Real Ale

By Jason Hunt, Certified Cicerone

 

This Friday at The Blind Monk, we are having our second event with Due South Brewing Company and will again be featuring a specially prepared cask of one of their beers. This time, they are bringing an Old Fashioned Scotch Ale. This beer uses their Bridgeport Scotch Ale as the base, with some special additions to give it the impression of the cocktail which inspires it.

 

More and more breweries are doing special casks these days, and most beer fans are thrilled about this. But just what is cask beer, and moreover, what is it that makes casks so special?

 

Casks are essentially vessels for serving “Real Ale.” Real Ale means that the beer inside the cask still contains live yeast. Cask beers are brewed the same as other beers, until it gets to the end of the fermentation process. When most beer is done fermenting, it is filtered and then “force carbonated” by adding pressurized carbon dioxide into the beer. It is then put into cans, bottles, or kegs.

 

Real Ales take a detour towards the end of this process, skipping filtration, and instead being put directly into a cask with yeast still inside. A dose of additional sugar is then added into the cask, to cause the yeast to start up a secondary fermentation, where it will naturally carbonate the beer within. The cask is then sent out from the brewery and arrives at a pub while it is still finishing its fermentation, a process known as cask conditioning.

 

Casks look a little like a rounded keg sitting on its side, but there aresome important differences internally in how they dispense the beer. As the beer served is naturally carbonated, casks are designed to be poured without the addition of external CO2 pressure, the way a keg is. Instead, beer is served from a cask either using a “beer engine,” or simply with gravity. That way, the beer maintains its lower carbonation level and stays a “Real Ale.”

 

Casks are prized for their freshness and fullness of flavor. As Real Beer is still technically alive, it is considered to be one of the most flavorful ways of enjoying a beer. And since the carbonation level is lower and casks are served at cellar temperature, more of that flavor shows through in the finished product.

 

The other fun difference between casks and kegs, is that casks are not sealed in the same way that kegs are and can be opened up. This means that brewers can get creative with the casks they make and add special ingredients to a beer to make it even more unique from its base style. This week’s cask from Due South is a great example of this creativity. They have taken a cask of their Bridgeport Scotch Ale and added in cherries, oranges, and bourbon-soaked oak chips to create their Old Fashioned Scotch Ale.

 

So, come out this Friday and see what all the excitement is about. This event will be excellent, and we highly recommend you get here in time to try it.