Real Ale.

I love cask conditioned ale - I've done it here with my corneys by naturally carbonating in the keg. I know it's not really the same as an oak cask, but it's still great beer.

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I only think I've had oak aged beer by one brewery.

The reason a hand pump is required instaed of a tap is because with out force carbonation and CO2 hooked up then there is no way to serve the beer. A pump is required to draw it from the cask.

Believe me you can get Bad Cask condition Ale in the wrong pub!

Take a look at our Wiki. It's all there!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Casks

Yes mini kegs will allow you to have authentic cask conditioned ale.
It's unpasteurised, it's naturally carbonated and hopefully it will be a quality product.
You can negate the beer engine (Hand pump) because it is gravity fed.
The only problem you may have is the lack of head.
The beer engine forces som of the CO2 out of the beer at the glass to give a head.

Check this out as well.
http://www.cask-ale.co.uk/realale3.html
http://www.ukbrewing.com/

I advise looking at the catalogue on the last link for good pictures of all the "bits"
Here's a cask.

orfy said:

Let me say some thing.

"Real Ale" is a falicy it is a marketing tool used by CAMRA. It is no more real than any other quality "craft brewed" "live" ale.

It is actually cask conditioned Ale that is not pasteurised or forced primed.
It usually means that more thought care and attention has been put into it's production, storage and serving than other crap beers.

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Just to nit pick, it doesn't have to be cask conditioned, it can also be bottle conditioned, and CAMRA recognizes this.

I don't know what the situation is now, but when I left England in 1980, bottled Guinness and Worthington White Shield were recognized as a Real Ales, while draught Guinness was not. I've cultured yeast from the two above mentioned beers many times, and had excellent results.

-a.

Yes I agree.

Bottle Conditioned is good. I like yeast

I revived an old thread. Trying to educate myself in the topic at hand. I'm gonna try to go to a festival this fall.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but with wooden casks didn't you have to hammer a some sort of serving faucet into the side to serve the beer?

Another question I have is... With the newer steel and plastic casks, When is the breather hole used? and how long is it used? Is it only opened when the ale is being served?

Thanks in advance. I've gotten most of my questions answered from reading the thread and thank you all for that.

I don't drink enough to set up a keg for real ale. It would go flat too fast

EDIT: didn't realize I was necroing

If she's pouring, I'm buying....Real or not!

I'm hoping to have time for this next weekend here in town. Hopefully I can get a couple of friends to go so we can share and therefore sample more.

Cask Weekend - starting on friday (now thursday) we’ll tap a few firkins on the bar for gravity pour and gather a few new selections for the 4 handpumps. Continuing saturday afternoon and evening, there will be 9 or so firkins to chose from.
pay as you go - $3, $4 pints
no reservations required.
Bells, Troegs, Otto’s, Legacy, East End, Victory, Voodoo, Ithaca, Lancaster, Cricket Hill, Sly Fox, Blue Point etc
Brewers & Reps attending :
Matt - brewer / owner - Voodoo
Scott - brewer / owner - East End
Christian - brewer / owner - Lancaster
Tony - distributor sales - Vecenie
Scott - brewery sales (Stone)
Derek - brewery sales (Bells)
Eric - brewery sales (Ithaca)

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I bottle a 6 pack of each of my brews so I guess I have had real ale. I find though that I am better able to smell the hop aroma when I get a pour from my force carbed keg than from the bottle. I suppose that it's because I get a better head from my force carbing in the corny. It sounds like from what I've been reading on this thread that this may be a common issue for real ale. Seems as though that would be a drawback. I could be wrong though as this is the first time I have ever seen it defined.

Orfy,

I am just south of Seattle and there is a brew pub that has two guest taps with the traditional hand-pump. They buy cask-conditioned ales from around the Puget Sound and serve them at generally the proper temp and the cellar guys usually do a good job at gassing and tapping at the right times (every now and again I am disappointed but not too often.)

I found that when I do go out, I tend to go there for that reason. The ales have a different characteristic from a traditional draught system. Less carbolic bite and you never have to watch the head die down as you wait for it to come to drinking temperature. Just like I have at home with my bottle-conditioned ales, but out on the town (and with a different selection.)

There are a few pubs/bars/brew pub/ale houses around the area the go to the trouble of providing this - and I for one thank them for it.

I can only say that I have only had the pleasure of having one "real ale", at least from what I know it is. A cask conditioned Wee heavy scotch ale served on a pump.

To my knowlege and judgement it must have been a great example because I liked it so much. But who knows, Im not an expert on the subject matter.

This thread sounds like a Monty Python skit. Wink wink, nudge nudge.
AP