Land of Rotating Casks
July 30, 2008 11:57 am Beer Musings
A few weeks ago I had to travel to Champaign, IL for business. I’m not a huge fan of traveling for business, but I can usually make the best of it by finding some of the interesting beer stuff in other cities. While in Champaign I made sure to stop and try The Blind Pig as it was rated as one of the top 50 beer bars in the world by RateBeer in 2007. I was not let down. One of the first things I spied was New Holland Existential Hopwine on cask, which got me to wondering, “when do we see a bar in St. Louis that has a rotating cask selection?”
Don’t get me wrong, the addition of Dressel’s Pub to the cask beer scene is extremely welcome and I’d almost kick over my own brother to get a pint of cask 5 Day, but maybe I’m getting a bit greedy. I’d love to see a bar in St. Louis that not only serves cask beer, but serves a rotating selection of it. Now, I realize that this dream may not be as easy to attain as I’d like, because I’m sure there are plenty of logistical challenges. But a man can dream, can’t he?
Tags: cask beer, dressel's pub, selection, st. louis
Jason :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
FYI, Dressel’s is out of the cask 5 day right now. Was there last night. They said it’s been selling like hot cakes.
BMock :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
Do you count the Tap Room as having a rotating cask or do you mean places other than micros?
Mike :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 1:02 pm
I mean breweries other than Schlafly and O’Fallon.
Magical Yard Gnome :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
Seems like cask selling out fast is the norm. One of these days I’ll get to try it.
TomR :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
Iron Barley HAD the O’Fallon IPA cask, but ran out last Friday. We had the last of it. Don’t know if they had more around.
Shep :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
Every time I order a cask beer from anywhere, it seems like they “just” ran out moments ago.
scottyp :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
when i was at dressels they had run out but had JUST gotten some more.
im realy glad its doing well
Derek Bean :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 5:52 pm
Dear Mike, if I may clarify your above post, we don’t serve cask beer at our brewery, as we do not have a bar/ restaurant at our brewery.
Regarding Iron Barley’s cask situation, I delivered their beer order to them last Friday (1/6 B. of Smoked Porter) and they had a back-up firkin of Cask IPA. The one they had on tap was about ready to blow. So, I’d guess they didn’t spile the back-up in preparation for tapping it. This is probably why they were “out” at the time. Chances are, if you went back Saturday, they probably had it back on by then.
Mike :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
I didn’t mean to imply you serve it at your brewery. I was just saying that the only two cask offerings you see in St. Louis come are brewed by those two breweries. But yeah, look for O’Fallon Cask at Iron Barley and Dressel’s.
scottyp :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
lets back up, did i read cask smoked porter? you guys gotta tell us these things!
Mike :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
If I’m reading this correctly, no. A firkin holds about 10 gallons and he was bringing a 1/6bbl (five gallons) keg of the Smoked Porter to IB.
Derek Bean :
Date: July 30, 2008 @ 9:06 pm
Yeah, Mike has it correct. I was making a delivery to Iron Barley on Friday, of a 1/6 barrel of Smoked Porter–regular, carbonated version, which they have on tap on their normal draft tower.
While there, I checked on their firkins. They had one on tap which was ready to blow + a back-up.
Brennan Greene :
Date: July 31, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Keeping fresh, good cask beer on tap is one of the hardest things in the brewing industry. Not only does every cask have to be cleaned and filled by hand one at a time, but the line it is served from must be cleaned at least every week. Not to mention the shelf life of a cask is around four days, before oxidation starts to set in. That being said, we will be tapping a fresh cask at the Tap Room friday, as we do most fridays, of APA dry hopped with Mt. Hood. APA casks dry hopped with Simcoe are soon to follow.
Drew Huerter :
Date: July 31, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
Casks are demanding, but totally worth it. Look for more interesting casks at the Taproom (I don’t want to spoil the surprise).
I believe we have ordered, or will soon, some half size casks called ‘Pins’ for Mattingly. I like the 5.4 gallon casks for several reasons, primarily freshness due to faster rotation of casks and because of the small batch size. This will ease the issue of cask beer at festivals, although it may impact the quantity.
Derek, I would certainly like to dry some Smoke on cask.
…Time to go spile that APA cask for tomorrow..
Derek Bean :
Date: July 31, 2008 @ 10:41 pm
By the way, for those of you heading up to Madison next weekend for the Great Taste of the Midwest Beer Festival, we will be entering 1 firkin of dry-spiced cask Pumpkin Ale, along with 1 firkin of cask IPA to their Real Ale tent!!!
Dave J :
Date: August 1, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
I delivered 2 fresh firkins of IPA to Dressels yesterday. Me and Ben Dressel discussed briefly about some Smoke Cask. We can do it but I have to build a lager cooler to condition them in, and get a few more firkins, and another beer engine. I am stressing for space to condition them in now without adding another style in the mix.
Adam :
Date: August 7, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
Just a shout-out to the Blind Pig in Champaign. I went to school at the University of Illinois not that long ago and spent many an evening at this fine establishment, especially during my fifth/super-senior year.