I have been saying for some time that most outlets would benefit from serving their keg beer a degree or two warmer and their cask beer a degree or two colder. I have also noticed some brewers kegging beer with a lower level of fizz, which seems to work well.
Yes, there's scope for quite a range over these parameters. My diagram wasn't entirely a joke. When people actually get down to the specifics of why they do or don't like cask/keg it does seem to boil down to "too fizzy/flat, cold/warm".
Hardknott Dave calls cask "obsolete technology". And it certainly is quite old-fashioned. For that matter, "Keg" technology is showing its age. Handling thousands of little pressure vessels isn't the kind of solution you'd come up with if you were starting from scratch. I suspect that we'll see genuinely new approaches coming through (like this maybe?) Perhaps enabling carbonation and temperature to be "dialed in" on a per tap / product basis.
Well, old-fashioned doesn't mean obsolete. I said much the same thing on Dave's blog. The safety razor and the bicycle had pretty much achieved perfect designs by the 1940s. You can construct 'modern' alternatives which might provide slightly better performance, but these come at the cost of being significantly more complicated and using more resources.
Sure, something still in use isn't, by definition, obsolete. But even quite mature technology can be supplanted. I can't remember the last time I had to run to the telegraph office with an urgent message.
Of course technology can be supplanted by something that offers advantages massive enough to be no competition, think of steam trains versus electric trains or litho offset printing versus hot metal. Is the advantage of keg beer significant enough to be irresistible? Not from a drinker’s perspective, I submit.
As a drinker, I like (some) cask beer, in large part, because of the relatively low carbonation - at sensible temperatures this still makes for a pleasantly petillant pint that's easy to drink. But of course, much cask beer isn't cask-conditioned per se, so the nature of the container is largely an irrelevance, being accidental rather than essential. Except that, as a low pressure container, handling is simplified. The extra costs of the traditional keg system means it offers little or no advantage for lightly carbonated beers, served relatively warm, in a high throughput outlet. Where those conditions don't apply, traditional cask may well be a decidedly inferior solution.
A novel approach might even give significant advantages over the entire range of temperature/carbonation, in which case, assuming deployment costs aren't prohibitive, we might see it start to displace keg and cask.
And then CAMRA could welcome in the diehard keg crowd.
This is Jon's personal "blog" - I work at an independent microbrewery (a small-scale, artisanal producer of “real ale” and other beery treats), based in the Furness area in Cumbria (or N. Lancs if you'd rather). Or a "Craft Brewer", if you like. We're known as "Stringers", or "Stringers Beer". I don't just make beer - I also sound-off in half-informed rants on a variety of subjects. Like here.
Dublin bound
-
As with most trips, it begins with a taxi ride to the airport. I’m such a
lazy git, there being loads of public transport alternatives. I do, at
least, h...
A Cracking Pub and Two Microbreweries
-
Did you know that Melbourne has more trams than anywhere else? Well, I
think that's what was said. I can confirm at least the place was hoaching*
with t...
Welcome to GADDS' 22nd Birthday Beer Festival!
-
Here's a short and sweet guide......
Tokens - in order to keep service as speedy as possible, all transactions
are by tokens. Please buy these at the tok...
Every little helps
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I’ve just drunk – in fact, I’ve just made a small detour in order to drink
– a pint of Burning Sky Plateau. Burning Sky is a brewery I’ve got a lot of
time...
Homebrew - Cheaper than the Pub?
-
The price of beer has been on my mind a fair bit lately.
At the weekend I kicked my first keg of homebrew for the 2024, a 5.1% amber
kellerbier that I br...
Finally visiting Sarah
-
*I'd waited a long time for this. *It was over thirty years ago that I
first drank Sarah Hughes Original Dark Ruby Mild. I think they've dropped
the "Ori...
Reconnections
-
It's fair to say that the last few years have wreaked havoc on the way
that we've lived our lives. People have lost their jobs. People have lost
their b...
Paradise Garden
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Timbo's Dream
One thing you rarely encounter in a tightly-packed and traffic-addled city
centre like Preston's is a pub with a proper beer garden. All th...
Golden Pints 2022
-
This has been a strange year, and a lot of the classic Golden Pints
categories don’t make any sense for me any more. You might think that the
paucity of po...
Bad Kingdom (1972)
-
In 1972, the government drew up plans to construct a deportation facility
off the coast of Ireland that could house as many as 70 million people -
the en...
Last night at the JT
-
*Yesterday evening, I went to the Jerusalem Tavern. It was the pub's last
night.*
The operators, St Peter's Brewery, haven't renewed their long lease, an...
A final pint
-
My last blog post was a bit of a downer. I’ll try to cheer up on this one.
I seem to have created a theme of chronicling end of pubs. The travails of
the...
Living with cancer, chemo, lockdown and work
-
Moving from a position of being self-employed to working for someone else
is something of an adjustment. Going from having control and responsibility
of ab...
A Tale Of Two Weekends
-
The never ending tour of Manchester continues. With a lot of places either
still closed completely or not opening early in the week, it's easier to do
a ...
The Session: Where I'm/It's At.
-
Well, it has been a while. Since there was a proper Session. Since I wrote
a thing on this blog. Glad to be prodded. I think about blogging often, but
the...
New exhibit! Zymoglyphic Art of the Modern Age
-
Art in the Zymoglyphic region was originally a way to connect with an
unseen world, as can be seen in the artifacts of the Rust Age. In more
secular ti...
Goodbye
-
I never realised this was still active.
However due to the untimely demise of the creator of the site I feel it is
inappropriate to to keep it going.
The ...
A Quick Blog Post For IPA Day
-
*If you really want to know why IPA was supposedly so strong and hoppy,
look not to the breweries, but to India...*
Today is apparently International Let's...
Irish Craft In London - One Year On...
-
As we head into the early Spring, it's almost time to get up to speed with
a new round of events featuring the best of the Irish Craft Beer Scene. In
2016,...
In the Dry Dock
-
For those still linked to this blog or those who are skulking, half-cut,
in the darkness by your lap top waiting for news of my next move so you can
bitte...
Thomas Hardy's Ale Reborn
-
This beauty arrived by post yesterday so I thought it was time to end my
silence.
The rights to the Thomas Hardy Ale name have now passed to a company in...
BrewBarrel – Homebrew Kit
-
I was contacted by the guys over at Brewbarrel – a German startup which has
just launched its business in the United Kingdom – and I accepted their
offer o...
His name is "Stay!"
-
I'm lucky enough to get a call every so often from the Endress+Hauser
Corporation to make something out of their spare parts. They give me full
creative...
6 comments:
I have been saying for some time that most outlets would benefit from serving their keg beer a degree or two warmer and their cask beer a degree or two colder. I have also noticed some brewers kegging beer with a lower level of fizz, which seems to work well.
Yes, there's scope for quite a range over these parameters. My diagram wasn't entirely a joke. When people actually get down to the specifics of why they do or don't like cask/keg it does seem to boil down to "too fizzy/flat, cold/warm".
Hardknott Dave calls cask "obsolete technology". And it certainly is quite old-fashioned. For that matter, "Keg" technology is showing its age. Handling thousands of little pressure vessels isn't the kind of solution you'd come up with if you were starting from scratch. I suspect that we'll see genuinely new approaches coming through (like this maybe?) Perhaps enabling carbonation and temperature to be "dialed in" on a per tap / product basis.
Well, old-fashioned doesn't mean obsolete. I said much the same thing on Dave's blog. The safety razor and the bicycle had pretty much achieved perfect designs by the 1940s. You can construct 'modern' alternatives which might provide slightly better performance, but these come at the cost of being significantly more complicated and using more resources.
Sure, something still in use isn't, by definition, obsolete. But even quite mature technology can be supplanted. I can't remember the last time I had to run to the telegraph office with an urgent message.
Of course technology can be supplanted by something that offers advantages massive enough to be no competition, think of steam trains versus electric trains or litho offset printing versus hot metal. Is the advantage of keg beer significant enough to be irresistible? Not from a drinker’s perspective, I submit.
As a drinker, I like (some) cask beer, in large part, because of the relatively low carbonation - at sensible temperatures this still makes for a pleasantly petillant pint that's easy to drink. But of course, much cask beer isn't cask-conditioned per se, so the nature of the container is largely an irrelevance, being accidental rather than essential. Except that, as a low pressure container, handling is simplified. The extra costs of the traditional keg system means it offers little or no advantage for lightly carbonated beers, served relatively warm, in a high throughput outlet. Where those conditions don't apply, traditional cask may well be a decidedly inferior solution.
A novel approach might even give significant advantages over the entire range of temperature/carbonation, in which case, assuming deployment costs aren't prohibitive, we might see it start to displace keg and cask.
And then CAMRA could welcome in the diehard keg crowd.
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