Cask Ale

Today’s British brewers are melding traditional cask bitter with brighter, modern hopping for a crushable alchemy greater than the sum of its parts. Will the rest of us ever catch on?

Bottom-fermented beer, served in the British ale tradition? There’s precedent for it—and the rise in lager interest may be just what’s needed to stoke drinkers’ curiosity.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: The two-centuries-old Whitelock’s Ale House is the jewel in the beer crown of Leeds, England.

Does slow, subtle cask ale still have a place in today’s variety-driven, can-cluttered American scene? Along with a primer on the gear and vocabulary, here’s why this is an endangered tradition this side of the Atlantic—and why it refuses to die.

You don’t need tall tales or fancy firkins to brew, serve, and enjoy great cask ale at home. Josh Weikert lays out some simple, low-cost methods involving gear you probably already have.

It’s hard work to keep things simple, and this New York brewery proves that maxim with complex fermentations for their core beers and an ongoing focus on ales served on cask.

Brewers don’t develop their tastes and skills in a vacuum; they’re affected by others, both before and during their careers. Here, Yvan De Baets of Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels chooses his pack and defends it (and wishes he could pick more than six).

The existence of Denver’s Hogshead Brewery is further evidence that passionate, opinionated brewers tend to make great beer. Founder Stephen Kirby is outspoken about what he loves and doesn’t love in brewing. In this episode, he lays it all out there.

Paul Odell explains how to use a cornelius keg to serve homebrewed cask ale.