Talking Casks

Welcome back folks! Going to finish up our Saint Arnold's hours here with a duo of very special casks, Divine Reserve #12 and #13. Before I get into the beers themselves I wanted to clear up some common confusion to this question: what exactly is a cask? Well, it's a very simple but detailed answer. There are really two types of cask beers that your going to see: firkins (real ale) and cask conditioned ales. They are both considered "casks" but today we are going to focus about the firkin.

Pictured above is a standard firkin. It's specifically a unit of measure (10.8 US Gallons typically but can be seen smaller). Brewer's will take a finished beer and pour it into this vessel along with additives of live yeast, priming sugar (food for the yeast) and any other odds and ends they want to throw in here, dry hopping is the most common. This is a process called secondary fermentation. The best example I usually relate to people is Belgian bottled conditioned beer. The active yeast continue to work and convert the sugars into alcohol and CO2 as well as adding complexity and other interesting flavors to the beer. Cask are naturally carbonated through this process and thus are best served fresh. Typical shelf lives are no more than 3 days; SO GET IT EARLY!!! This is what is typically known as "Real Ale" and is often seen in British pubs. The beer is still alive and not pasteurized so it's a bit more legit!!  A note on dry hopping: hops are added during the boil of the brewing process. The heat transforms the alpha acids in the hops from their non-bittering form to their bittering form in a process called isomerization. When "dry hopping" you add hops during the finishing conditioning and since there is no heat, you only get the aromas and hop oils from the hops...lending to the mouthfeel and smell of the finished beers without bittering them.

There are two ways in which to serve a firkin. Pictured above is a firkin on a bar top. In this instance, a faucet is driven into the front of the barrel and a vented cork called a spile is hammered through the top. It's a simple faucet that you open and pour from - this is called a gravity pour because it's using only gravity to pour the beer. The second way, which is more common, is through a beer engine. The cask undergoes the same hammering mentioned above but only it remains in a cooler and is pumped through a line to the faucet, which aerates the beer and gives it a creamy head (cooling also prolongs its life and keeps it colder).

I should note that firkins are generally served at warmer temperatures (50 degrees or so) and are less carbonated due to their nature. They should always be pleasantly cool and never served after three days.


OK! With that being said, 4PM will see the tapping of two firkins, Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve 12 and 13. Divine Reserve #12 (old ale, 10% ABV) has a lot going on in it. First, it's an old ale so there is tons of malty goodness- biscuit, toffee, light caramel with touches of spice. Secondly, because it's cask, it's going to have a creamier mouthfeel than it was originally designed to have. This particular cask has over a year of age on it so it's going to be really cool to see what's happened to it! 

Second cask is Divine Reserve #13 (Belgian quad, 11% ABV). Lots of flavors here...raisins, figs, plum, dark fruit and distinctive esters from the yeast. It's a bold beer with a high ABV so there is a bit of alcohol burn to it. A fine example of an American brewed Belgian ale. And since this is a casks, there's no telling what transformations we get to see. Typically beers I've cellar of this style get richer and darker while mellowing out the alcohol. We recently had the regular keg version of this on our wall so it's going to be really interesting to see the differences!

That's it for casks and our Saint Arnold's hours. Please remember stock is limited so get here early!! And drink those casks as soon as we tap them!! Just think, you can school your fellow knurds on what exactly a cask is!! haha! See you soon!