09 Sep Cask From The USA…
The days when traditional British beer was considered warm and flat are over! No, really. Cask ale, where beer is alive and continues to ferment in the barrel it’s served from, is apparently the epitome of craft beer in the USA. Just as craft-beer-loving Brits are glugging the kegged stuff – and when drinking cask often comment how certain native beers would be ‘so much better in a keg’ – American brewers and bars are honing their cask brewing and serving skills.
I first got wind of how much of a trend this was when I hopped (not literally) across the pond to judge at the World Beer Cup in Denver, Colorado. Judges were treated to a bus trip to various breweries and my bus was bound for Boulder, first stop Left Hand Brewing Co. We were invited to make sure we had a beer in hand for the brewery tour. I went for the Black Jack Porter. “We have that in cask if you’d like” were not the words I was expecting to hear. Being a huge fan of my homeland’s vernacular beer style though I said yes, and was delighted at how well kept it was.
Hogshead’s Denver location.Later in the week, I was invited to a beer festival held at a brew pub in the suburbs of Denver – a cask beer festival. The majority of Hogshead Brewery’s beer is cask ale, but then again founder and brewer Stephen Kirby is an Englishman – and one on a mission to encourage more US brewers to try their hands at cask. The real challenge though will be educating bars, pubs – and bartenders – how to look after and serve it, which is a skilled and precise task. Steve and I crossed paths again recently in London where one of his beers was being served at The Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), the Campaign for Real Ale’s annual bash held at the Olympia Exhibition Centre in the west of the capital.
I thought I was used to the whole idea of cask from the USA but I was flabbergasted to learn that close to 10% of the beers on offer at GBBF were US cask beers. Almost 100 different American craft beers had made their way across the Atlantic – but how would they taste after their journey? I know all about the long journeys of the original well-hopped IPAs, but here were beers of all different styles and ABVs from craft breweries around the US that – let’s be fair – could make for a bit of lottery on the quality of a pint.
What’s the definition of a perfect pint of cask beer? It should be served cool but not cold (certainly NEVER warm) and with a tingle of natural C02, which is a by-product of the brewing process. It should feel refreshing as you drink it and leave a pleasing aftertaste and, unless advised that it may be hazy (such as wheat beer or ales produced without isinglass finings might be), it should be clear and particle free. Take note also that cask beer is a fresh product and once opened, it has a shelf life of no more than three days, after which – much like a carton of milk – it will start to turn. Moderation is essential to effective beer writing, but I sampled a fair few US brews and found only a couple below par – one that tasted almost unfermented and the other somewhat flat. Most of those I tried were incredibly well kept and tasted as fresh as if they’d been brewed just down the road – so it seems the art of traditional British-style cask beer is now well within the grasp of the Americans.
I first got wind of how much of a trend this was when I hopped (not literally) across the pond to judge at the World Beer Cup in Denver, Colorado. Judges were treated to a bus trip to various breweries and my bus was bound for Boulder, first stop Left Hand Brewing Co. We were invited to make sure we had a beer in hand for the brewery tour. I went for the Black Jack Porter. “We have that in cask if you’d like” were not the words I was expecting to hear. Being a huge fan of my homeland’s vernacular beer style though I said yes, and was delighted at how well kept it was.
Hogshead’s Denver location.Later in the week, I was invited to a beer festival held at a brew pub in the suburbs of Denver – a cask beer festival. The majority of Hogshead Brewery’s beer is cask ale, but then again founder and brewer Stephen Kirby is an Englishman – and one on a mission to encourage more US brewers to try their hands at cask. The real challenge though will be educating bars, pubs – and bartenders – how to look after and serve it, which is a skilled and precise task. Steve and I crossed paths again recently in London where one of his beers was being served at The Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), the Campaign for Real Ale’s annual bash held at the Olympia Exhibition Centre in the west of the capital.
I thought I was used to the whole idea of cask from the USA but I was flabbergasted to learn that close to 10% of the beers on offer at GBBF were US cask beers. Almost 100 different American craft beers had made their way across the Atlantic – but how would they taste after their journey? I know all about the long journeys of the original well-hopped IPAs, but here were beers of all different styles and ABVs from craft breweries around the US that – let’s be fair – could make for a bit of lottery on the quality of a pint.
What’s the definition of a perfect pint of cask beer? It should be served cool but not cold (certainly NEVER warm) and with a tingle of natural C02, which is a by-product of the brewing process. It should feel refreshing as you drink it and leave a pleasing aftertaste and, unless advised that it may be hazy (such as wheat beer or ales produced without isinglass finings might be), it should be clear and particle free. Take note also that cask beer is a fresh product and once opened, it has a shelf life of no more than three days, after which – much like a carton of milk – it will start to turn. Moderation is essential to effective beer writing, but I sampled a fair few US brews and found only a couple below par – one that tasted almost unfermented and the other somewhat flat. Most of those I tried were incredibly well kept and tasted as fresh as if they’d been brewed just down the road – so it seems the art of traditional British-style cask beer is now well within the grasp of the Americans.
No Comments