The real ale tent at the Great Taste is a testament to the creativity and experimental bent of American professional craft brewers. The casks are arranged on racks, double high, and are served by gravity through a tap that is simply opened and closed by turning it - no beer engines needed. One that I attend, the Great Taste of the Midwest, has an entire tent dedicated to real ale. In the US, the other way to enjoy professionally brewed cask conditioned beers is at beer festivals. In the US, the cask conditioned beers I've enjoyed in pubs have run the gamut stylistically - which isn't surprising given the inventive and creative nature of professional craft brewing here. I understand in the UK that traditional English ales dominate the Real Ale offerings - relatively light and sessionable with medium-low to low carbonation. In Chicago, where I live, I've been to a few bars, such as the Globe Pub, that serve cask conditioned ales and have enjoyed them. The beer engine is usually attached to the bar and often has a decorative, ornamental long pull handle. In bars and pubs, the casks are often stored below the bar, in a cellar, and then served via a beer engine, a hand pump that works on the principle of suction. A bar needs to plan to finish a cask of real ale within a few days. Because oxygen flows into the cask when the beer is served, and there is no CO2 gas pushing the beer out and forming a protective barrier over the beer, the beer stales very quickly. One of the challenges for a bar serving cask conditioned beers is the beer's short shelf life. While CAMRA has helped the growth of pubs serving real ale in the UK, cask conditioned ale served in pubs in the US is more rare. My Experience of Professional Cask Conditioned or Real Ales ""CAMRA also supports the pub as the one place in which to consume real ale (also known as cask-conditioned beer, or cask ale) and to try one of over 5,500 different styles now produced across the UK." "CAMRA supports well-run pubs as the centres of community life whether in rural or urban areas and believe their continued existence play a critical social role in UK culture. They are not focused on homebrewing but rather pubs - here is a paragraph from their website ( ): The group mobilizing Real Ale supporters is the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), formed in 1971 and now a force to be reckoned with in the UK. Real AleĬask conditioning comes to us from England and it's there, across the pond, that what they call Real Ale has made a huge comeback in the past few decades. A pin, like mine, is usually half that size. A firkin traditionally holds 9 imperial gallons, which translates to 10.8 US gallons. You'll typically see casks come in two sizes: firkins and pins. When the beer is carbonated and ready to serve, a spile is driven through the shive on top to allow CO2 out of the cask and air into the cask and a tap is driven into the keystone, and the beer is served by gravity.
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