Getting it right requires love, care, attention and skill, especially after the beer has been racked in a cask. When conditioned and managed correctly, the yeast in the cask settles to the bottom, leaving a clear, often bright, full-flavoured and naturally carbonated beer to be served from the handpump.Ĭask, or Real Ale as it was coined by CAMRA in the 1970s, is a carefully crafted product – a true ‘craft beer’ if you will.
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This Complete Guide to Cask Ale aims to give you the full picture, including what exactly cask ale is, it’s main qualities, how it’s brewed, conditioned, looked after and why it doesn’t live up to the misconceptions.Ĭask ale is essentially an unfiltered, unpasteurised ‘live’ product containing yeast that is served from the cask container where it’s gently matured by secondary fermentation. We answer some of these misunderstandings in a FAQ-type section at the bottom of this article. Despite the drop, Joseph Holt are as passionate as ever about cask – make sure you take a look at our six cask ale special 170 programme.Ī few misconceptions have been picked up over the years on what cask ale is, how it tastes, looks and the market it caters for, largely due to quality issues and poor cellar management. Statistics show a drop in 2018 sales down from 2.7m hectolitres to 2.4m hectolitres. In recent years there has been a swelling of interest in beer types and styles with a variety of adventurous ingredients making their way into brews, which has started to halt the decline in the overall beer market, although cask ale still faces an uphill battle. There’s no denying that cask ale started to dwindle in the mid-1900s, sparking the creation of the Campaign for Real Ale ( CAMRA) in 1971 who’ve since stimulated a renaissance period from their initial quest for better quality ale. It’s rich history dates back through the Middle Ages and right up to 2020 where the art of brewing and serving cask ale lives on. Cask ale is without doubt the unyielding patron of British brewing.