Franconian Beer Message Board

Jürgens beerfest beer - Oregon
Posted by Mark Andersen on 2015-06-22 10:25:48
I think the reason why is simply that the vast majority of beer consumers in the USA don't care.  So why bother.  We're used to keg beer over here.  Unlike you folks from the UK we weren't raised on cask ale.  To the average beer drinker here in the US cask ale is more of an oddity/curiosity than anything else and there is very little incentive to promote it.  

When the microbrewery explosion began here in the US cask ale simply did not exist.  So it wasn't like it needed to be revived.  There was nothing to revive in the first place.  We went from industrial lager keg to craft beer keg with nothing in between.

It actually is kind of funny (funny in an interesting way I mean) to me to talk to a fellow beer lover like you from Britain trying to understand why there isn't a lot of cask ale in the USA. Because you're coming at it from a UK viewpoint where you have a tradition of cask ale. It's sort of like asking why aren't fish and chips more widespread or why don't we have more gun control (okay maybe I'm exagerrating a bit).  No such tradition exists here and if it ever did it was completely obliterated by prohibition.  Our beer culture is keg based and has been for a long time.

Now there are some pubs and brewpubs that will have a cask or two on tap occasionally but more or less they're catering to beer geeks like me and not the general market so it's the exception rather than the rule.  

So why don't we have more cask ale here?  At the end of the day, because we never had it in the first place and don't feel the need for it.




 
 
Followups:
                             Jürgens beerfest beer - Oregon by DonS on  2015-06-22 21:17:05
                               Jürgens beerfest beer - Oregon by Barry on  2015-06-23 03:36:37
                                 Cask Ale in US by Mark Andersen on  2015-06-23 06:45:10
                                 Jürgens beerfest beer - Oregon by DonS on  2015-06-23 08:40:47
                                 Cask Ale in the US by FredW on  2015-06-23 08:45:03
                                   Cask Ale in US by DonS on  2015-06-23 09:16:37
                                   Cask Ale in the US by Barry on  2015-06-23 09:45:02
                                     Cask Ale in US by FredW on  2015-06-23 10:10:23
                                   Cask Ale in Oregon is mostly by Nick B. on  2015-06-24 10:35:20
                                     Cask Ale in Oregon is mostly by Nick B. on  2015-06-24 10:42:52
                                     Cask Ale in Oregon is mostly by Barry on  2015-06-25 02:43:52
                                       Cask Ale in Oregon is mostly by Nick B. on  2015-06-25 09:41:56
                                         Cask Ale in Oregon is mostly by Jason on  2015-07-01 02:05:55
                                           Berm in Oregon is mostly by Nick B. on  2015-07-04 03:04:06
                                             Germanic Beer in Oregon is mostly Excellent by Nick B. on  2015-07-04 03:05:01