Cask ale 101: Everything you need to know about cask ales
What is cask ale?
Cask ale is an unfiltered and unpasteurised ‘live’ product containing yeast that’s served from the cask container – it gently matures in the cask container through secondary fermentation.
If it’s managed correctly and conditioned properly, the yeast should settle to the bottom of the cask. This leaves a clear, sometimes bright, full-flavoured beer that’s naturally carbonated. It can then be served directly to customers from the hand pump connected to the cask.
The term cask ale was first used by CAMRA in the 1970s, and it’s a very carefully crafted product. While you’ll see many beers called craft beers today, for many, cask ale is the original and true craft beer.
How is cask ale brewed and conditioned?
Brewing
Cask ale is brewed with the following steps:
- Malted barley is first ground down to break open the grains and expose the central starch.
- What’s left is called grist. This is then mixed with hot water – called liquor – for around 75 minutes. Hot water activates the enzymes and the starchy centre begins to turn into fermentable sugar.
- Different water temperatures help control the type of sugars produced, which impacts the type of beer created – dry, full-bodied or sweet, for example.
- The sugary solution that’s left is called wort. This is then separated from the grain husks.
- The wort is then transferred to a copper – a large vessel – where it’s boiled for an hour to sterilise the brew.
- The first hops are then added, to give the final beer some bitterness.
- The wort is cooled to around 18°C for ales and 12°C for lagers. It’s then moved to a stainless steel fermenter where the yeast is pitched.
- You’ll see a thick layer of froth in the fermenter as ale yeasts are top-fermenting operators. Below this, the beer will be developing as the yeast is consuming the sugars and releasing alcohol, carbon dioxide, and a range of flavours.
- Fermentation typically takes between two and four days.
- The beer is then matured for the rest of the week to allow the flavours to develop and to create a smooth finish. It’s then ready to go into the cask for conditioning.
Conditioning
The ale that has been racked into casks is a live product, which hasn’t been pasteurised or filtered. It still contains yeast and no external carbon dioxide has been added.
The settling process is now sped up by adding a fining agent. This helps create a heavier material which settles at the bottom of the cask and forms a clear, bright beer. For hazier and cloudier ales, no fining agent is used.
The beer then leaves the brewery in cask and continues the conditioning process. The yeast works its way through the remaining sugars, which alters the alcohol levels and produces a natural carbonation. This is where the beer matures and develops its subtle flavours.
The cask-conditioned ale should then be positioned properly in the pub cellar for 24 hours before serving.
What’s the difference between cask ale and other types of beer?
Cask ale differs from normal keg beer in a couple of key ways.
Normal keg beer is usually filtered and carbonated to 2.4 volumes of carbon dioxide, and usually pushed out of the keg with carbon dioxide. Cask ale is dispensed traditionally by being pumped out of the cask using a hand pump. No carbon dioxide pushes the beer out of the vessel. Air is then allowed to enter the cask as the beer is dispensed.
The upshot of this is that once dispensed, the ale needs to be drunk quickly before it goes flat and is spoiled.
How is cask ale served?
Cask ale is served directly from the cask using a hand pump. Sometimes it’s gravity-fed. The key thing to note is that carbon dioxide isn’t added.
Cask ale should be served at around 11-13°C, which is slightly chilled and a “cellar temperature”. This allows the full flavour profile to come through, tasting as was intended by the brewer.
It should also be consumed in around 48 hours, before it goes flat.
Why we love cask ales
Heart and soul goes into cask ale. It’s a live product with history and tradition behind it, with many countryside brewers famed for their creations. And the fact it needs to be consumed so quickly helps to keep things local – with local and seasonal ingredients used to bring out those delicious and unique flavours.
It’s one of our favourite things to drink, and it’s loved by our customers up and down the country. That provides us with plenty of inspiration to continue brewing our beers so they’re all the very best they can be.
How to enjoy cask ale properly
Cask ale glossary of terms
- Beer line: The pipe that carries the ale from the cellar to the pub.
- Bitter: Cask ales and real ales are coloured golden brown and have a stronger, more bitter taste than lager. People often call them bitter.
- Bright beer: Cask ale usually needs to settle before serving. Bright beer is the exception to this, as it has had the yeast sediment removed, and requires no further settling.
- Conditioning: The process in which a cask ale retains yeast to enable a secondary fermentation to take place in the cask.
- Fining: Fining is the process of achieving clarity in a cask ale. It helps remove unwanted particles and haze, resulting in a clear ale.
- Gravity-fed: This is a system where the beer is pulled directly from the cask in the cellar to the pump in the pub.
- Hand pump: An alternative to a gravity-fed system, where the beer is hand pumped from the cask to be served.
- Hop back: This is a device that is inserted in line as the beer is transferred and cooled from the hot boiler into the fermenter. It transfers delicate hop oils and aromas into the ale that would otherwise be boiled off in the boiler.
- Mild: A beer that’s less bitter and lower in alcohol.
- Porter: A beer that’s well-hopped and dark in appearance due to the use of brown malt.
- Real ale: A term coined in the 1970s to refer to cask ale as a true craft beer.
Come and try a cask ale for yourself
Love the sound of a delicious local and fresh cask ale? Find a Chef & Brewer pub near you to come and sample our selection of craft ales and enjoy them in beautiful countryside surroundings.
We serve an ever-changing cast of craft beers, including cask ales that arrive from breweries neighbouring our pubs. What will you have next?