s the opposite situation at Revolution Brewing for cask. Their brewpub had a long standing cask handle primarily used for weekends. The brewpub closed, and they had cask for a while at the brewery, but it is gone, and not sure if it’s returning based on the picture below.
English style Porter on cask at Good Wood Brewing in Duluth, GA - Cask Marque certified. Quantum Immortality 4%.
You may be right but Georgia is fairly late adopter of craftbeer comparatively and we have at least three places serving cask ale.
Not quite the same as drinking it via cask but more convenient. Especially on a day like today with sub-zero real feel temperatures. I will later today be drinking my third bottle of 2022 BCBS from the four-pack I purchased in 2022. I have it sitting on my cellar floor to get to a cool drinking temperature. Cheers!
