Franconian Beer Message Board
Cask Ales in Ireland |
| Posted by barryriley on 2013-03-05 06:38:54 |
| Interesting points, Mark. I accept the point about pasteurisation, probably my legacy from the old days of Watney’s Red Barrel and the like. But it is the question of filtering and adding CO2 that really distinguishes the different products. You say it is the same product going into all three containers (bottles, kegs and casks) but that isn’t really the case. The Porterhouse sketch shows beer going from a conditioning tank into bottles, kegs and casks but that can’t be right, otherwise their kegs and bottled beer would contain sediment. 8 Degree are a bit more upfront and state that, with the exception of Howling Gale, all beer are filtered and ‘CO2 adjusted. A number of the beers from Irish ‘craft’ breweries are available in our local supermarket and the first thing that I do is to pick up the bottle to see if there is any sediment at the bottom; i.e. to see if it is bottle conditioned. Without exception, they are not bottle conditioned, which means that they must be filtered to remove any traces of yeast. Then, of course, something must be added to ensure that they come fizzing out of the bottle and, of course, that is CO2. Yes, it all comes from the same basic brew but, as soon as non-natural CO2 is added, it changes the character of the beer. I suppose that the beer undergoes the same process before being ‘kegged’. So, it is not the same product going into three containers. I’m a little surprised at your experience with your ‘cask’ beer. Commercially, real ale is usually kept in a fermenting vessel for a number of days to allow secondary fermentation to start. At this point, it is often dry-hopped. In days of yore, breweries had their own methods of fermentation, such as the ‘union method’ used in the various Burton breweries. It is during this vital secondary fermentation that beers develop their unique flavours. In general, filtered bright beers do not undergo this process of maturation (I don’t know - and it is not clear from their websites - whether beer produced by the Irish ‘craft’ breweries undergo this process). Following, a few days maturation, casks are delivered to the pub. Yes, finings have been added and, although I’m not too keen on the notion of drinking something containing fishes bladders, it is probably one of my few concessions as a veggie! It seems a bit uncertain nowadays which ale brewers actually use isinglass, as there are natural alternatives. When the cask arrives at the pub, it must be put in a horizontal position on the stillage to ensure that all the remainig bits of yeast and finings drop to the bottom. At this stage, the beer is going still going through the secondary fermentation process, which lasts for a few more days. A couple of days before use, a hard spile is hammered into the spile hole and adjusted (by wiggling it about!) to allow CO2 to be released gradually. The day before use, the cask is tapped and the hard spile replaced by a soft spile. Generally, I used to tap in the spile at the end of trading, which allowed the CO2 to build up and help prevent atmospheric access. Depending on turnover, using this method, the beer remained in good conditions for a number of days, probably up to a week before it started to noticeably deteriorate. Even then, deterioration was fairly gradual and only the most discerning customers tended to notice! To some degree, the level of discernible deterioration depended on the strength of the beer and its natural flavour – i.e. in strong flavoured beers, deterioration was less discernible. |
| Followups: |
 Cask Ales in Ireland by Mark Andersen on 2013-03-05 07:09:41 |
| Cask Ales in Ireland by barryriley on 2013-03-05 08:14:57 |
| Cask Ales in Ireland by Mark Andersen on 2013-03-05 12:15:39 |
| Cask Ales in Ireland by Nick B. on 2013-03-06 01:24:44 |