Unsolicited Advice for Publicans

Dear Publican,

You don’t know me and are very likely to lump me in with the beer sniffing crowd once you hear what I have to say. I really like what you are doing in bringing real ale to your establishment. Real ale aficionados can be some of the most persnickety but also the most loyal of your customer base. Please allow me to share some of my experience working with real ale to help you appease even the stodgiest CAMRA member.

I think that cask ale presents a very different take on the same brewery products you may already have on draught. It seems that to be successful, cask ale needs a critical mass of demand so that it can turn over quickly enough to be financially viable. Some bars do this by restricting availability to Thursday tappings (which yields peak flavor on Friday or Saturday). Wanting to provide cask regularly is tougher. I would hate for you to give a negative impression to cask ale drinkers with a certain ideal in mind while you build the critical mass necessary for your business to prosper. As they say, once burned, twice shy.

What makes this a little more difficult is the non-confrontational nature of today’s consumer. They may not make a fuss by asking for another pour or refusing a served pint in person but they have no problem griping on Yelp or telling their friends about poor cask. Even if they keep to themselves, giving a curious drinker a poor pint of cask ale prejudices them against trying cask again in the future.

There are two primary factors that determine quality cask: temperature and time. You will get the best flavors and carbonation when the beer is at cellar temperature. At the appropriate temperature the beer will naturally hold on to the appropriate amount for this presentation. If the beer is allowed to rise to room temperature, it will taste too warm and will rapidly lose carbonation.

I am very concerned about the presentation of warm, flat beer as cask ale being detrimental to your future trade. Those who have experienced cask before will be put off and write you off in the future. I’ve definitely done this with certain establishments that I’ve found to be underwhelming. As a publican, you know that you need to present your best face every time to every customer to build your business. While some people may not mind or may even prefer what I would consider to be a fault[1], when enough people bias themselves with preconceptions of what cask ale could be, your presentation will be found to be lacking and you will lose their future business as repeat customers for your real ale. You can avoid this by serving cask ale at the appropriate temperature. Strategies for doing so include cask-specific refrigerators, tapping into glycol lines, building special protrusions from a walk-in cooler, or setting up a cooling loop using a cold plate in your ice well.

I am, of course, spoiled with my festival experience as I get to try beer when they have been freshly tapped and as they evolve over the several days of our festival. The business model of a festival is decidedly different from your experience. We are under no financial pressure to sell every drop of every beer. We need only provide enough options for our customers to be satisfied until the closing bell. As such, we have the leisure to concern ourselves with optimal cellar temperatures, carbonation, and peak flavor.

Peak flavor has very much to do with how long the beer has been in service. Over time, oxidative effects will slowly change a green, freshly tapped beer into a beer at its peak flavor, then continue down the slope towards a progressively insipid ale. Most of the pale, hoppy beers in vogue these days will have a two to four day service life. Some of the stronger ales of winter may be able to last up to a week. The rare barleywine will hold up well into a second week. If you have insufficient trade, you must dispose of tired ale. Serving it to gain the benefit of a couple of pints sold today is not worth the loss of your future business.

Cask ale done right can draw a certain segment of the beer-drinking public. Do it right consistently and you will find a regular and dedicated drinking crowd. Thank you for considering what I had to say. I hope to have a pint with you at your fine establishment someday soon. Until then, be well.

Cheers,

— Randy Baril
Cask Ale Enthusiast
Head Cellarman, CASC

[1] Ariely, Dan, http://people.duke.edu/~dandan/Papers/PI/Beer.pdf