A cask of 3 Lions Ale bound for England

You may recall from an earlier post that, for the first time, I have sent a firkin of Oliver Ale to the Great British Beer Festival. Here’s the story so far….

The Great British Beer Festival, held at London’s Earls Court between August 3rd and 7th is without doubt England’s largest beer festival and will be serving over 700 Real Ales, Ciders and beers from around the world. This year 82 firkins were shipped to the festival from the U.S., up from 54 in 2009, a reflection of the increasing importance of American craft beer in the world marketplace. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to attend the GBBF (I last visited in 2000) and the last time I had beer at the festival was when I poured my Blonde Ale for my former employer, The Firkin Brewery in 1999. It was with great interest therefore that I read last year of the efforts of the folks at “Soft Spile”, responsible for the task of shipping American casks to England. I contacted Mike at Soft Spile to express my interest in sending a firkin to GBBF and in early April Mike started to contact breweries to invite their participation. Local co-ordination was provided by Mike Roy at Franklin’s Brewery. Soft Spile began shipping empty firkins to participating breweries in May. Regional consolidation points were organised from which casks were shipped to New England, the local one being the Heavy Seas brewery at which filled firkins were required to be in place by June 18th. I decided to send a cask of 3 Lions Ale aged with American White Oak largely because I thought that, being relatively high in alcohol, it would be best suited to the long  journey! 3 Lions Ale, gyle # 3289 was brewed on June 3rd and a firkin filled on June 12th (oak being placed directly in the cask). The cask was  sent over to the folks at Heavy Seas and from there was shipped with the other local firkins to New England for forwarding to the UK by the 3rd week of June. Unfortunately, over carbonation of some casks led to failure of keystones / shives which resulted in the shipment being refused at port and the shipping deadline (first week of July) being missed. This is not totally unexpected of course. Remember, cask conditioned ales contain living yeast and are subject to further fermentation (a vital part of producing a well conditioned beer). In a situation such as this, where the casks may be subject to prolonged agitation and excessive temperatures, casks with high yeast counts and/or high amounts of residual fermentable material may undergo an unusually active secondary fermentation, causing high volumes of CO2 to be present in the beer, and this may lead to the internal pressure of the cask causing beer to leak from the shive or keystone or, in the worst case scenario, for the shive or keystone to be blown out of the cask! A quick clean-up response from the folks at Soft Spile saved the day and a rescheduled shipment was loaded on July 17th and the shipment arrived and cleared customs in Liverpool on July 27th. From there the beer was bound for London and the expert hands of the bar managers of CAMRA. The American Beer will be showcased in the Bieres Sans Frontieres which is comprised of 3 bars, the German & Czech Bar, the Belgian & Dutch Bar and the USA & Rest Of The World Bar (sponsored by Sierra Nevada). I’ll post an update following the festival’s conclusion.

read more about the GBBF at http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/festivalinfo and for an English take on the American craft beer at this year’s festival see http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/american-craft-ales-brewed-in-the-usa-2036768.html.

Cheers

Steve

By-the-way, new on cask @ The Ale House today is the Pagan Porter with vanilla beans. There’s one firkin only so get it while you can. It’s soft and smooth with wonderful hints of chocolate, coffee and, of course, vanilla. I am in love with this beer!

On cask now ... Pagan Porter with Vanilla ... Glorious!

O.K., onto the Friday Question. Last week I asked how much Jacob (my baby boy) would weigh as of his doctors appointment on Wednesday. The prize is a growler of Jacob’s Summer Celebration (released in a couple of weeks), a bottle of ‘08 Fuller’s Vintage Ale and a bottle of ‘08 Stone Double Bastard …. a nice little haul, I’m sure you’ll agree. The little man turned out to be 9lb 14oz (and 22 inches long by-the-way) which makes Brandon the winner, congratulations sir. This week I’ll be giving away 2 more bottles from our stash, Bell’s Batch 9000 and Three Floyds Black Sun Stout as well as a growler of our Golden Glory.

you could be drinking these next week!

The question is this …. as I mentioned in previous posts, the Golden Glory, released next Wednesday, is brewed with root ginger (which is chopped and suspended  in the boiling wort) … what you need to know is how much ginger is used in a 7 barrel brew? As usual, please submit your answer via the comment option below. Good luck…. sort of…. I’ll be honest with you here, I hope that nobody gets close because I really want to drink that Three Floyds Stout!

Cheers

Steve

I’ve been filling a lot of firkins as well. 5 (Best and ESB) are going out to ChurchKey, 4 (Cherry Blossom Ale, Dry Hopped Blonde, 3 Lions and Dark Horse) to the 2 Pizzeria Paradiso locations and a firkin of Ironman Pale Ale dry hopped with Bramling Cross went out to Frisco Grille. Yummy!

Don’t forget that tomorrow night @ 5pm we’ll be pouring the super limited “My Monkey’s Got Wood” (only 1 firkin) and selling the equally limited t-shirt (only 27 available, $20) at the Pratt Street Ale House. The Monkey will be at the special price of $3 for a 10 oz snifter until 7pm. Come along and get some wood!

On the beer engine Thursday from 5pm

the glass headed firkin

So this week is National Cask Ale Week in dear old Blighty (www.caskaleweek.co.uk) so being British, a brewer and fan of cask conditioned ale I couldn’t let this event slip by us unnoticed. Therefore, The Pratt Street Ale House will be running special pricing on our cask ales throughout the week, offering all 3 of our cask beers at $3/pint from 5pm until close. Also we will have the famous glass ended firkin on the bar this coming Friday, serving gravity poured pint of Blonde Ale dry hopped with Maryland grown Chinook so come along and try some fresh cask conditioned (“Real”) ale.

As I was searching through the dusty archives I came across  this photo of me at my former brewery, The Phantom & Firkin in Loughborough, U.K. circa 1998. I hasten to add that I wasn’t responsible for emptying the stack of kilderkins upon which I’m perched (not all by myself anyway)! For six years I brewed only cask conditioned ale in the U.K.,( brewing a little under 500 (Imperial) barrels in 1998 for some 12 Firkin pubs) so it’s very satisfying for me to be part of the current upward trend in cask ale sales in the U.S.! Speaking of which we’ll be sending out firkins of Dark Horse (mild), E.S.B., Cherry Blossom Ale, Dry Hopped Blonde Ale and 3 Lions Ale to ChurhKey this week so look out for them on the beer engines soon. Don’t forget, wherever you’re enjoying a pint of craft beer, if they sell cask conditioned ale, raise a glass and toast a true representation of the brewer’s art!

Taking a break, 1998.

Paul Pendyck at a Cask Ale Night @ The General Sutter Inn

Paul’s business, UK Brewing Supplies Ltd, grew from his passion for cask conditioned ale and he states that his motivation was gloriously selfish …. to have more places available in which to drink cask ale! Some 3 1/2 years ago Paul became part owner of The General Sutter Inn in Lititz, his business partner owning a number of pubs (The British Beer Company) in Ma. Never one to shy away from an opportunity, Paul saw the potential for The General Sutter to offer cask conditioned ale by starting a Cask Night on the last Friday of each month.  The Cask Night started in what was the breakfast room, holding 60 -70 people with one cask on offer. Before long, the event “exploded” with attendance far exceeding expectations and the event was moved to the ballroom with 3 casks on offer. The meteoric rise of the event continued to such an extent that the last (February) saw 3 casks sell out in only 70 minutes!  Paul had always had ambitions to open a pub and in fact that was the original intention rather than to own an Inn. Bolstered by the success of the cask night, a clear indicator that Lititz was more than ready for a quality venue for good beer (& food), Paul secured the necessary financing to convert the former breakfast area into a traditional British style pub. Paul states that “our goal for the pub is for it to be as traditional as possible and for it to be a gathering spot for the community as well as a respite for the weary traveller”. I am very pleased to say he has achieved that perfectly. The back bar will be familiar to some of you. It is the former back bar from the Wharf Rat and I have to say it looks better than it has for many years.

"The Bull's Head"

 Paul offers some traditional English food (Fish & Chips, Pork Pie) amongst other local favorites and a fine selection of beers on rotation on his taps and 2 beer engines. I sampled Old Engine Oil and Founder’s Red’s Rye PA on my recent lunchtime visit and was very happy to see Young’s Double Chocolate Stout on draft, a favorite of mine.

The recent Real Ale Festival was, according to Paul, a natural extension of the Cask Ale Night and is intended to be held bi-annually. Paul relied upon the expert contribution of veteran cask festival organiser Alex Hall (see http://gotham-imbiber.com/) for the smooth running of the festival. Alex gathered an exceptional array of casks (some 21 were on offer I believe) and I must confess when I attended the festival I did not know where to start. I decided to gallantly start at one end and sample them all in order. Needless to say I failed (but I got to number 17!)  The beer was excellently handled and presented in excellent condition. I could not find fault with any aspect of the festival, I just wish that I could have stayed throughout the weekend to try all of the beers on offer!

the First Lititz Real Ale Festival

The calm before the storm

I am hoping that we will soon have a distribution agreement in place and casks of Dark Horse mild and Best Bitter will be regular offerings on the hand pumps at The Bull’s Head. You can check out the General Sutter Inn at www.generalsutterinn.com or follow them on facebook.