Real Ales

UnkleLemmy · Post by **UnkleLemmy** » Tue Apr 08, 2003 11:55 am

Anybody here a fan of Real Ales (or Cask Conditioned Ales)? For those of you who don't know what at Real Ale is, it is the way beer has traditional served for 100's of years. Instead of being attached to a pressured keg tap, it is instead attached to a hand pump and drawn out through vaccum. Since all the carbonation in it is naturally it is less gassy than keg beer and it also allows it to age properly. Cask Ale is pretty rare in America but can be found at most pubs in England. Alot of people mistakenly believe that cask al is served warm. This is not true, it is slightly warmer than keg beer (55F for cask, 45F for keg). 55F is definately not warm! The fact that is not ice cold actually help brings out the flavor. So if you've never had a true Cask Conditioned Ale, look around and find some. You'll never want to drink regular beer again.

3DrinksAhead · Post by **3DrinksAhead** » Tue Apr 08, 2003 12:16 pm

first time i was in england, i proved every stereotype of the "ignorant yank" by demanding to know why my beer was warm. Looking back, i can only hang my head.

drinklikerichardburton · Tue Apr 08, 2003 5:33 pm

I don't mind the beer being slightly less cold, but I don't think I like the idea of it being less carbonated.

Uncle Sal · Post by **Uncle Sal** » Tue Apr 08, 2003 7:28 pm

It took us six years to finnaly convince our local brew pub to honor the excellent darks the brewmister was producing by dropping the cash to put them on nitrogen, but we won in the end. He is a master of the darks. Anyone visiting the central California area should not miss the Boulder Creek Brewerey above Santa Cruz. California darks are rallying to stand with the best from Euorpe. Way more flavor...

Circling over Shannon · Thu Aug 28, 2003 10:29 pm

3drinksahead wrote:first time i was in england, i proved every stereotype of the "ignorant yank" by demanding to know why my beer was warm. Looking back, i can only hang my head.

Hey ya gatta learn somehow right? I'm smack dab in the middle of my embarrasing drinking phase. Hell nearly every week I do something I'm garunteed to regret later in life. Right now I'm trying all these "great" beers for the first time and I'm never sure if I'm saying them right or making a jackass out of myself trying. But If you get the beer who gives a shite about the road you took to it.

Omar The Tentmaker · Post by **Omar The Tentmaker** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 10:31 pm

So long as you njoy em thats all that matters. When you finding yourself buying em because its the cool thing to do you should know that then and only then is it time to go to AA. WOw I cant believe I just said that

Frankennietzsche · Post by **Frankennietzsche** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 11:49 pm

Retract that immediately. It's never time to go to AA. It might be time to rethink your priorities, but AA? Never.

Palinka (RIP) · Post by **Palinka (RIP)** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am

With Frankennietzsche here...

BeerGnome · Post by **BeerGnome** » Sun Aug 31, 2003 11:26 pm

Cask ales is the only way I think I can make the place I hope to open up stand out.. and the way that my brother the chef keeps talking about opening up his own place and useing me to do a Brew pub.. it should happen inthe next couple of years ( I'll kep ya posted )
so my pub will have a big Cask pressence.. and cosidering it aint cheap to set up this type of system.. its a pain in the ass.. not to mention you have to wory about turn over.. a cask of beer is pretty much only good for about a week once cracked.

Mr. Lemmy sir.. Cask ales are not removed via vacume sir.. the beer is pulled from the cask .. or dropped.. depending on the set up.
ina conventional keg set up the Keg is presurised with CO2, or a combnation of CO2 and NO and hence.. when you pull the handle and the beer pours freely.. the beer is bing pushed out of the keg via the gas or gas mixture.. /
in a cask system the beer is pumped out, and ideally the cask (and the cask can be a regular 1/2 bbl keg) is vented to atmosphere, so when you pull the pump.. Air comes in to repalce the volume of the displacement.
beer 101 you learn that Oxygen is beers bad guy enemy #1! ( HIKE! ) ut thats for long term storage, and if its a filtered beer...
if the beer is left un filtered, and natural carbonation is allowed to take place then the natural action of the carbonating of the yeast witll scrub out the oxygen that would normaly flatten and spoil the beer in question. oxygen is actually critical to the fermintation process becouse the yeast needs it to be healthy enough to metabolise the sugers to create the wonderful by pyproducts we know and love.. Alcohol and CO2.

so this brings us back to what makes a cask beer so damn tasty to begin with
#1 temprature: keg beer is served between 34 and 40 degrees.. no need to keep it any warmer..its gonna get warmer inthe glass if yer into that sort of thing, by third sip.. the temp is fine to get everything out of it.. by last sip.. you want more. cask beer is stored at that temp becouse its the temp that the metablic rate of the ale yeast is having a little bit of fun.. warm enough to be active.. but not cold enough to be completly dormant.
#2 presentation: the hand pump pulls the beer out of the keg. and the volume of the keg is replaced by atmosphere, (ie Air) this allows the beer to react to its environement. essentially..once the cask is tapped it begins to spoil.. and its degree of spoilage is what yer after in this regard
#3 priming.. a properly primed keg should have enough residual sugars to have allowed the beer inthe keg to have formed a very good residualk head.. a good cask wont allow any gas to escape and any thing left over will go into suspension.

I'm sorry.. ive typed far too long.. and if you read this far. .more power to you.. a nitro pour is a not real ale.. the only thing I gotta say about a nitro pour is you can get the same flavour effect of nitro by sucking on a penny while you drink a stout

thank you..carry on

Post by **Oggar** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 4:47 am

It seems the beergnome isa brewer...

massivedrunk · Post by **massivedrunk** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 9:28 pm

Oggar wrote:It seems the beergnome isa brewer...

yessir, the gnome works for legend brewing.

LuckyStrikes · Post by **LuckyStrikes** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 9:58 pm

Beergnome, I hope you open your place.

Jimmy&Guinney · Post by **Jimmy&Guinney** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 4:29 am

I think that's the name of it. I get so shitfaced when I'm there...It's right across the big St Paul Cos building in St Paul, the only really nice looking building in the skyline, you can't miss it. All beer is made on the premises and it's all cask conditioned ale. I have only drank the pale ale, my beer genre preference, (Guinness is in it's own category) and it has to be one of the best pale ales out there. It's not overly carbonated, not overly cold, just bombards your palate with intense flavour like a pale ale should. It's a nice bar anyway, good food, subtle atmosphere, no music, good staff. A good destination for good craft beer.

Real Ales

Real Ales

Great Waters Brew Pub in St Paul MN