{"id":59015,"date":"2025-02-05T11:42:38","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bcaletrail.ca\/?p=59015"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:31:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:31:55","slug":"keeping-the-cask-alive-bcs-changing-real-ale-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcaletrail.ca\/keeping-the-cask-alive-bcs-changing-real-ale-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping the Cask Alive: BC\u2019s Changing Real Ale Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the early days of craft beer in BC casks were all the rage. Weekly cask nights kept the thirsty beer nerds busy between the cask festivals that had developed a very keen following. <\/span><\/p>\n

Brewers would create 20-40 litres of a one-off beer and serve it directly from a steel cask. CAMRA, Central City, Tri-cities, Vancouver’s Craft Beer Week, and Yaletown had regular cask beer events back when there were fewer than 50 breweries in BC. Unfortunately, all of these cask festivals have now passed into memory with only a few still going, like the <\/span>Kiwanis Alefest Crawl – Cask Ale Weekend<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in Prince George.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the uninitiated, a cask is a traditional British method of serving beer via gravity rather than under pressure of CO2 from a keg. The carbonation comes from active yeast in the cask. Once the cask is opened by hammering a tap through the plastic bung, the cask will gradually lose carbonation as it warms up, and oxidize as air replaces the poured beer. Kegging replaced casks in most of the world as casks are messy, and, if you\u2019re not careful, can be pretty awful. But when they\u2019re done right, I truly believe nothing can touch them. Although, if you want some fun, check out the \u201ccask fail\u201d videos on YouTube.<\/span><\/p>\n