what is cask beer?

[bracconiere]

so i've seens a few threads about 'cask beer'? is it warm and flat or what? should i not feel too bad when i grab a pitcher of still fermenting beer in put it in the fridge? just call it cask style?

 

[duncan.brown]

Depends if you call 55F warm... Carbonation level is almost flat, but not quite. I'm enjoying my (fourth!) pint of English bitter this evening. What makes it cask? I keg it in 2.5 gal kegs with a gravity point left so it finishes off the fermentation in the keg and carbonates to just over one volume (compared to the usual 2+ volumes for keg beers). Before I tap it, I release an excess pressure and hook it up to a cask breather that keeps the beer at atmospheric pressure. Proper cask should be exposed to air, but I don't think I can finish all 2.5 gals tonight. Drinkability should be high and ABV should be in the mid threes to low fours (this is 3.8%) so you can sink five or six in a session and still show up for work the next morning.

Cask should definitely be served from a beer engine. Since there's no pressure in the keg, you pump it into the glass with elbow grease. Being from the Midlands, I use a sparker which forces the carbon dioxide out of the beer making it flatter, but giving it a creamy head.

If you want to make your pitcher more like cask, don't forget to put some fish guts in it to clear it up! Cheers!

 

[duncan.brown]

Edit... fifth...

 

[duncan_disorderly]

https://www.fullers.co.uk/blog/beer-articles/cask-and-keg-beer

 

[McMullan]

so i've seens a few threads about 'cask beer'? is it warm and flat or what? should i not feel too bad when i grab a pitcher of still fermenting beer in put it in the fridge? just call it cask style?

It definitely ain't cold and fizzy. Unless that's how you want to serve it. Although some prefer it served a bit cooler, especially during the warm summer months, it's traditionally served at cellar temperature (11-13°C). In reality, in many pubs, it's often served too warm. Too cold and fizzy risks masking the subtle complexity of a fine English ale. High carbonation levels aren't really compatible with a beer engine either. To be consumed fresh, when at its best, as liquid bread should be. Unfortunately, it's not difficult for it to be served wrong, leaving consumers with the wrong impression they "don't like cask ale".

 

[Miraculix]

It definitely ain't cold and fizzy. Unless that's how you want to serve it. Although some prefer it served a bit cooler, especially during the warm summer months, it's traditionally served at cellar temperature (11-13°C). In reality, in many pubs, it's often served too warm. Too cold and fizzy risks masking the subtle complexity of a fine English ale. High carbonation levels aren't really compatible with a beer engine either. To be consumed fresh, when at its best, as liquid bread should be. Unfortunately, it's not difficult for it to be served wrong, leaving consumers with the wrong impression they "don't like cask ale".

If you add not cleaning the lines properly, you got why 90% of the Germans look down on British ale. They all went to the wrong pubs or talked to people that did , not kidding.

 

[McMullan]

If you add not cleaning the lines properly, you got why 90% of the Germans look down on British ale. They all went to the wrong pubs or talked to people that did , not kidding.

Keeping the beer lines clean is probably the simplest task. If they can't manage that I'm not drinking there either.

 

[bracconiere]

i appreciate the explanations! so as the name suggests, it's an attempt at making it like drinking out of a barrel?

 

[McMullan]

i appreciate the explanations! so as the name suggests, it's an attempt at making it like drinking out of a barrel?

I recommend drinking it out of a glass, tbh, but I can see you're happy to drink out of a barrel But, yeah, it is just a type of traditional barrel-like vessel.

 

[bracconiere]

I recommend drinking it out of a glass, tbh, but I can see you're happy to drink out of a barrel But, yeah, it is just a type of traditional barrel-like vessel.

i was thinking of the old days, when i think they just hammered a tap into a barrel, and filled glasses....or from what i've seen in old movies depicting it....

 

[McMullan]

i was thinking of the old days, when i think they just hammered a tap into a barrel, and filled glasses....or from what i've seen in old movies depicting it....

Some pubs do that, just knock in a tap and serve from that rather than pulling it through a beer engine. Still very nice.

 

[bracconiere]

Some pubs do that, just knock in a tap and serve from that rather than pulling it through a beer engine. Still very nice.

i'm wondering now...is this a style for malt heads? instead of hop heads?

because i love a good malty beer!

 

[Cameronl]

i appreciate the explanations! so as the name suggests, it's an attempt at making it like drinking out of a barrel?

Avatar checks out.

 

[bracconiere]

Avatar checks out.

right on point, like shooting a colt 45 into a glass!

 

[D.B.Moody]

i'm wondering now...is this a style for malt heads? instead of hop heads?

IMO it's a balance thing.
I fell in love with British cask ales on a trip to England in 1988 and again in 1996. I started brewing in 1994. I'm an extract brewer who uses dry yeast and bottles, but my brews try to approach those British bitters I enjoyed so much. I even properly expose my ales to oxygen in transferring to a secondary and bottling as @duncan.brown suggested. (And I'm only partly kidding there, I think this cask ale thing is the reason I do not really get the idea that oxygen exposure is a cardinal sin and always makes beer worse. )

 

[bracconiere]

I do not really get the idea that oxygen exposure is a cardinal sin and always makes beer worse. )

agreed...sometimes the malt doesn't even come out until it's had some time to breath....

 

[duncan.brown]

I think this cask ale thing is the reason I do not really get the idea that oxygen exposure is a cardinal sin and always makes beer worse.

It was only in the last couple of years that CAMRA allowed cask breathers to be considered "real ale." You had to let air in to get the cask marque. When I was in the UK over Christmas, I ordered a mini-key of Landlord:

https://www.timothytaylorshop.co.uk/landlord-mini-keg/
It has a little tap that you pull out and a plug that you twist on top to let air in (like a tap and spile on a cask). It was interesting to taste the beer change over a few days. The pints on days two and three were the best. @Miraculix's friends who don't like cask ale have probably been drinking casks that are too old. That's a common problem in pubs in the UK now (as well as dirty lines). I blame Margaret Thatcher!

is this a style for malt heads? instead of hop heads?

Paging through my copy of Wheeler and Protz's "Brew your own British Real Ale" most bitters are around low 20 to mid 30s for IBUs. @D.B.Moody is right that balance is the key. No where near as bitter as an American IPA, but enough bitterness to make them thirst quenching. Beers at the low end of the bitterness spectrum should be around 3.5% ABV, getting up to 4.8% for the more bitter ones. Fullers ESB is well known in the US, but at 5.6% ABV it's a significant outlier in the world of English bitters and best bitters.

And there's no Reinheitsgebot in the UK, so feel free to add some corn or invert sugar to make it more digestible.

 

[bracconiere]

And there's no Reinheitsgebot in the UK, so feel free to add some corn or invert sugar to make it more digestible.

so my gluco here in the states is still kosher...

and at 8% i just find if it's overly carbonated, it gets bitter, or astringent...like champagne. not in a good hoppy way though?


this thread has turned into a haven for blashphemers! "Lodo or Nogo!!!!" lol


what were the pints on days 4-5? should we hethens try and figure out exactly how many mols of O2 to oxygenate with for the perfect cask beer? like a nitro pour?

maybe carbonate with co2, then push through a nitro tap with pure o2? just for serving? i'm not totally kidding, but trying to be inspirational!

 

[D.B.Moody]

what were the pints on days 4-5? i'm not totally kidding, but trying to be inspirational!

Based on what @duncan.brown said

Drinkability should be high and ABV should be in the mid threes to low fours (this is 3.8%) so you can sink five or six in a session . . .

it's amazing this 5 litres lasted more than 2 sessions.

 

[bracconiere]

so it's amazing this 5 L lasted more than 2 sessions.

5L? that might be a day for me as a monk. but i thought all you just took a sip once a day to see if there was any off flavors or anything?

in fact if i ever do, i'm so sending one of you guys this!

 

[duncan.brown]

it's amazing this 5 litres lasted more than 2 sessions

Well I was at my parents so I had to show some restraint

 

[bracconiere]

Well I was at my parents so I had to show some restraint

so you wanted to make them proud, and prove you still remember your potty training, and not wet the bed.

yeah, i know the feeling....but i don't think they were actually expecting to just be teaching me how i can drink all day when they were doing it.....

 

[crazyjake19]

Cask ale certainly isn't warm or flat, but it may be warmer and flatter than you're used to. It's typically racked to the cask with a few gravity points remaining, naturally carbonated in the cask, and served at cellar temp (55F) via a beer engine (longer-term) or gravity tap (short-term).

I have a pin cask that I'll fill for a party now and then, and serve with a good ole fashioned gravity tap hammered in (good crowd pleaser). Someday I'll get my hands on a beer engine.

I quite enjoy cask ales and hit the local cask festivals when I can. I wish there was something smaller than a pin cask for small batches that I'd be drinking by myself, though I'm looking to set up a CO2 cask breather for better shelf life.

 

[DuncB]

@crazyjake19
You might consider this gadget for your 5 litre mini cask.

https://rlbs.ltd.uk/5-ltr-mini-keg-cask-read-ale-extractor-for-hand-pump.html
Good for a weekends drinking or less.

 

[bracconiere]

https://www.go2marine.com/Fynspray-...FwT6zv_-2ODGFdzNh3TCedxdB_txlzsxoCIBUQAvD_BwE

 

[GBRbrew]

This is slightly off topic but seems the place to ask, I picked up a 4 pack of boddingtons because I've really wanted to try British bitters. The cans had a device in them that was supposed to help mimic cask ale, made the beer flat with a creamy head. Is this a good representation of cask ale or not. Also I really didn't care for it . Wondering if I should try something different.

 

[bracconiere]

This is slightly off topic but seems the place to ask, I picked up a 4 pack of boddingtons because I've really wanted to try British bitters. The cans had a device in them that was supposed to help mimic cask ale, made the beer flat with a creamy head. Is this a good representation of cask ale or not. Also I really didn't care for it . Wondering if I should try something different.

the way this thread is going, did you try cracking the top just a little and letting it sit in the fridge overnight?

 

[hout17]

This is slightly off topic but seems the place to ask, I picked up a 4 pack of boddingtons because I've really wanted to try British bitters. The cans had a device in them that was supposed to help mimic cask ale, made the beer flat with a creamy head. Is this a good representation of cask ale or not. Also I really didn't care for it . Wondering if I should try something different.

Boddington's is a shell of it's former self and while I haven't really had a lot of cask ale I couldn't imagine this being something to compare with. You would have to attempt to brew the 71' golden age recipe.

Maybe @Northern_Brewer can chime in as well.

 

[GBRbrew]

the way this thread is going, did you try cracking the top just a little and letting it sit in the fridge overnight?

If I did that I would lose the creamy head which is supposed to be a big part of the experience.

 

[bracconiere]

If I did that I would lose the creamy head which is supposed to be a big part of the experience.

sounds like a nitro pour? not post #2's picture of cask in this thread though..another style of, apparently, flat beer....but in that case stouts....