It’s highly unlikely that anyone thinks 2023 is going to be the year cask beer makes a comeback. That said, I continue clutching to any signs of hope. And there are some. Before getting to the glass half full, lets get the bad news out of the way.
In October of last year, Seattle’s Machine House Brewery announced its future was up in the air. With their lease up in June of ’23, their new landlord is using the opportunity to jack up the rent. The unaffordable increase is forcing the brewery to look elsewhere or consider closing up shop.
I’m grateful I was able to make it there last year. The beer was great, and Seattle has been incredibly lucky to have them. The bad news is making me very anxious to see what their next move is.
Speaking of closures, the last few months have been grim for breweries in cask beer’s homeland. It seems we don’t go more than a few days without hearing another UK brewery is closing.
And cask beer continues to struggle there. This was stressed in a September 2022 blog post on the subject by Pete Brown where he said, “it’s time to cauterise the wound that’s bleeding out.”
A key point he makes is that there are too many pints being served that are in bad form. This is in many ways due to a lack of turnover, which is crucial for a beer style that only has a few days after the cask is tapped before starting to go bad. Greedy or uneducated pubs will ignore or overlook this issue.
This is problematic because the bad beer will send cask enthusiasts away from a pub. Likely not to return. At least not for cask beer. They’re also likely to spread the word to other customers. And for those new to cask, well, there’s never a second chance to make a first impression.
Brown suggests the pubs with low turnover should stop selling cask. Take out the hand pumps. He says, “once you’ve stopped the rot, you can start the recovery. Once you can be sure that curious, younger drinkers will be served a pint that won’t put them off for life, you can feel safe giving them good reasons to try it.” It’s too soon to tell whether these words have resonated in an enduring way.
Now to the optimistic bit. Despite all the bad news, there continues to be great brewers making cask beer and great pubs that serve them in the UK. Older breweries including Fuller’s, Timothy Taylor’s, Greene King, and Harvey’s continue to crank out well-received casks. Others like Black Sheep, Titanic, Abbeydale, Marble, and Coniston do as well. But what is perhaps most promising is that a younger generation of brewers are carrying on the tradition, putting their spin on cask beer and breathing life into this traditional format. This includes breweries like Thornbridge, Five Points, Fyne Ales, and RedWillow.
Further, there are still iconic pubs that have the knowledge to properly care for and serve these beers. Places like The Southampton Arms, The Marble Arch, and The Rutland Arms.
Full disclosure, I say all this as someone who has never set foot on the island (if anyone wants to sponsor a trip there for me to find out what’s happening firsthand, my DMs are open.)
Speaking of Black Sheep, they’re holding their ‘Drink Cask Beer’ festival in late April. It’s being held in support of their broader campaign launched last year with the same name as the festival. Find out more info about the fest here, and the campaign here. Watch the video. It’s great.
Stateside, there has been no noticeable shift in cask beer consumption. Maybe that’s a good thing. It’s not getting better, but it's also not getting worse.
Bulls Head Public House in Lititz, Pennsylvania is still pulling cask pints in tip-top shape. In addition to having casks from brewers in the region that excel in making cask beer, they’re fortunate to get casks from overseas as well. On my recent pass through there, they had Harviestoun’s Ola Dubh 12 Year Special Reserve Imperial Porter and Forest and Main’s pub ale called ‘Stone Flower’. The latter is a British-style beer but brewed with Munich malt.
Not too far away from Bulls Head, Bethlehem’s Bonn Place Brewing Company is also holding steady with its mix of traditional ales and contemporary beers. Bonn has a good approach to their cask program. They tap just one cask each week on Wednesday or Thursday, and it usually goes within two to three days. Perfect timing for cask beer. Not perfect for me as I stopped by recently on a Saturday night and their pub ale called ‘Mooey’ had just kicked from the hand pull. They still had it on nitro though, which was lovely.
Bonn Place Brewing Company, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Though not the cask version, this nitro draft of their Bitter ‘Mooey’ was tasting good.
Dutchess Ales recently tapped a cask of ‘Mizmaze’, their ESB, at The Grand Delancey in New York City. This is one of my favorites from them, so I stopped in for a couple. Owner Mike Messenie was around for the event and promptly asked the staff to remove the sparklers from the hand pull. Though I don’t have strong feelings on this issue, I get a kick out of those that do. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this article by Lily Waite.
I’m really happy to see that Dutchess is still in the cask game, still incredibly passionate about their beer, and still ensuring the places that serve them are doing so in a way that meets their standards. This is critical to the success of cask sales.
On the other side of the East River, Brooklyn, New York’s Strong Rope Brewery held its 7th Caskiversary on February 4th. The event featured local breweries, and this year’s lineup seemed to have less messing around with styles than last year. To me, that’s a great thing. I get the urge to want to do something unique, a one-off, but honestly, a pint of cask Bitter is unique. It’s a rare opportunity to simply have traditional, or contemporary style beer, from a cask. No need to add gummy bears, or whatever. I tasted a couple of very good Bitters, a Stout, a Dubbel, and even a couple of good lagers.
There were some carbonation and clarity issues here and there, but overall, the beer was good. Two standouts for me that I hadn’t had before were KCBC’s ESB and Kills Boro’s Vienna Lager.
Looking ahead, this year brings great news for cask fans in the Northeast. In March, the New England Real Ale Exhibition returns after a Covid hiatus. The event will take place March 29-April 1 in Boston and will include over 100 cask-conditioned beers and ciders from the US and the UK. I highly doubt I will be able to make it, but I’m going to try my best.
Also in the Northeast, on March 26th Connecticut’s Nod Hill will hold ‘An Afternoon of Casks’ and in New Hampshire, there will be ‘Cask.On’. Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing will host the ‘Two Roads Cask Festival: Now Streaming’ on March 31st. Down in Jersey, River Horse Brewing Company is having its ‘Cask Fest 2023’ on February 25th.
You may have noticed that I’ve been referring to “cask beer” instead of “cask ale”. That is intentional because there are several folks making delicious cask lager. I think there’s something to this, and I’m working on something that you will hopefully see later this year. Stay tuned.