Stephen Beaumont discusses 'real ale' with a few key writers, assessors & brewers - https://full-pour.com/english-real-...tm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio Darron Anley Des De Moor Paul Nunny Pete Brown ---
I should first caveat that I am a fan of Real Ale (e.g., Cask conditioned beers) and I do hope that they still thrive in the UK (and beyond). Some excerpts from the article: “Furthering the problem, according to Brown, is the rising popularity of pseudo-Mediterranean lager. “It’s a subset of keg lager which originates or pretends to originate from Spain or Italy that is hoovering up demand from everywhere else, [reaching] one in five pints poured in pubs this year,” says Brown. Further, he points to research by the Scottish brewer Innis & Gunn which shows that British beer consumers are drawn by default to continental lagers, even if they have no idea where the beer originated or what it might taste like.” This sounds a lot like how in the US Mexican Lagers (e.g., Modelo Especial, Corona,…) have become ascendent in the beer market. An example of a pseudo-Mediterranean beer in the UK is Madrí Excepcional, marketed as a "Spanish" lager, but is actually brewed in the UK by Molson Coors. And from the article this sort of beer is priced higher than a cask ale: “While the average pint of cask bitter cost £3.57 [around $4.36] in January 2023, the average pint of standard lager was 18.5 percent more expensive at £4.23 [around $5.17],” notes De Moor.” The optimistic take in the article (with some emphasis in bold by me): “Independent craft brewers who have been shut out of the keg market have found that, because the big guys don’t give a crap about cask anymore, they can get their beers into pubs in cask where they can’t in keg,” says Brown. “So we’re seeing hip, young brewers of hazy pales and their acolytes now leaning onto cask, when once they were responsible for a major leakage from cask to keg.” American style craft beers (e.g., Regular IPAs, NEIPAs, etc.) have become more popular in the UK over the last few years. Is the intimation of the above paragraph that the small(er), independent craft brewers in the UK will package their Juicy/Hazy beers in the cask format in order to sell product to pubs? Hmm…? Cheers!
The level of beer elitism on display in this scold fairly well explains to me why cask ale will remain a niche market within a niche market within a niche market in America. It really is about as whiny as a vegetarian calling ahead to a meat festival.
They're great when they are available. Devine, even. Counterintuitively, and sadly. American (beer) culture moves faster, and louder than cask ale permits.
And by all reporting cask beer is declining in the UK. I sure hope it doesn't go extinct since like you I enjoy drinking cask beer. I am fortunate that a local craft brewery (Troubles End) always has two beers available on cask (beer engines) and lately an additional brand available on Fridays via a gravity pour (Firkin Friday). Cheers!
Two things from the article stand out to me: 1. The smaller, independent brewer is doing their part in the U.K. We see tiny oases of that here in the U.S. That combined effort by the little guys gives me a little bit of hope that at least somebody cares. 2. The price of a proper pint has to go up. Period. And those of us who love cask ale need to hold our tongues and pony up. Either that or say goodbye to the proper pint all together.
That is a tough sell for the British beer consumers since they tend to view cask ales as being Grandads drink of choice and that they should be cheap beers. I have my fingers crossed that this perception/line of thinking can be changed. Cheers!
If there's a financially-viable way to do it to hit as many buyers as possible (or going enough over the break-even point that getting publicity for it is worth it), American breweries (especially smaller ones) would be more into it.
For American breweries there are a number of challenges as regards to producing cask beers: There is generally speaking not many American consumers demanding cask beers. There is likely to be some consumer 'push-back' of the beer if served warmer (e.g., 50-55 degrees F) and/or at low carbonation levels. The common refrain: this beer is warm and flat. Once the cask beer is tapped it is only good for a few days (e.g., 1-3 days). If the cask is not fully consumed in that short timeframe there is wastage. Installing a cask breather can mitigate the staling aspect. The sorts of beers typically/often served on cask are English style ales (e.g., Mild Ale, Bitter Ale,..) and these beer styles just aren't popular with the majority of American beer consumers. I am fortunate that a number of local craft breweries have beer engines that will serve cask beers but for completeness the majority of local craft breweries (and craft beer bars) do not have beer engines. Cask beer is a 'good fit' for UK beer consumers since there is the infrastructure via pubs to sell these beers. Unfortunately the number of pubs in the UK are declining and cask beer consumption overall is declining. Hopefully things will adjust to some sort of a 'steady state' and further declines will not occur. Cheers!
For the most part priced the same as the other craft beers. For example at Troubles End they price their Pilsner the same as their Bitter Ale, $6.50. Cheers!
Price of a dumbass ipa at Macleod Ales is 9 ...pint of best bitter on cask is 11. I always order cask.
I do keep hearing about cask dropping off over here in the UK and I'm sure it's true but it's far from being dead. I'm my experience, and I do visit a lot of pubs, you'd struggle to find a pub that has no cask, even if it's just Doom Bar. Bars are different thing though, you'll find the odd one has a pump but not many. A lot of the craft breweries here have cask pumps in their taprooms and produce some amazing craft cask beers. For me the hazy low abv beers work beautifully on cask, drinking 5 or 6 pints is easy. I even had a 8.4% DIPA on cask fairly recently and that too was lovely, could not drink many pints of that though. Verdant, Track, Cloudwater and many other top breweries have cask versions of at least one of their core beers and they're not just casked, they've adjusted the recipes to bring the best of the beer out from being casked. Everyone I've tried so far is superior to the keg version.
Fairly standard here in Boston. The bar around corner from me has draft prices ranging from $8-12, with most being $9-10. And some of the $11 and $12 drafts are for 12 oz. pours.
Do you enjoy drinking Doom Bar on cask? According the BA: "...is now the UK's no.1 selling cask beer." Do you think it is a 'good thing' that Doom Bar is the top selling cask beer? Thanks for sharing that! It is intriguing news. If the independent breweries are 'adjusting' their Juicy/Hazy beers to 'better' suit delivery from cask that seems to be a step in the right direction. Are these 'adjusted' beers commonly available at various pubs? Cheers!
Although Doom Bar would more than likely be my last pick if there was any other cask on (apart from Tetley's) I would still take it over any of the fizzy macro crap that is on. Think Stella, Fosters, Madri etc... Unfortunately no, it's not common to see these cask beers in pubs. Mainly because most pubs are tied to breweries and have no real say over what they sell. So chances are if you're wandering into a random pub you won't find them. They are however fairly easy to seek out if you do a little research for the places you're visiting.
