BEER ON CASK
BY CHRIS KELLER
The first time I had a cask conditioned ale was over two decades ago at an amazing pub in Houston called The Ginger Man. It was purchased for me by a work colleague who was a beer fan and a home brewer. We had been discussing beer and how much I enjoyed the fresh flavor and aroma of his home brew. He told me about how filtering and forced carbonation can affect that fresh flavor. He then told me that after work he would buy me a pint of cask Saint Arnold Amber so that I could see what he was talking about. The beer was unfiltered and naturally carbonated. It was served with a hand pump, called a“ beer engine,” which forces the beer through a diffuser called a“ sparkler.” The sparkler breaks the carbon dioxide out of the beer and into a cascading, creamy head. This causes the beer to lose a lot of the effervescence but boosts the aroma and adds a creamy mouthfeel, not to mention it really looks delicious! It really was a different experience. That fresh taste we were talking about was all there but almost enhanced by the serving method.
I’ m sure you have heard, or perhaps you have informed people, that draft beer in England is warm and flat. Many American travelers to“ The Land of Hope and Glory” visiting a pub might experience a bit of a culture shock. A traditional English pint is served at cellar temperature, typically 55 degrees, from a cask by a special serving hand pump designed to convert the beer’ s natural carbonation into a frothy head. Another nice surprise: English pints are 20 % larger than American pints! The typical English beer is about 20 % less alcohol, though, so I guess that evens it out.
What is it about the cask conditioning that boosts the“ fresh flavor” that we’ re discussing? Think about it in terms of bread. First you must understand that beer, like bread, is a living thing. Yeast will eat the sugars in beer and bread producing carbon dioxide and alcohol, with the majority of alcohol being baked out of the bread. I’ m sure most of you will agree that fresh bread from a bakery has a much different flavor and aroma than the packaged loaves bought in a grocery store. Shelf stable bread is in many ways similar to packaged beer. If you were to taste that beer directly from the fermenter, you would notice the difference, just as you notice when eating fresh-baked bread. Cask
conditioning is basically bringing that fresh-fermented flavor to draft beer!
Like packaged loaves of bread in the grocery store aisle, packaged beer can go through a lot on its way to the shelves. Once fermented, a beer will go through conditioning like cold crashing, centrifuging, filtering, forced carbonation, and sometimes pasteurization. Each one of these processes adds to the appearance, consistency, and shelf life of beer. Each one of these is also a step away from that fresh flavor. Freshly fermented beer is a bit hazy, not as carbonated, and with more aroma and deeper flavor. In the same way that keg beer tastes fresher than bottle or can, properly conditioned cask ale tastes much fresher than the pressurized keg.
Cask ale is unfiltered freshly fermented beer put into a special type of keg that is similar to a barrel. It’ s meant to lay sideways on a rack with a hole on top called a shive, where the cask is filled, and a hole on the end for the spigot or tap called a keystone. Freshness is key to proper conditioning. Immediately after fermentation is finished, the keg is filled with beer, a small amount of sugar, and a handful of hops. Since fermentation just finished, the beer is still full of active yeast which will eat the sugar and carbonate the beer. The extra hops will help to keep the beer fresh while it’ s being served. Conditioning the cask will take about a week. In that time the beer will ferment a little more, carbonating the beer. Once conditioned, the beer is ready to be served.
Tapping a cask is quite a bit different than tapping a regular keg. First thing is to place the cask on a sturdy rack in the position where it will be served. It will have to remain here undisturbed for the duration of serving. It is about to be vented to the outside air and, as long as the vessel remains still, a blanket of carbon dioxide should protect the beer from early oxidation. Any knocks the cask gets could easily shorten its lifespan. Next the cask is vented by gently hammering, using a wooden or rubber mallet, a wooden spike called a spile into the shive to vent the cask. An audible release of pressure will let you know that it
24 SPRING EDITION 2025