Cask ales on racks

Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned (including secondary fermentation) and served from a cask, usually without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. Filtration is a mechanical or physical operation which is used for the separation of solids from fluids (liquids or gases by interposing a medium to fluid flow through which the fluid Pasteurization is the process of heating Liquids for the purpose of destroying bacteria, Protozoa, Molds and Yeasts The process was Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed Alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea Secondary fermentation is a process commonly associated with Winemaking, which entails a second period of fermentation in a different vessel than what was used Carbon dioxide ( Chemical formula:) is a Chemical compound composed of two Oxygen Atoms covalently bonded to a single Pressure (symbol 'p' is the force per unit Area applied to an object in a direction perpendicular to the surface Cask ale may also be referred to as real ale, a term coined by the Campaign for Real Ale, often now extended to cover bottle-conditioned beer as well. Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised Beer which is conditioned (including Secondary fermentation The Campaign for Real Ale ( CAMRA) is an independent voluntary, Consumer organisation based in St Albans, England, whose main aim Bottle conditioned beers are either unfiltered so the final conditioning of the beer takes place in the bottle or filtered and then reseeded with yeast so that an additional

The history of cask and keg beer

See also: History of beer

Cask means container. See also Beer Beer is one of the world's oldest beverages with the history of beer dating back to the 6th millennium BC and being recorded in the written history of A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container traditionally made of Wood Staves and bound with Iron Hoops The The word comes from the Spanish cáscara which means tree bark, in the sense that the bark surrounds and holds the tree in the way that a cask surrounds and holds the beer. Bark, also known as periderm is the outermost layer of stems and Roots of Woody plants such as Trees It overlays the Wood and consists The Histories of Herodotus, written in 424 BC, refers to “casks of palm-wood filled with wine” being moved by boat to Babylon, though clay vessels would also have been used. The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq Stout wooden barrels held together with an iron hoop were developed by the north European Celts during the Iron Age for storing goods. Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. But whether the “cask” was made of clay, palm-wood or oak, whether it was a barrel, a pot or a storage jar, all had one thing in common: they all contained unfiltered, unpasteurised beer. Put simply, cask ale is the original method of storing and serving beer; the history of cask ale goes right back to the origins of beer itself. Over the centuries other methods have been developed for preserving and storing beer but this ancient method is still used, particularly in Britain, and increasingly in the USA. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Bottled beers were commonplace by the 17th century for the well off who didn’t wish to drink in public inns, or who wanted to take a beer with them when fishing. Such as the famous story of Alexander Nowell, the Dean of St. Paul’s, who, in 1568, left his bottled beer by the river bank, and upon returning a few days later discovered the bottle opened with a bang and that the contents were very tasty. Alexander Nowell (c 1507 - February 13, 1602) was an English Puritan theologian and clergyman who served as Dean of St Paul's during The Dean of St Paul's is the head of the Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral in London, England and an extremely influential position in the But while the middle and upper classes could indulge themselves with such expensive luxuries, the ordinary folk continued to drink their beer served direct from the cask. The famous ale that was shipped to India was delivered in casks, and only transferred to the bottle for the civilian middle classes; the troops drank their beer the same way they drank it back home, from flagons filled direct from the cask. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country But as beer developed and became paler and lower in alcohol, so it became more difficult to keep it fresh tasting in the cask, especially in countries with warmer climates. By the late 19th century commercial refrigeration and Louis Pasteur’s flash heating method of sterilisation prolonged the life of beer. Louis Pasteur (27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895 a French Chemist and Microbiologist, is best known for remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and In Britain’s cooler climate these methods did not catch on. At least, not immediately.

Of course not all beer in mainland Europe is pasteurised; there are plenty of examples of unfiltered, unpasteurised beers, but these will commonly be served from a chilled container under pressure: a keg. A keg is a cylindrical container usually constructed of aluminum steel or wood

Traditionally draught beer came from wooden barrels, also called casks. Draught beer (also known as draft beer or tap beer) has several related though slightly different understandings In the 1950's these began to be replaced by metal casks of stainless steel or aluminium, mainly for quality reasons as they could be sterilised and the beer was therefore less likely to spoil, but also for economic reasons. An additional benefit of the switch to metal casks was that staling from oxygen in the air could be reduced. Subsequently, in the early 1960's a form of metal cask, known as a keg was introduced which allowed for more efficient cleaning and filling in the brewery. The essential differences between a traditional cask and a keg are that the latter has a concentrically located downtube and a valve that allows beer in and gas out when filling and vice versa when beer is dispensed. Also kegs have a simple concave bottom whilst the barrel or cask design allowed sediment to be retained in the cask. This aspect of keg design meant that all the beer in the keg was dispensed which therefore required that the beer be processed by filtration, fining or centrifuging, or some combination of these, to prevent sediment formation. Lastly, kegs have straight sides unlike the traditional barrel or cask shape. In order to get the beer out of a keg and into a customer’s glass, it can be forced out with gas pressure, although if air or gas at low pressure is admitted to the top of the keg it can also be dispensed using a traditional hand pump at the bar. By the early 1970s most beer in Britain was keg beer, filtered, pasteurised and artificially carbonated. In Chemistry and common usage a filter is a device (usually a membrane or layer that is designed This change was largely driven by the customer's dislike of sediment in his beer. However, most British brewers used carbon dioxide for dispensing keg beers. This led to beers containing more dissolved gas in the glass than the traditional ale and to a consumer demand for a return to these ales. However, in Ireland where stout was dominant, the use of a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen for dispensing prevented the beer from becoming over carbonated. Some of the last remaining natural beers in the world were about to disappear forever. Though rare examples of natural beers could still be found in the farmhouse beers of Northern Europe and the maize beers of South America for example, in essence the last great stronghold of natural beer was about to be wiped out. Northern Europe is a term for the northern part of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as (Finland Maize (ˈmeɪz ( Zea mays L. ssp mays) known as corn in some countries is a cereal grain domesticated in Mesoamerica South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a And that’s when the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) stepped in in Britain to save what they came to term Real Ale. The Campaign for Real Ale ( CAMRA) is an independent voluntary, Consumer organisation based in St Albans, England, whose main aim Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised Beer which is conditioned (including Secondary fermentation

Real ale

Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1973 ^[1] for a type of beer defined as "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". The Campaign for Real Ale ( CAMRA) is an independent voluntary, Consumer organisation based in St Albans, England, whose main aim Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed Alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea Secondary fermentation is a process commonly associated with Winemaking, which entails a second period of fermentation in a different vessel than what was used Carbon dioxide ( Chemical formula:) is a Chemical compound composed of two Oxygen Atoms covalently bonded to a single ^[2] It’s a definition that, like Germany’s Reinheitsgebot, can be seen as quite restrictive^[3]. The (literally "purity order" sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" or the "Bavarian Purity Law" in English is a regulation concerning the production of The term "traditional ingredients" is designed, like the Reinheitsgebot, to prevent artificial preservatives or cheap adjuncts or chemicals from being used in the making or storing of the beer. A preservative is a natural or synthetic chemical that is added to products such as foods pharmaceuticals paints biological samples wood etc The following is about the brewing term adjunct is also a term used in linguistics. The heart of the definition is the "matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed". If the beer is unfiltered, unpasteurised and still active on the yeast, it is a real beer; it doesn't matter whether the container is a cask or a bottle. Yeasts are a growth form of eukaryotic Microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with about 1500 Species currently described If the yeast is still alive and still conditioning the beer, it is "real".

Cask-conditioned beers and bottle conditioned beers are often referred to as real ales, though by the terms of CAMRA's definition not all cask or bottle conditioned ales are real ale; in particular, some American-style brewpubs may use collected carbon dioxide during the serving process which would disqualify them from claiming real ale status. Bottle conditioned beers are either unfiltered so the final conditioning of the beer takes place in the bottle or filtered and then reseeded with yeast so that an additional A microbrewery, or craft brewery, is a modern Brewery which produces a limited amount of beer usually with an orientation toward distinctive and flavorful products

Bright beer

Main article: Bright beer

Cask ale has finings added which drag the yeast to the bottom; when the finings have cleared the beer it is said to have “dropped bright” and the beer will look clear rather than cloudy. Filtered or bright beer is Beer in which yeast is no longer in suspension. Finings are substances that are usually added at or near the completion of the processing of Wine, Beer and various nonalcoholic juice beverages But if a beer has been filtered, or has been cleared of yeast by using finings, and then "racked"—transferred to another container—this is “bright” or re-racked beer. Bright beer is essentially unpasteurised beer which has been cleared of yeast and placed in a different container. It no longer sits on the yeast. As such, strictly speaking, it is not real ale because it cannot continue to ferment in the container in which it now finds itself.

Filtered beer

Main article: Filtered beer

The fundamental distinction between real and other ales is that the yeast is still present and living in the container from which the real ale is served, although it will have settled to the bottom and is usually not poured into the glass. Filtered or bright beer is Beer in which yeast is no longer in suspension. Yeasts are a growth form of eukaryotic Microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with about 1500 Species currently described Because the yeast is still alive, a slow process of fermentation continues in the cask or bottle on the way to the consumer, allowing the beer to retain its freshness. Fermentation in Food processing typically refers to the conversion of Sugar to Alcohol using Yeast under Anaerobic conditions Another distinction is that real ale should be served without the aid of added carbon dioxide, or "top pressure" as it is commonly known. Carbon dioxide ( Chemical formula:) is a Chemical compound composed of two Oxygen Atoms covalently bonded to a single Common dispensing methods are the handpump, or "by gravity" direct from the cask. A beer engine is a device for Pumping Beer, originally manually operated and typically used to dispense beer from a Cask or container in a pub's basement Gravitation is a natural Phenomenon by which objects with Mass attract one another Electric pumps are occasionally seen, especially in the Midlands and Scotland. This article is mainly about the English Midlands For other uses see Midlands (disambiguation. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain.

Cask breather

When a cask has been tapped, the beer starts to come into contact with oxygen—and a beer in contact with oxygen has a limited life. The stronger the beer the longer it will survive, but for most ales with an ABV in the low 4% region, three days is typical. Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as abv or ABV) is a standard measure of how much alcohol ( Ethanol) is contained in an Alcoholic beverage If the pub doesn’t have a high turnover, or if a beer is not popular, such as dark milds, three days will not be enough to sell all the beer in the cask. Mild ale is a low- gravity, malty beer that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1600s or earlier A cask breather allows a small amount of CO₂ to replace the oxygen in the cask. Carbon dioxide ( Chemical formula:) is a Chemical compound composed of two Oxygen Atoms covalently bonded to a single Not enough CO₂ to enter the beer or push it up to the bar—that’s “top pressure”—but just enough “blanket pressure” to keep the beer fresh tasting for longer. Just long enough, in fact, for the landlord to sell all the beer in the cask.

The use of cask breathers is considered “extraneous carbon dioxide”, so CAMRA does not endorse this method.

Preparation for drinking

Handpumps in a pub in England

Cask ale brewing starts the same as that of keg beer. Draught beer (also known as draft beer or tap beer) has several related though slightly different understandings The same brew run could be used to make cask, keg, and bottled beer. The difference is what happens after the primary fermentation is finished and the beer has been left to condition. While pasteurised keg and bottled beers are then subjected to filtering and flash heating, the beer for the cask is simply placed in the cask in its natural state. Pasteurization is the process of heating Liquids for the purpose of destroying bacteria, Protozoa, Molds and Yeasts The process was Finings, such as isinglass or Irish moss, are placed in the cask to assist removing the yeast and clear the beer. Finings are substances that are usually added at or near the completion of the processing of Wine, Beer and various nonalcoholic juice beverages Isinglass is a substance obtained from the Swimbladders of Fish (especially Beluga sturgeon) used mainly for the clarification of Wine and Chondrus crispus, known under the common name Irish moss, or carrageen moss ( Irish carraigín, "little rock" is a species Yeasts are a growth form of eukaryotic Microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with about 1500 Species currently described Extra hops and sugar may also be added. Hops are the female Flower cones of the hop plant ( Humulus lupulus) The cask is sealed and sent off to the pub. In this state it is like a bottle-conditioned beer and, like bottle-conditioned beers, the beer will continue to develop for a certain period of time. Bottle conditioned beers are either unfiltered so the final conditioning of the beer takes place in the bottle or filtered and then reseeded with yeast so that an additional Also like bottle-conditioned beers, the length of time the beer can last in the cask will depend on the nature of the beer itself: strong, dark beers can last for months; light, delicate beers need to be tapped and sold quickly. Stronger beers may also need longer to settle and mature. Some pubs have been known to keep very strong beers in a sealed cask for up to a year to allow them to fully develop.

When the landlord feels the beer has settled, and he is ready to serve it, he will knock a soft spile into the shive on the side of the cask. A spile is a small Wooden peg used to control the flow of Carbon dioxide out of a Cask of Ale. A shive is a Wooden or Plastic fitting used in ale casks. It is found on the curved side of the cask arranged so that when the cask The major difference in appearance between a keg and a cask is the shive. A keg does not have a shive on the side. The majority of casks these days are metal, and at first glance look just like kegs. Even though there are still some wooden casks around, these are rare; in fact there are more plastic kegs around than wooden ones. Plastic casks are increasing in popularity because they are cheaper to buy and lighter to carry, though they don’t last as long. Beer casks come in a number of sizes, but by far the most common in the pub trade are those of 9 gallons (72 pints or roughly 41 litres) which is known as a Firkin and 18 gallons (144 pints or roughly 83 litres) known as a Kilderkin. A gallon is a measure of Volume. It is in current use in the United States and still has limited use in many other English-speaking countries The pint is an English unit of Volume or capacity in the imperial system and United States customary units. The litre or liter (see spelling differences) is a unit of Volume. A Firkin is an old English unit of volume The name is derived from the Middle Dutch word vierdekijn which means The kilderkin is an old English unit of volume equal to half a barrel or two firkins (N. B.  These are imperial gallons, equal to 1. Imperial units or the Imperial system is a collection of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824 201 US gallons each. )

The soft spile in the shive allows gas to vent off. This can be seen by the bubbles foaming around the spile. The landlord will periodically check the bubbles by wiping the spile clean and then watching to see how fast the bubbles reform. There still has to be some life in the beer otherwise it really will taste flat, but too much life and the beer will taste hard or fizzy. When the beer is judged to be ready, the landlord will replace the soft spile with a hard one (which doesn’t allow air in or gas out) and let the beer settle for 24 hours. He will also knock a tap into the end of the cask. This might simply be a tap if the cask is stored behind the bar. The beer will then be served simply under gravity pressure: turn on the tap, and the beer comes out. But if the cask is in the cellar, the beer needs to travel via tubes, or beer lines, and be pumped up to the bar area.

Serving cask ale

Swan neck handpump

A “beer engine” or handpump is used to siphon the beer upstairs. A beer engine is a device for Pumping Beer, originally manually operated and typically used to dispense beer from a Cask or container in a pub's basement The beer engine is a half-pint (sometimes a 1/4 pint), airtight piston chamber; pulling down on the handle raises the piston which drags up a half pint of beer. The pint is an English unit of Volume or capacity in the imperial system and United States customary units. When a cask is first tapped into the beer engine, or after the lines have been washed through, the pump needs to be pulled several times to clear the lines of air or water. The line will continue to hold beer, which will tend to go stale overnight, so the first beer pulled through will be bad beer, and this will be simply thrown away. Most pubs will pull through at least a pint of beer on each beer engine before they open, while others will wait for the first order of beer on that pump before pulling through. Experienced barstaff will serve a pint with two long, smooth, slow pulls of the pump handle, plus a short third just to make sure the glass is full.

If you peek over the bar at the spout from which the beer emerges you may notice a small flip tap and a short spout; this is normal. If you notice the spout is quite long with a hairpin curve this is a swan-neck which is designed to force the beer into the glass, agitating it so that a head is created and some flavour is reduced.

In some pubs a small device or cap is fitted to the end of the spout rather like a sprinkler at the end of a hose pipe. The device is known as a "sparkler". A beer engine is a device for Pumping Beer, originally manually operated and typically used to dispense beer from a Cask or container in a pub's basement Like the sprinkler at the end of a hose, this can be twisted to regulate the flow of the beer. When the sparkler is tight, the beer is severely agitated resulting in a large head but a significant loss of flavour and mouthfeel. This is most common in the North of England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Many drinkers in the North prefer their beer this way; it is softer and creamier with less bitterness. Drinkers in the South tend to prefer their beer with a touch more bitterness, and a slightly harder mouthfeel.

Those seeking authentic real ale should be aware that some pubs will disguise a keg beer by having some form of imitation pump handle on the bar. If the bar staff have merely turned on a tap, or are just resting their hand on a very small handle with no pump action, then this is a keg beer. Exceptions are some pubs in the North which use electric pumps or the few remaining pubs in Scotland that use traditional air-pressure founts^[4] on cask ale. Asking the staff will usually clarify this.

Difference between cask and keg

A glass of ale

The famous warm temperature of cask beer in the summer months doesn’t apply all that often these days with temperature control units in pub cellars and the beer lines running through coolers. In fact, some pubs will run the cask ale lines through the lager chiller in order to get the beer below the maximum temperature required by Cask Marque, so a cask ale may end up as cold as a keg lager. This is rarely a good thing, because ale requires a cool rather than a cold temperature to reveal all its flavours. It can also disguise a far worse situation in which, although the beer in the glass is cold, the contents of the cask are rapidly turning to vinegar in the heat. Moderate cooling around the beer lines to maintain their temperature against the warmth of the bar is usually beneficial, but the beer must be stored at an appropriate temperature to begin with. In a well run pub the cask ale will be served at the appropriate temperature: cool, but not chilled.

The aroma of cask ale is fresher and more wholesome than keg beer. But the aroma of cask ale does not have the stored up impact of bottled beers; cask beer is beer which has already been exposed to the air for a couple of days, so there is not going to be a big impact when it is simply transferred to your glass. Typically the aroma will be released when it has warmed up slightly, and that will probably be when you are near the bottom of the glass. And no prickly oxygen tent aroma that comes with the extra CO₂ used to give keg beer its “life”. All you will smell is natural, fresh beer—and the difference is like sniffing artificial fruit flavourings compared to sniffing the fresh fruit. The artificial flavourings will be pleasant and intense, while the fresh fruit will be very delicate, sometimes slipping away. Aroma, it has to be admitted, is not one of the high points of cask ale, but if you prefer scents that are delicate, exquisite, fresh and natural, then you will enjoy the bouquet of cask ale.

The flavour of cask ale is similar to the aroma in that it is delicate and fresh, but unlike many bottled beers the flavour of cask ale is more noticeable than the aroma. The aroma is often very slight, even non-existent at first, but the flavour makes up for that. Obviously the intensity of flavour depends on the beer style—a session bitter is not going to slap your taste buds in the way that a golden ale or imperial stout will—but a cask ale in good condition will have the flavours defined rather than muddled. CO₂ bubbles in themselves have little flavour, so a mass of those bursting against your tongue will prevent the beer itself from making contact. With cask ale there is little carbonation, so more of the flavour compounds will be in contact with your taste buds. You should be able to clearly note the fruity sweetness up front, the balance in the middle and the bitterness in the finish. The flavour profile of a cask ale is much more noticeable than a keg or bottled beer.

The most important aspect of cask ale is the mouthfeel. It should not be fizzy. If your beer is fizzy then it’s either a keg beer or it’s a cask ale that’s been put on too soon. If you are used to carbonated drinks—keg beer, bottled beer, sparkling water, cola, etc. —the mouthfeel of a cask ale may seem a little strange—even flat or boring—at first. There are some people who don’t even notice the mouthfeel. If they are just drinking the beer without paying attention—maybe they are chatting away, or maybe they are trying to catch the aroma or flavour of this cask ale they have heard so much about—the mouthfeel will pass them by.

Cask Marque

Cask Marque is a cask ale certification organisation in England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland It is a not-for-profit organisation, based in Colchester. Colchester ( /ˈkəʊltʃɛstə/ is a town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester, in Essex, England. ^[5] Its assessments address the quality both of storage and service in the handling of cask ale in the certified pubs. According to the organisation, it has certified more than 3000 pubs across England, and has £1 million in funding. ^[6]

See also

• Draught beer
• Filtered beer
• Beer engine

References

External links

• Informal Guide to Real Ale by RealAle. com
• About Real Ale, article by CAMRA
• Beer Mad — Good starting point
• The Directory of UK Real Ale Breweries — Information on real ale brewers in the UK
• CAMRA's Good Beer Guide