Gabel Road Home Brewery

 CASK BEER BREW-HA-HA

There has been quite the dust up over at X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) over the demise or health of cask ale. Here is an overview of the kerfuffle and a brief background of 'what the hell is cask ale?" for those who need to know.

It all began with a recent blog post by American beer aficionado, Jeff Alworth, entitled What If CAMRA Had Valued Quality Over Romance. The meat of Jeff's piece states that cask ale would be in a better market position if only the independent consumer group called CAMRA had based their requirements and definition of what is cask ale on science rather than romantic notions.

First we must step back and explain what both CAMRA and cask ale are. Cask ale is beer that has been naturally carbonated with no outside CO2 pressure required to push the beer for serving. A hand pull is used and the resulting pour is (or can be) a smooth, very enjoyable drink with a thick, creamy head. Nitro served beer was developed primarily to mimic hand pulled, cask ale. The drawback to this system is that as the beer is served something must enter the keg to replace the lost volume and that something is outside air. Homebrewers are automatically thinking to themselves "oxidation!" And they are right. In a busy pub that will go through one of these casks in a single evening there is little to no issue with oxidized beer. However if that cask sits for a day the beer has already gone off.

CAMRA is the Campaign For Real Ale. They are a group of beer lovers who support the serving of cask over kegged beer that is carbonated and served with outside CO2. CAMRA was formed in the at a time in Britain when keg beer was overtaking cask served ale and what is considered by the organization as "real ale" was being pushed out of many pubs. Their initial membership were largely made of writers whose hearts were in the right place who had little to no knowledge of how beer was made and that their position was based more on romantic notions rather than scientific method. As Jeff Alworth points out in his article:

The founders didn’t really understand beer or how it was made, and their initial complaints were poetic rather than practical. They had to be led down to a cellar and shown casks before they even knew what they were defending. In 1972, as the organization was taking shape, they came up with a definition (quoting here from Brew Britannia:

“[Real ales] are living beers, kept in their natural conditions and not pasteurized… They are dispatched and kept in casks and barrels without the addition of extraneous CO2… They are drawn from casks and barrels by methods other than those requiring CO2 pressure… They should taste pleasant and wholesome.”

Theirs was fundamentally a romantic movement, which accounts for this non-technical definition. All the writers involved early on were fantastic for getting the word out. They told a compelling story and captured the hearts of their fellow pub-going Britons, 30,000 of whom joined within a few years. I don’t think anyone doubts that this was hugely important in reviving interest in traditional ales and forestalling the assault of industrial-scale lager. But man, there was a cost. CAMRA was adamant about not allowing CO2 anywhere near cask ale. Even knowing that once a cask it tapped it begins to spoil almost immediately the organization defended the inevitable stale and oxidized pint thus in The Good Beer Guide, 1974: "Every brew has its good days, its bad days and its indifferent days. Learn to accept the off moment and revel in the times when you hit on a really excellent pint.” I find that astounding that a consumer watchdog group would defend undrinkable beer! Jeff's lament is that there is, and has been, a solution available all along called the "Cask Breather". A device that fills the void created by every pull of the hand pump with CO2 from an outside tank. This CO2 is of very low pressure and is not enough to affect the already delicately carbonated beer (i.e. over carbonation). But the powers-that-be at CAMRA refused to allow the practice in pubs that they have endorsed and certified as serving "real ale". For readers old enough you can think of the CAMRA endorsement as being somewhat on par with the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Had CAMRA not been so stubborn in opposing the cask breather there would have been far fewer pubs serving undrinkable beer thus giving cask ale a much better reputation among those average beer drinkers who are not devotee's of the CAMRA doctrine. Ron Pattinson in his blog, Shut Up About Barclay Perkins however points to other factors contributing to the decline of cask ale's popularity: "And all this is ignoring one of the biggest factors in the decline of any style of beer: ageing drinkers. The decline in cask beer is never going to be reversed unless more young people start drinking it. That's the biggest challenge facing cask beer. Not whether or not to use cask breathers."

All valid points but how many times is the average young beer drinker going to return to a pub after having been served an oxidized, undrinkable pint? The answer; None of them! To be fair to CAMRA they have loosened their stance on cask breathers. In 2018 they did not openly endorse the cask breather but they no longer publicly opposed it. Which means 50 years passed by when beer drinkers were practically playing Russian roulette with every pint they ordered. Lastly, there are options for you to experience cask ale with just a little expense and not much effort and that is to put together your own hand pulled cask ale system at home. Cask Hand Pumps, also called a Beer Engine, can be purchased online for under $500.00. eBay buyers will find them for just a couple hundred dollars. Check valves (to prevent beer from pouring out of the faucet when the handle is not pulled) and cask breathers can also be easily found. I decided to build my own hand pump system some time ago after watching this video on YouTube. I'll let you know how it turns out.