Franconian Beer Message Board

Back to the main page Back to parent post

Reinheitsgebot (Deutsche CAMRA)

Posted by Mark Andersen on 2010-10-01 11:32:06

Unfortunately wide spread availability of cask ale won't work in the US. Not enough people will drink it to make the casks turn over fast enough. Yes I wish this were not so. The only pub near me serving decent ale is called not suprisingly the "British Beer Company". As one of it's mainstays it has Fuller Beers on CO2 and a whole bunch of garbage on tap besides that. They had tried keeping a regular cask ale. They had Old Thumber from Shipyard in Maine. Not the best beer in the world but I enjoyed it on cask. Unfortunately they would tap it and it would sit there unfinished for over 2 weeks. Believe me you're not going to educate the regulars at that pub to switch off their lagers to drink cask ale either. They used to laugh at me when I ordered Old Thumper and for some reason they only glare when I order a CO2 Fuller's. I guess they are itimidated by the hand pump? Luckily we do have two annual cask ale festivals called NERAX (New England Real Ale Exhibition) that I never miss. We've got a very small handful of speciality beer bars in New England that will often have cask ale or the occasional cask ale mini-festival but its very few and far between. People sometimes wonder why I travel so far for beer. On my last Bamberg visit in July one of the locals at a late night pub said to me with an incredulous look: "Dreitausend Kilometres for Bier!?" to which I looked at him, waved my finger and replied "Nein. Viertausend!" - of course that's nothing compared to Fred's distance.

Followups:

How far from Bamberg. by Fred Waltman on  2010-10-05 08:05:00