Now Pulling Authentic Cask Ales

I am happy to announce that we are now pulling the Mid Valleys one and only authentic cask conditioned beer! This has been a project in the making for quite some time now. I would like to give a big thanks to Ted over at the Brewer’s Union Local 180 for his advice and knowledge on casks.

What is cask or “Real Ale”? From the Campaign for Real Ale or CAMRA
“Real ale is a natural product brewed using traditional ingredients and left to mature in the cask (container) from which it is served in the pub through a process called secondary fermentation. It is this process which makes real ale unique amongst beers and develops the wonderful tastes and aromas”. Real ale is additionally served at cellar temperature, around 50-55 degrees.

Anatomy of The Block 15 Cask process:
Our casks are 10.8 gallon stainless steel containers with two openings. The top bung is called a shive, and the bottom a keystone. Flat beer is racked into a cask and additional fermentable sugars are added, the keystone is in place at this point. Fining agents are added to help the beer settle. The cask is sealed by pounding in the shive at the top. The ale then naturally carbonates at room temperature over the next 7-10 days. After carbonated, the cask is moved to our 50 degree cellar and placed on the stillage. We are using a Tilt-A-Cask stillage from the UK. This is a spring loaded stillage, as the beer is pumped out of the cask, the drop in weight triggers a spring to gently lift the back of the cask, moving the beer forward. We have a double stillage so that as we are pulling one cask, the other is settling.
To tap a cask we first pound a hard spile into the shive. A nice puff of CO2 shows that we hit correct carbonation. The hard spile is replaced with a Filt-A-Cask filter. This filter removes any unwanted aromas and bugs from the air that will replace the beer while pulling. The Filt-A-Cask is CAMRA approved and in studies has shown to keep a cask fresh up to 4 days longer than using a spile alone. We then pound in our tap through the keystone. The tap is opened to drain the first pint of ale which contains most of the yeast that that has settle out. We then hook up the beer line and begin pulling delicious pints of real ale! We have chosen to served our casks with a sparkler by default. The sparkler creates a smooth creamy head on top of the pint as it is pulled. If a sparkler is not your thing, simply ask us to remove it before pulling a pint. Being glass correct at Block 15, we are serving our cask ales in authentic 20 oz pint glassed imported from Britain and stamp approved by their government.

Out plan is to rotate different styles of cask ale. You will definitely see all or our house beer on cask at some point. Additionally, casking beer gives us the opportunity to add various ingredients directly to the cask. Some plans include, Stout with fresh roasted cocoa nibs or coffee beans, dry hopping our IPA with various hops, adding Green Tea bags to our IPA, priming with molasses and honey, and other variations we dream up.

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