Fresh from the Pumps

Making cask ales is such a learning curve. Just when I think I'm getting the hang of it, something happens to remind me that the things I don’t know are considerably larger in volume than the things I do know. We recently finished two stouts: the final edition of Long Nights (#4/4) featuring Motueka ‘Amplifire' hop oil, and a cask of St Kilian’s (formerly known as Dark Road) that I tucked away 12 months ago just to see what would happen with age. Both these beers when first tapped were a bit sharp - unpleasantly so - and I despaired that my efforts had been wasted. And yet, one week later, they had mellowed and transformed into something wonderful: smooth, fulsome, pleasantly roasty, and balanced. I suppose the lesson is, cask ales reward patience.

Truth be told, I’ve been a little slack with getting more beers into cask and we’re going to be running with a single beer from now into August. It doesn’t help that cooler overnight temperatures slow down yeast-reliant conditioning times. The next cask to be tapped is a porter conditioned with Tasmanian leatherwood honey. Twenty-plus years ago, Boag’s Brewery made a beer called ‘Honey Porter’ that became a cult classic before being discontinued. With memories of my Pop drinking that beer, and also with my Dad once working for the apiarists the honey was sourced from, it’s fair to say that it carries some nostalgia. I was only able to use a small amount of honey due to the risk of the casks exploding if overprimed, so it will be interesting to find out how much honey flavour is present.

As of this week, I’ll be getting some new cask ales underway to hit the pumps during August.