Cask Appreciation: Piston or Gravity Dispense

As I understand it, lambic was traditionally served from the barrel. Raf Meerts asserts that the original meaning of Geuze was lambic that was good enough to serve straight from its original barrel with out blending or sweetening. He places the emergence of bottled geuze in the later 1800s, mostly in response to the rise in popularity of champagne and Bavarian lager

 

There was actually a post in regards to this on 3 Fonteinen's FB recently.

From the Post on October 20th
You may have noticed that we only pour our lambics from a handpump, both in our lambik-O-droom and at festivals. This is the traditional way to enjoy lambic from draft, whether it is a young or old lambic, from a special barrel or a fruited lambic.
Historically, Iambic is pulled manually and with gravity, directly from the oak barrel or from a freshly filled steel keg, that solely functions as an intermediary vessel. So without any need for pressurized CO2. And, moreover, the lambic has not (!) fermented in the keg. The lambic is possibly dispensed through a sparkler, aerating it and forming a frothy head in the glass, for selected lambic beers.
In the lambik-O-droom, we have two of such English hand pumps. We usually serve two versions of faro, and sometimes even a fruit lambic straight from the maceration barrel.

 

Thank you. I've also heard that the lambic from the beer engines at Moeder Lambic is still and served with a sparkler. If there's no fermentation going on in the "cask" (or if this wouldn't pass CAMRA's standards for "real ale"), then I can understand why there'd be some eye rolling. Consumers take things at face value. If it's superficially presented as "cask beer," then the average consumer who is familiar with cask beer will assume that there is an equivalence with English cask beer. I could be mistaken or interpreting the above quote wrong, but it also seems disingenuous to claim that a handpump "is the traditional way" to serve draft lambic if they weren't traditionally using beer engines. Why not just state that lambic would not have been served by being pushed with gas, so with their traditions in mind they now use beer engines at 3 Fonteinen to provide a draft experience? None of what I am saying is meant to take away from the specialness or value of these methods or what's actually being served though.

 

That doesn't look good. Almost completely flat.

 

"extra chilled" huh?!?!?!

 

I suspect this is a 'strategy' to slowly get the 'kids' re-introduced to cask beer? The two main complaints that are often made about cask beer is that it is warm and flat. Maybe address one complaint at a time?

Cheers!

P.S. Since I am a fan of traditional cask beer I have in the past complained to some of my local craft beer bars about them serving their cask beer too cold. The common refrain is that the bar only has one cold 'box' and all of the draft beers are served at that same temperature; they don't have a separate location (e.g., a basement) for the storage/serving of cask beer.

 

It doesn’t look like it has any carbonation worth mentioning, natural or otherwise. Where’s the foam? That beer’s flat.

 

I have had all of the top 5 beers on the above list with the exception of the top beer: Sharp’s Doom Bar.

I was not familiar with this beer so I looked it up on BA. There are 57 reviews and 180 ratings for this beer with a score of 79 (which equates to Okay).

The number 2 beer is Timothy Taylor Landlord which I have had multiple times on cask and for my palate it is a very good/excellent beer; BA score of 91 (Outstanding).

I wonder why Sharp’s Doom Bar outsells Timothy Taylor Landlord? A situation of better distribution/marketing?

Cheers to Timothy Taylor Landlord!

 

So, there is no real need for a cellar person at the pub to 'finish' the cask and decide on when it is ready to be served when it comes to Sharp's Doom Bar. From a handling/maintenance perspective it could be argued this is easier/best for the pub owner but based upon the reviews/ratings it comes at the expense of serving sub-par product to the pub's customers. Not a 'good' trade-off from my perspective. But if the customers are willing to drink that stuff...?

Maybe another indicator of the decline of cask beer in the UK?

Cheers!

 

What are the details of the conditioning of the Celebration? If you know, of course.

All done at the brewery, and anything different from bottle-conditioning?

Sparkler off and you got that kind of head?