Where have you found the “adjusted” beers of Verdant, Track, Cloudwater? Was it at the brewery’s taprooms? Cheers!
$7 here. It looks like American breweries are getting a little more for the cask ale than the UK. Interesting.
You will definitely find them in the respective taprooms, but you can find them in pubs as well. Close to me I have a few really good pubs that specialize in cask and craft and these will carry a good selection of craft cask beers. I have certainly come across them while visiting random pubs, it's just rare. I will usually do some research if I'm visiting a new town or city for the first time to try and seek out any free houses or craft pubs. There's even a small trend at the moment of breweries taking on their own pubs. Verdant have one in Falmouth, Ponona Island have one in Salford and Brew York have just taken over one in York. There are more for sure as well, just can't think of them off the top of my head. All these will be selling theirs and others craft cask beers. They're out there, you just need to dig a little to find them.
It helps that the cask pints at macleod are 20oz To follow up on yourairport remark...a pint of an extremely mediocre iPa from an extremely mediocre brewery(Santa Monica brewing) at LAX is 13 dollars before tip. Their "juicy ipa" is 15 dollars. You're kinda close.
I'm all for being able to order a half pint. But if the max amount I can order of a cask is 12 oz, we got problems.
Yeah, there is a different 'history' of cask beer in the US vs. the UK. In the US cask beer is essentially equivalent to craft beer and consequently American consumers are conditioned (no pun intended) to pay craft beer prices. In the UK, cask beer has a very different history. Back in the day, the typical British beer consumer would go to the pub to drink beer (e.g., cask beer) with the expectations of those beers being economically priced. This would be akin to my father going to the corner bar and drinking a beer like Bud/Miller/Coors (e.g., Schmidt's in the Philly area) and expecting to obtain that beer on the cheap. Younger beer drinkers in the UK will often (typically?) view cask beer as Grandad's beer and that because of the long history of those being cheap these beers by their nature should be cheap. Obviously you are aware that with cask beer there are costs associated with its production, distribution and serving at the bar/taproom that exceed that of serving keg beer. I suspect that some UK beer consumers are aware of this as well (e.g., @Dethark ) but for an 'average' UK beer consumer this is likely something they don't think about; for them the equation is cask beer = cheaper. I suspect that this equation is one factor for why Doom Bar is the top selling cask beer in the UK. I suspect that Sharp's Brewery (because of MolsonCoors ownership?) has found a 'sweet spot' on how to produce/distribute their product economically and can thrive even when the average retail price for a pint of cask beer is £3.57 [around $4.36] in January 2023. Cheers!
Interesting. I traveled frequently to the UK for business but that was back in the 90's. I visited many pubs during those frequent visits and I just don't recall seeing half-pints then. All that I ever drank (and by observation everybody else in the pub) were imperial pints of cask ales. Do you think that the present day reason for why half-pints are common now is due to the large increase in the cost of living over the past few years? In other words, a consumer response to the affordability issues of today? Cheers!
Maybe very common was over stating it a little. It's certainly not uncommon though to see people asking for and drinking halves. Thinking about it more, it could possibly be that because I drink in a lot of pubs that are known for well kept cask, a couple have 12 cask lines, that people are drinking halves more than you would see normally because they want to try more of the beers. Cask beer is still cheap over here. Can easily find a pint in most towns for £4 even cheaper in places. Weatherspoon's, not sure if you have heard of them, a chain well known for selling cheap beer, literally have pints of cask beer starting at 99p. Last time I visited one, I had a very nice pint of Old Peculiar for £2.89. I'm more than happy to pay £5-6 for a well kept pint of cask.
I was going to say, no, there's not, and that's why they're not. But since Jack broke it down perfectly, put me down for "what he said."
Interesting. While I have been to a significant number of pubs back in the day I never was in one which had a dozen cask lines. My recollection is that something like 3 cask lines as more typical. It could well be that half-pints are more suited to a pub with lots of cask choices. I could envision myself taking a 'sampling' approach there. Well, I can certainly state that from a US craft beer perspective that £4 ($5.24 today) is indeed cheap. I take it that for UK consumers paying £4 is still considered cheap? I ask this since there is now a 'switch' in beer sales in the UK of supermarkets vs. pubs: "In the UK, supermarket beer sales consistently outperform pub sales, with supermarkets dominating the "off-trade" (where beer is bought to be consumed elsewhere). Specifically, supermarkets hold a 51% share of the UK beer market, while pubs and other licensed premises account for the remaining 49%. This trend has been evident for many years, with supermarket sales steadily increasing while pub sales have declined." Cheers!
3 to 4 cask lines is in indeed typical for most pubs. One of my favourite craft bars up in Whitby, The Green Dragon, has just had a refurb and has installed 4 cask lines, they had none before. £4 is most certainly cheap for a pint. Supermarkets will always be cheaper they have the buying power and transportation infrastructure that independent business can't compete with. Don't get me wrong, I love a cheap night, picking up some cheap beers from a supermarket for having a BBQ with mates.
If you're extremely lucky, probably have to be somewhere in Yorkshire, you'll find it on cask from old oak wooden barrels. Usually old serry barrels. These give the beer a very different taste to the usual OP. Couple of pics from a recent trip to the Quirky Den in Whitby, where they serve OP from the wood.
From the linked article (with some emphasis in bold by me): “Sales of cask-conditioned ale, as such beer is known, are down 25 percent since pre-pandemic levels notes Pete Brown, the prolific English drinks writer, consultant and nine-time author of the keynote industry Cask Report. “It’s also the only segment of the beer market that hasn’t returned to anything like 2019 sales,” he adds.” So, it would seem that the price of a pint of cask beer is not the issue for the decline in sales? I suppose it is an issue of declining number of venues (i.e., pubs) which explains the decline in cask beer sales? “This time, however, cask’s plight is coupled with an overall decline in British pub culture that has seen more than 10,000 pubs close since 2006, according to the U.K.-based Institute of Economic Affairs.” I want to thank you for entertaining my numerous queries. It is very helpful to have a ‘man in the field’ to discuss these matters. Cheers!
@Providence - Theakston is one of the few breweries that still has & still utilizes a cooper (i.e. wooden cask as @Dethark mentioned above): Onsite + Select Establishments + Rare To-Go Options…something to seek out, if one finds themselves out that way Old post(s) –
I can absolutely see a wave in the next few years where larger craft breweries sell cask ale at $15/glass as a novelty item that only comes once a year for a limited time, then five years down the line they release it year-round, but only at the brewery - not at bars and the like.
The price is definitely not the issue in my opinion. As you've said before, cask is seen as an old mans drink. That and the fact that younger people in general are drinking less the previous generations, on paper it does not look good for cask beer. Generally I'm not a doom and gloom man, I like took at the positives in things. The fact that craft breweries are leaning into producing very good cask beer and craft bars are coming around to serving cask beers more and more is a good sign to me. More than happy to try and answer any queries or questions you have. I am by no means an expert, I just drink quite a lot of cask beer
