Ale's Well in England

Republished from BrewingTechniques' September/October 1993.

Cask-conditioned ales uniquely link brewery and pub, providing beer drinkers with glasses of live beer, delicately carbonated by the action of yeast fermentation.

Although "real ale" was the norm though decades of beer consumption, large breweries started to economize in the 1970s by converting pubs to pressurized "brewery conditioned" or "keg" beer. The consumer revolt that created the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) assured real ales a place in the hearts and pubs of the United Kingdom.

During a January 1992 trip to London, I took the opportunity to check in on cask-conditioned ales. This article takes a look at real ale in the United Kingdom -- what it is, how it is managed, and its future prospects.

THE SUN

Gary Brown is the licensee of The Sun, one of the foremost free houses in London. Tied houses are pubs that are owned and operated by a brewery, such as Samuel Smith. With the exception of one guest beer, all other offerings in tied houses come from the same brewery. Free houses offer beers of their choosing. "Usually, we'll have 16 real ales on. We'll change two every six to eight weeks. We choose what people ask for. We get about 30 kegs a week, and all our deliveries come on Tuesday."

The Sun offers a broad range from draught milds (3.5% alcohol [v/v]) and fuller bodied ales (8.0% alcohol [v/v]) to bottled beers. A large chalkboard near the bar boasts "the largest selection of cask-conditioned ales in the world."

Live beer calls for good judgment. Stock management matters in conditioning the ale. Casks must be rotated and stocked in portions that will be consumed within their short life spans. "Cask-conditioned ale isn't exported because it's hard to keep. It requires a fast turnover to clear the cask out. In five to seven days, it gets an oxidized, vinegary aftertaste."

Keeping It Real. Real ale is "on the clock" from the time it is ordered. Licensees need good judgment to get kegs ready for draught because brands and gravities mature at different rates. Click on figure for Large View.(Figure courtesy of the former Watney Mann Truman Breweries.)]

Brown finds that ale conditioning varies from brand to brand, and even from cask to cask.

"While they all take about the same time, they can vary quite a bit. Abbott Ale, for example, is very temperamental -- it can change from day to day. Old Peculiar [up to 6.2% alcohol (v/v)] is the strongest we'll have on tap. It can take a week to settle."

Although running a cellar is simple, it takes the attention of a mother hen over her brood. "It takes a long time to get it right. The basic thing is temperature control and keeping the cellar clean." Just like home-brewed beer, bacteria can attack casks of real ale. Pump lines are cleaned at least once a week. Spiling heads are disinfected regularly, and cellar walls are kept clean and dry.

"The brewery drops the temperature to stop primary fermentation, racks to the keg, and seals it. The keg will lie two or three days in a 55 degrees F cellar to complete fermentation. Over 55 degrees F, and the beer gets too sour and acid, with too active a head." Beer will "fob," or foam, and taste thin. Infections can grow more quickly, affecting aroma, taste, and clarity.

"Too cold and it's flat." The beer takes too long to "work," or complete the second fermentation. Chill haze occurs, and flavor sensations are masked.

As live beer, the ales continue to change. "The keg changes while it's on. As fermentation continues, it gets stronger. You can come in and have a pint one day and have one the next, and you would say, 'That isn't the same beer.'"

Knocking a spile (porous softwood peg) into the spiling head (bung at the front of the keg) allows air in and carbon dioxide out. "A wee bit of the beer foams out, too. The gravity increases a bit as the beer keeps fermenting. Every once in a while, you sweep the foam off the softwood peg. When the foam stops, the beer isn't breathing anymore. Fermentation is complete and the beer is ready to go on draught."

With one swift whack, licensee Gary Brown taps a keg of his favorite real ale, Farmer's Glory, to prepare it for draught-line connection at The Sun, one of London's foremost free houses.

The softwood spile is replaced with a hardwood spile for 24 hours, to await connection to the taps one floor above.

To put a cask on draught, the licensee drives a tap through the softwood feeder peg in the cask's front using a rubber mallet, then connects it to a plastic hose. The hardwood spile is replaced with a softwood spile, and a final sample is drawn off. The plastic hose leads to the "beer engine," a piston valve assembly at the bar with a lever attached. One pull dispenses a half pint. Pump clips attached to the handle indicate which beer is on which engine.

Unlike most "locals," The Sun draws its clientele from around the world. "We only have four or five regular customers from the neighborhood. Most of our customers are tourists, 25% of them Americans. Our female market is up. More women are drinking pints of real ale. A surprising number of women know the bars now. Five to ten years ago, it would have been 'A lager and a squeeze of lime,' if they came in at all."

"The sale of foreign bottled beers like Molson made it rough for a while. San Miguel sells in stores for 1.80 pounds sterling. We charge 1.93 pounds sterling for a Budweiser -- about $4.00. Can you believe it? Well, it was a phase folks went through. Now that phase is past."

Brown is positive about the future of real ales and free houses. "The number of free houses will be growing, due to the EC [European Community]. It will loosen up trade practices, so breweries will exercise less control over outlets.

"Markets are getting stronger. We're holding our own with lagers. CAMRA has plugged away and made definite in-roads.

"Breweries and pubs are running more beer festivals, and bringing in a broader variety of real ales."

Two Good. The Beer Shop on London's busy Pitfield Street sells a wide array of top-notch beers from around the United Kingdom and the continent. Their contract brewery produces a variety of well-regarded bitters, including Dark Star, which Michael Jackson dubbed "profound."

THE BEER SHOP

Alan Rankine holds forth at the Beer Shop on Pitfield Street, WC1, one of the foremost off-license (packaged goods) stores in London. Their Pitfield contract brewery, makes a number of popular beers as well.

"When the Grateful Dead does a tour here, Deadheads buy hundreds of cases of our Dark Star," he notes.

"Conditioned casks have to be consumed, or they'll go over the hill. It's easy to tell when a cask is overly aged and oxidized, but it's harder to tell when it's approaching peak condition. More often than not, the pub will put a cask on early, rather than wait until it's at its peak and risk losing it if it isn't consumed quickly enough.

"Three weeks after receipt is the longest a cask will last. Normal session beers [typically around 3.8% alcohol (v/v)] don't need long to get ready, but stronger beers like Marston's Pedigree [4.5% alcohol (v/v)] do."

"Very few pubs alternate spiling pegs back and forth, to get optimum results. It really is simpler than that. After the brewery racks from the primary, they'll add dry hops and finings. They put it into casks and send it straight to the pubs. Maybe it will spend a few days at the landlord's en route. If it's ready on Tuesday, for example, the pub will put it on the next Monday. That short gap will be enough to condition it to the satisfaction of his customers."

Monthly issues of CAMRA's London Drinker newsletter attest to member dissatisfaction over the quality of some large U.K. breweries' products.

"Here, large breweries are cutting back on quality. As the European market becomes reality, all those good Czech and German beers are going to queue up ready to come here. If the bigger U.K. brewers don't keep their quality up, no one over there in Europe will want to buy it."

It's not a simple matter to put up a small batch of cask-conditioned ale, though. It takes a minimum batch size to keep real ale on draught.

"The minimum amount of beer required to make cask conditioning work is 1080 imperial [1350 U.S.] gallons in all."

Keeping a quality product economical in the United Kingdom remains a challenge.

"Most Britons will look at a premium beer like Theakston's XXXB and think, '2.50 pounds sterling for a beer, when I could get a pint for 1.50 pounds sterling at my local?!' Brewers get premium prices for their product in the United States. I know a number of brewers here who are thinking of moving to the States to make cask-conditioned ales. People there appreciate it."

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