The Spirit World

I am particularly fond of cask conditioned ales. In fact whenever I go to a pub and find a cask conditioned ale, that’s what I order, no matter what style of beer is in the cask.

A cask is essentially a keg of beer (or firkin) set on its side so the beer can either run out of the tap from the natural pull of gravity or the beer can be pumped out with a hand pump or beer engine. Beers in casks are served at cellar temperatures (usually in the mid-50s Fahrenheit or around 13 Celsius). Also, if you are used to bubbly beers, a cask conditioned ale might taste flat to you since the beer is not stored under pressure. The only CO2 in solution will be whatever was dissolved during fermentation (one atmosphere or less).

Cask ale purists prefer that the cask be vented to air, so that as the beer flows out, air flows in. While this is the more traditional way of serving cask ale, it exposes the beer to oxygen and as a result the beer stales quickly (usually within three days). Most places I know of that have cask ales cheat and keep an atmosphere of nitrogen or carbon dioxide on top of the beer to lengthen the life of the beer in the cask. This concession makes it possible for places to actually serve cask ale since few places (yet) will sell all the beer in a firkin within two days of tapping it.

Typically, you’ll find British-style ales in casks. Bitters, Pale Ales, India Pale Ales, Stouts, Porters, Milds and the like are all frequently dispensed from casks. If you want to learn more about cask conditioned ales, Alex Hall maintains an interesting site with lots of photos and other information about real ale.

If you’ve never had a cask conditioned ale and would like to, you should visit your local brewpub. Many of the better brewpubs will have at least one beer on cask at any given time. However, I’ve been to many a brewpub that doesn’t have a cask at all (which is too bad since these beers are such a treat).

Some of the newer gastropubs are getting into cask conditioned ale. If you are in New York City, two places you can find cask ale are The Ginger Man (11 E. 36th St) and The Spotted Pig (314 W 11th St). Out where I’m at on Long Island, John Havard’s Brew House in Lake Grove keeps one cask on and Bobbique in Patchogue routinely has two beer engines pulling beers off different casks. Leave a comment and let me know which places are serving cask ale in your town.