Yearning for More British Ales

Why don't you install a cask breather? Is it a costly piece of equipment?

Cheers!

 

All our cask beer is in accordance with CAMRA guidelines, save the exceedingly rare vanilla bean in a porter, or something like that. So, barley, hops, yeast, and water. Cask conditioned-no added co2. And no non-fermentation gas (co2 or n2) touches the beer.
Cask breathers replace the empty space with co2. A soft spile, which we use, replaces it with atmosphere. That causes faster oxidation, and a shorter shelf life. But it is also vital to the flavor development of the cask. Day 1, the cask will be lively, bright, and fizzy. Not too indifferent from keg beer. By day 4 or 5 the flavors will be muted and smoother. Malty and nutty character is usually more pronounced. The stouts develop this awesome chocolatey character.

Some of our cask regulars know which day they like which beer the best and they plan their visits with our tapping schedules. sometimes people show up every day while the cask is on and order a few pints to see the flavor development.

It truly is a lovely experience that I wish more breweries and drinkers would give a chance. It changes the way people drink and the relationship between the brewer, the drinker, and the beer. One of the great examples of how the US’ beer innovation, passion, and zeal are second to none. But our drinking CULTURE, still has a long way to go...

 

Permit me to share a story.

A beer bar local to me used to serve beer via a beer engine. One day I walk in to see there was no beer available on cask. I asked the bar owner: Are you out of cask beer? He replied: I will no longer be serving cask beer? I then replied with likely a tone of disappointment: Why? He then went on to inform me that he was losing a lot of beer since the cask beer was not a good seller for him; he was losing money through wastage. I then stated: Why don't you install a cask breather? He just gave me a 'look' accompanied with a shrug and walked away.

While it is true that cask beer will 'evolve' after being tapped due to oxidation, and some folks appreciate this aspect after a few days, the beer with more time has more of a stale quality and folks will refuse to drink it at that point.

I am guessing that where you work they are accepting of the loss of money due to wastage. I wonder if this acceptance will continue in perpetuity?

Cheers!

 

I see your point, and appreciate the perspective. It’s certainly been brought up before, but the response has been, “if we’re going to use a breather, why not just spung the whole turn, transfer to the serving tank and serve under low pressure?” Which, honestly, sounds like a fair question.

I believe that the positive oxidative effects are worth fighting for. We taste the cask twice daily and pull it as soon as the oxidation begins it’s shift from pleasantly fruity to stale. I know its a matter of debate, but, personally, I believe that methods like using a breather are fundamentally dissimilar from some of the frowned-upon methods the big guys do. It is cheapening the product to increase profits and we just won’t do it.

Fortunately, I work at a very profitable brewery and the money our IPAs and barrel-aged stouts make, more than absorb the cost of a couple of untaxed, dumped gallons.
As long as that’s the case, our real ale isn’t going anywhere. There are also incalculable elements that make it valuable. It diversifies our portfolio and brings a drinker in that wouldn’t be there otherwise. It sets us apart from other breweries. Just because something isn’t measurably profitable, doesn’t mean it isn’t making you money!

There was a time when breweries in Chicago were going through several casks a day. We’ll weather this storm and I’m sure that we’ll get back to that time. Our distribution footprint for casks has increased by over 100% in the last 6 months, so we are trending in the right direction!

 

Yes,a cask breather is a last resort but perhaps justified in places where turnover is slow. But it fails to deliver the full package because the whole POINT of cask beer lies in the improvement (sometimes even a transformation) resulting from the action of limited contact with air.
Better by far to use smaller casks - pins are ideal.

 

Well, for my local beer bar the owner apparently entertained two thoughts:

• Serve the beer on cask (without a cask breather)
• Not longer serve cask beer since he was not willing to accept the loss of beer/money

I would have preferred that he would have installed a cask breather since now my 'choice' at his beer bar is no cask beer whatsoever.

It has been suggested in above posts but I will explicitly discuss the aspect that the businesses of brewery tasting rooms and beer bars are differing businesses. A brewery tasting room has increased profits per pint of beer and if they are selling lots of the contemporary popular beers (e.g., IPAs) then they have the 'wiggle room' to absorb the losses of cask beer wastage. A beer bar instead pays a 'pretty penny' for the cask/kegs of beer from a Wholesale Distributor and they really need to sell every ounce of beer in order to remain profitable.

I am personally a fan of cask beer and I really wish that this format/type of beer was more readily available to me but frankly from a local beer bar perspective it is a declining product. It simply is not a popular selling product and what I have been witnessing over the past 6-12 months are more and more Cloudy IPAs on tap handles. Welcome to the contemporary US craft beer market?

Cheers!

 

Did he entertain the idea of serving cask from pins?

 

@JackHorzempa Do you know if Tired Hands uses a cask breather? Just curious. Also, was this place by chance TJs? I thought I remember them having cask before.

 

We are lucky to have one brewpub and two breweries in our area still making ESB and English pale ale
The Northampton Brewery keeps in steady rotation their Daniel Shays best bitter, excellent offering, especially with fish and chips!
The Peoples Pint renamed their ESB to Hope Street Amber, same beer, they package this as well as pour at the brewpub, they run 2 cask engines and this is often on.
Lastly Berkshire Brewing still makes and packages its English Pale ale now called
Hoosac Tunnel Amber ale
I do my best to support all 3 in hopes they continue to be brewed,

Cheers all

 

Frankly I stopped the conversation when he gave me a 'look'/shrug and walked away.

In the US there are not many breweries that package their beers in what you would consider to be a pin. Even a firkin is not common but I know of a few local breweries that package cask beer in firkins.

'Small' kegs are commonly used by US craft breweries. They are called sixtels (sixth barrels) but they come with Sanke valves to be served under CO2 pressure.

Cheers!

 

I have no idea about Tired Hands.

Cheers!

 

I'm going to infer here and take the lack of response to the latter question as positive affirmation.

 

OK, I will talk (a little bit).

TJs Everyday did eliminate their cask beer but it was my understanding that they used a cask breather. I never had an unambiguous discussion with Jeff about why they stopped serving via cask but the impression I got was that he decided to eliminate it because it was a slow seller; he would prefer to replace that 'space' with a regular tap handle so that he could move product that sells well. I want to emphasize here that this is just my impression here.

Cheers!

 

I might suggest Arcadia Ales out of Kalamazoo, MI. Their beers are British inspired and include some excellent choices.

 

+1 for the Dragoon

This was a very nice surprise on my last trip to Tucson!

Honker's ale was nice back in the day, but rarely have it these days to know how it stands now.

 

Reading this reminds me of how lucky I am to live around the corner from The Granite Brewery and Tied House. 3 casks at all times and good examples of all the desired English styles on tap.

I don’t go often enough but when I am in the mood for a mid afternoon pint it is really nice to have a place like this so close at hand.

 

To be fair. They taste like shit.
People want juice with milk and some hops.

 

Ipswich Original Ale ( Dark Ale and Oatmeal Stout) are English style ales that I really like.Locally we have Gibbs 100 that makes a very fine pale ale (Blind Man's Holiday Greensboro Pale Ale) that is pretty hoppy, but it has a fine malt underpinning-also a really good ESB. Little Brother Brewing just up the street makes some really good older style ales. I always loved Meantime IPA from London. It has/had a floral aroma and flavor that to my taste is unique amongst the myriad/plethora of modern IPAs.

 

There's some truth. Sadly. Good one!

 

Try using a breather before criticizing it. To say it is related to the economising measures used by macrobrewers is just absurd. Even with a breather the cellar management requires skill and knowledge AND there is still cellar flavor development. Furthermore, how is a cask breather closer to the economizing methods of a macrobrewer than force carbing a line of keg IPAs and BA stouts?

We serve primarily cask ale at my brewery taproom, Yorkshire Square, in LA. All 8 beer engines are on cask breather AND I use shut off valves on the beer side and gas side rather than hard spiling to preserve carbonation when the taproom isn't open. Despite those 'abhorrent' upsets to traditional methods, IMHO we serve a damn fine pint. The positive oxidative character, so identifiable with cask as @JohnnyChicago said, I believe is still achieved with this kind of cellar setup, just at a much slower and thus more controlled rate. No matter what I do the fittings on our cask system leak gas and the change over of cask necessitates some ingress of air. We also check flavor and aroma of each line through the course of the day to monitor oxidation, but we don't have the steep drop off experienced by traditional venting. The setup may not be approved by the CAMRA hardliners but it was setup with a copy of Patrick O'Neill's Cellarmanship in hand, and we received Cask Marque accreditation last year. (for what it is worth...)

A bit more control of the oxidation means we can keep a full line up of bitter, English pale, golden ale, oat stout, mild, ESB, etc. fresher for longer.

I've setup 2 breweries with this type of system. While I appreciate the hardliner's commitment to a traditional ideal of cask, a commitment I adhere to on other issues of beer, I think it verges on ribald ignorance to equate a well managed cask breather setup to using a serving tank with low head pressure.