Brewing could well be the most ancient manufacturing art in the world. The brewing of beer was common to many civilisations. The Chinese were brewing beer 5000 years ago and beer was a significant part of the diet for ancient Egyptians. In fact it was quite common for ancient Egyptians to spend evenings socialising in beer houses. Beer was so important to the Babylonians that in 2100 BC the King of Babylonia imposed a law to protect the consumer. Punishment for short measures served by an innkeeper was death by drowning.
The art of brewing beer was brought to Britain by the Romans. Although beer had been brewed for centuries by this time it had always been kept in earthen jars, dried gourds or bags made of skins or leather rather than wooden barrels. It was actually the Celts who first made wooden barrels. Celtic tribes had settled in much of Europe including the British Isles. They were a non-literate culture and so there are few written records of their civilisation.
Wooden barrels became popular for beer because of the advantages of their great robustness and the fact that they could easily be moved by rolling. By the 16th century they were widely used despite the fact that they often harboured bacteria that spoiled the beer. Brewers often cleaned affected barrels, called "stinkers", with chemicals such as lime and lye before refilling them. UK beer kegs were coopered to the standard size of 36 gallons.
In the mid-20th century stainless steel and aluminium barrels started to become prevalent. Today wooden beer barrels are a rarity and are generally only used by home brew enthusiasts and some specialist real ale breweries.
Nope. This is perhaps the biggest misconception of cask ale and British beer. Cask ale should not be warm or served at room temperature. It should in fact be gently chilled and served at ‘cellar temperature’, which is 11-13oC. This becomes problematic when pubs and other venues don’t follow the correct guidelines and storing conditions.
Misconception 2: “It’s just an old man’s drink”
Back in the day, cask ale was the tipple of choice for working men having a pint in a back-street pub. However, the scene has certainly changed in recent years and cask ale is growing in popularity with younger drinkers. In fact, real ale’s market share is increasing within the general beer market. Younger drinkers, both men and women, want to try a greater variety of beers, including cask, which offers more complex flavours but usually at a lower ABV than kegged lagers. Local real ales are also on the rise and consumers like to support independent breweries over the big corporates. All this has combined to see a renaissance of cask ale which can no longer be claimed as an ‘old man’s drink’.
Misconception 3: “It’s flat”
When conditioned correctly, cask ale should offer a natural carbonation from the yeast which gives off carbon dioxide. This carbonation is subtle, producing fine silky bubbles and leaving a smooth finish as opposed to a keg ale which uses a higher gas level. A good pub manager who looks after their cellar correctly, should recognise when their cask ale reaches peak condition and is ready to serve. Serving a beer too early or keeping it on for too long after it has been tapped severely risks the ale quality, which can wrongly create a bad impression of the beer.
Misconception 4: “It’s sour”
The ale has probably been on sale too long. When a cask has been on for more than 3 days, quality will rapidly decrease and the beer will take on vinegar-like qualities, which is not desirable in any way, shape or form.
Misconception 5: “It’s brown and murky”
Cask ale can take many forms. The cask method can be used to produce bitter, pale ale, golden ale, mild, IPA, stout, porters and other styles of beer. As I’m sure you’re aware, not all of these ales are brown and murky!
So there you have it, your complete guide to cask beer in 2022. All that’s left now is to find a good pub serving well-managed cask ale and grab yourself a pint of the good stuff.
(And there are 8 pints in a gallon - remember this, there will be questions later!)
The beer will have been put into casks at the brewery (not 'barrels' - see note below) These are the containers in which it is delivered to the pub's cellar, and from which it is drawn for dispensing at the bar by the pumps. The casks, normally made of metal today, no longer wood, normally come in two sizes - the 9 gallon firkin and the 18 gallon kilderkin
The style of glass on the left - with the fetching bulge part way down -
Then there's the standard straight-sided type.
And if conversation flags you can always ask them if beer should be served with a good head of foam . . .
So if beer comes in casks, don't they use barrels any more?
Well, yes and no . . . Beer is delivered in casks of firkin or kilderkin size, because those are reckoned to be most convenient for sales purposes - and in these days of strict Health and Safety rules they are also less likely to give the drayman or cellarman a hernia! But the old barrel (measuring 36 gallons) still survives in a notional form because that is how the output of a brewery is assessed - one with a 10 barrel plant can produce 360 gallons.(End of term test - how many pints is that?)
For those who really enjoy the details - or are simply masochists looking for a quick headache - an Imperial British Gallon was defined as the volume occupied by exactly 10 pounds of water of density 0.988859 gramme per millilitre weighed in air of density 0.001217 gramme per millilitre against weights of density 8.136 grammes per millilitre - got that?
And if you still haven't got the headache you were seeking, be aware that the capacity of a barrel has been defined in different ways over the years, being 31.5 gallons if it held wine, but 32 gallons when the contents were classed as ale and 36 gallons when beer!
Now lets put it all together - and throw in a few more to make confusion complete. One Fluid Ounce (Fl. oz) is 1/160 of a Gallon
One Gill is 5 Fl. oz or 1/32 of a Gallon
One Pint is 4 Gills or 20 Fl. oz or 1/8 of a Gallon
One Quart is 2 Pints or 8 Gills or 40 Fl. oz or 1/4 of a Gallon
There is also a Pottle, which is 2 Quarts or 4 Pints.
I've never heard it used but it's an attractive thought:
"Ho there, mine host, a pottle of your best ale!"
Must try that in my local sometime . . .
One Firkin is 9 Gallons
One Kilderkin is 2 Firkins or 18 Gallons
One Barrel is 2 Kilderkins or 36 Gallons
In the wine trade they still use Hogshead, where it means 63 Gallons, but in the brewing industry it used to refer to 1.5 Barrels=54 Gallons.
Similar disagreement exists with Pipe or Butt (126 Gallons of wine, but 3 Barrels=108 Gallons of beer). And although both trades agree that a Tun or Ton is 2 Pipes, that works out at 252 gallons of wine but 216 of beer!