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Bridgeport
Brewpub
1313
NW Marshall St., 241-7179
On "Firkin
Tuesdays," cask-conditioned ales are $2.50 a pint all night.
Horse
Brass Pub
4534
SE Belmont St., 232-2202
In Seattle:
Elliott
Bay Brewpub
4720
California Ave. SW, Seattle, (206) 932-8695
Hale's
Ales Brewery
4301
Leary Way NW, Seattle, (206) 706-1544
Chimay
Tasting
Belmont
Station, 4520 Se Belmont St., 232-8538
6-8
pm Friday, Nov. 3
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As craft-brewing has come of age in the Northwest, so has
the demand for "real ale," beer made in accordance with tradition
from the days before the advent of stainless-steel kegs and
CO2 dispensing systems. Back when, all beer was cask-conditioned:
Finished beer goes into a cask, often called a firkin, and
is carbonated by adding sugar or wort (unfermented beer) or
actively fermenting beer. This beer pours from a spigot hammered
into the front of the cask or is extracted with a beer engine,
a bellows-like apparatus that pulls the beer from the cask.
"That's where the phrase 'drawing a beer' comes from,"
says Todd Fleming, bartender at the Bridgeport Brewpub.
"You actually draw it out of the firkin."
Cask-conditioned real ale had all but disappeared until
the Campaign for Real Ale started in England in 1971. These
beer-drinking activists now number more than 50,000 worldwide.
And, happily, cask-conditioned beer, or "real ale," is now
available at most good brewpubs. The Horse Brass Pub started
serving real ale 17 years ago. At that time, the old craft
was so shrouded in mystery that owner Don Younger and brewer
Mike Hale had to jerry-rig an old games cabinet to hold
the cask and beer engine. Fast-forward to the year 2000,
and the Horse Brass has five beer engines.
On Oct. 21, Seattle's Hale's Ales hosted the Washington
State Cask Beer Festival. An eclectic array of firkins,
casks and converted pony kegs lined the bar, many of the
brewers using simple gravity-fed taps. Snoqualmie Falls
brewer Rande Reed served his hoppy, well-balanced Copperhead
Pale Ale with a gorgeous 1930s art deco beer engine that
he restored himself.
Hops are often added directly to casks, giving the beer
more hop flavor without being overly bitter. The festival
was a hop-head's paradise, with 17 bitters and pale ales
to choose from. My favorite was Riot Ale, a strong pale
ale from West Seattle's Elliott Bay Brewery and Pub. Brewed
as a "WTO commemorative ale," Riot has a big, spicy hop
aroma from Cascade and Chinook dry-hops, a smooth, pale
malt character and an exceptional resiny hop flavor.
"The WTO coincided with brewing a strong ale," says brewer
Doug Hindman. "We were tossing around names and one of our
cooks suggested 'Riot.'"
Other festival notables included Brown's Point Bitter from
Tacoma's Harmon Brewing, with a mild malt flavor with some
hazelnut characteristics, and, from Bellingham, Boundary
Bay's Northwest-Style Bitter, with its grapefruity hop aroma
and flavor. Hale's winter seasonal, a Scottish wee heavy,
had a gingerbread aroma and sweet malt flavor. Winterfish,
the seasonal from Olympia's Fish Brewery, also did well
as a real ale with a hoppy aroma, syrupy, malty mouthfeel
and hints of spruce and juniper in the background.
The best thing about real ale is that it can never be mass-produced.
You'll never see a cask-conditioned macro-brew. Cask-conditioning
takes care and patience and can only be done by brewers
who love the beer they make.
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