Cask Ale in the North, South, and Very Far West

Sometimes I attempt to weave several stories into a bolt of silky cloth, but today it’s more a basket of yarn balls, all potential into which you may knit your own meaning. (Sorry, sometimes metaphors get out of hand, and the only way out is through. We set our jaws and carry on.) Today’s basket is cask ale, in three lovely colors.

1. Sparkling Insight

Only a few people on the planet have more authority on the question of sparklers than John Keeling, a Northerner by birth but a 40-year vet of Southern brewing at London’s Fuller’s. He approaches it delicately, obliquely, and, eventually, firmly:

“Firstly, with such an agitated pour the beer must lose some condition, I cannot think that this would be a good thing. Secondly, we know that certain flavour compounds such as bitterness dissolve into the head which makes the beer less bitter. However, that foam redissolves into the beer as you drink it making the last few drinks very bitter indeed. Again, I cannot believe this is a good thing and makes the beer inconsistent to the drinker.”

Look, I didn’t say it, John did, and if you want to contradict him, you may do so at your own risk. That I agree with him is entirely coincidental. (We may be fighting a losing war, however—see 3 below.) I strongly recommend you read his full comments, which are delicious as his beer.

2. Animal Instincts

I’m not even sure how to summarize this post by Boak and Bailey except to say that along the way one travels back in time to half-century-old ale and cinema (of the bloody kind) to learn that they somehow link here:

“We’ve written before about the spooky potential of pubs, including The Green Man in The Wicker Man and, of course, The Slaughtered Lamb in An American Werewolf in London. That’s not generally considered folk horror but those scenes on the Yorkshire moors could definitely be framed that way. Beer loosens inhibitions. Beer puts people in touch with their animal instincts. Beer is magic.”

I mean, that doesn’t really tell you what’s going on, either. You have to read the whole thing.

3. Cask is Still Booming Locally

An unlikely pub-only trend was dawning just as Covid was busily trying to kill those very establishments: a flowering of cask engines in Portland. For literally decades, pubs and breweries would make a big push into cask, only to learn no one wanted it. I denied, I bargained, I raged, and eventually I accepted that Portland was no place for cask ale.

But as with so many things, I was wrong. The green shoots started sprouting everywhere: Away Days, the English-owned, soccer-pub (RIP) adjacent Hawthorne Street brewery probably banged the drum loudest, but they were not alone: Steeplejack, ForeLand, Upright, Level, Gigantic, Baerlic, and most recently, Montavilla all started programs. They are joined by a baker’s half dozen (7; that’s a thing, right?) of pubs also getting on the cask train.

It looked like such a phenomenon that Away Days has initiated a fun, quirky passport program that you will not find in your app store. It’s a Xerox-and-dot-matrix* zine, and you receive physical stamps when you down a pint of sparkled. (The North has conquered Portland; it seems all of Portland is sparkled. Alas.) To participate:

Stop by any of the participating breweries, pubs and bars listed below, order a pint of cask and ask for your copy! [Full list here.] Collect stamps over the next few weeks and then join us for a closing party and raffle draw at The BeerMongers on Saturday the 4th of May. Anyone with four or more stamps will receive a PDX Cask pin.

Owners of fully completed books will be eligible to win valuable prizes—including three signed copies of The Beer Bible. I may even bring a few bonus selections to sweeten the pot. Get out there and drink some cask!