This has been touched on elsewhere, but I thought it deserved a more focused discussion. I love cask conditioned and bottle conditioned beers. I would take a bottle conditioned beer over a keg beer any day. I think these are the only ways to get an unadulterated product. I love the look of a gravity flow or pump fed cask in a bar. It seems so natural, and so does the beer. I prefer beer closer to room temperature with a little less carbonation so I can get the most flavor from it, so casks are perfect for me. For anyone who lives in the Northeast or is just interested in learning a bit about why these beers are better, check out this site:
I went to their event at Novare Res in Portland, ME and it was the greatest beer event I’ve ever seen. They had over 30 different casks that were conveniently divided into 3 stations (Germany, UK, USA) and you could get partial pours to make it easier to try many beers. I applaud NERAX and the folks at Novare Res for making it happen. (I have no affiliation with either group)
I did see a comment about not always preferring bottle conditioned beer and I wonder if anyone with that experience knows how long the beer in question had been in the bottle. Also, has it happened again with a different batch of the same beer? I can grasp that maybe neither seemed better, but I’d be surprised if, under proper conditions, the bottle conditioned version seemed less appealing.
Doug,
A couple of things. First, there are really two ways to bottle condition beer. One way is to add a little extra sugar (or wort) to unfiltered beer and bottle it. This is the traditional way of bottle conditioning, and is basically the same as cask conditioning a keg. The bottle is simply a very small keg. The other way of bottle conditioning is to filter the beer, semi-carbonate it, and then add both wort and a small amount of yeast (different than the original yeast and usually a lager) to add some additional carbonation and allow the brewer to call it “bottle conditioned”. I think you’re referring to the first way, not the second.
Second, with standard kegs, the beer is pushed with CO2, which is very soluble in beer, and will tend to carbonate (or over-carbonate) the beer with time. With cask beer, you’re pumping or draining the beer. So when serving traditional cask conditioned beers, you always have to insure that the cask is drunk quickly, since the beer in the cask is being replaced by air and will oxidize if left for any period of time. This is why a lot of pubs out here have gone to using nitro or argon systems, as these gases are much less soluble in beer.
Most normal gravity beers are adversely effected by time and heat (heat speeds the aging process), so freshness in these beers is very important. The yeast in the bottle does help protect against some of the aging effects better than filtered beer, but yeast won’t protect a beer for an extended period.
Traditional British-style ale should be less carbonated and served warmer (50-55 degrees F) than many other types of beer. I brew German and Czech-style beers which are usually more highly carbonated and are served somewhat colder (42-47 degrees F). I try to follow somewhat similar ideals with my brewing. I actually carbonate my beer in the fermenter, and I don’t filter my beer, so, with time, it will leave a sediment at the bottom of the bottle just like a bottle conditioned beer.
Yes, I do mean what you called the traditional way. I have heard of casks of beer that are not really cask conditioned as well. That’s BS in my book. I’m talking about unfiltered beer that has undergone secondary fermentation in the vessel from which it is being poured. Thanks for the info.
There is absolutely no comparison between a true cask or bottle conditioned beer and a keg (or “brewery”) conditioned beer.
(Life member of UK’s CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.)