Beer is surprisingly delicate and never stops changing and evolving from the beginning of the brewing process right through to your first sip. Even so, for all but a very few beers, time is the enemy. Like a new car driving off the dealer’s lot, most beer will never be better than when it has that new beer smell… and taste!

So Why Bother?

The reason some beers should be set aside and aged is that like a fine wine or whisky, the experience of drinking an aged beer is enhanced because of the changes that occur during the aging process. For these few beers, the aging actually improves their flavors and adds complexity and other intangible qualities that can be achieved only over time. Many of these beers soften with time, rough edges are smoothed out and the beer becomes mellower with aging.

Some styles of beer fairly cry out to be aged. Many experts believe, for example, that a barley wine isn’t ready to drink until it’s at least one year old. The same could be said for other stronger styles, too, such as imperial stouts or Belgian strong dark ales, both of which improve greatly with time.

And despite its delicate nature, some beers can withstand the rigors of time and improve for as long as decades and even centuries. A few years ago, Coors Brewing, after taking over the former Bass Brewery in Burton-on-Trent, England, discovered some very old beer in the vaults of the Worthington’s White Shield brewery. The forgotten stash contained beer that was 130 years old, some of it from 1896. Most of the bottles still had their corks intact and, perhaps more surprisingly, when tasted, were found to “taste so fresh, and with [very] attractive ripe plum and honeyed flavours.” One of the people lucky enough to try the 1896 beer, Dr George Philliskirk, Chief Executive of the Beer Academy, noted. “This demonstrates the potential for vintage beers to be taken seriously—maybe even being worthy of a special section in wine lists at Britain’s top restaurants.”

For the last 20 years, cask ale has seemed like the Next Great Beer Trend in the United States, but it has always had too many mitigating factors conspiring against its success. After all, if it has required the advocacy of the 100,000-member Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the industry-sponsored Cask Marque education and accreditation program to sustain quality and relevance in England, think about how difficult its chances are over here. The fact that any cask ale is available in America at all is remarkable in itself. But passion is not enough.

Many businesses have tried mightily to make cask ale viable in this country, but failed. Some overestimated consumer demand; others never understood the extensive support network of brewers, importers, distributors and trained bar staff needed to make it work.

Gradually, relentlessly, others have endured and the good news is they’re succeeding. Greater New York City has dozens of bars now regularly serving cask ales (Manhattan’s Rattle N Hum typically serves four; many more during frequent festivals), ditto Philadelphia. Down I-95 in D.C., ChurchKey established a new precedent by opening with five cask beer options on their extensive beer menu. Handpumps are sprouting all over the country: you can find them in pubs and festivals in Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Houston, Pittsburgh, Portland (ME and OR), St. Paul, San Francisco, Seattle, and beyond.

On the other hand, we still have bars and festivals where cask-conditioned beer is viewed as a decorative gimmick. The question is, are American craft beer consumers astute enough to know the difference? Perhaps not, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be. That’s my goal here; to teach you how to distinguish the real deal from the pretender, the sublime from the mediocre.

Gimmick or Gestalt

Let’s begin with some basic assumptions. The mere presence of handpumps (also known as “beer engines”) or firkin kegs is no guarantee that authentic cask beer is being served. Sad to say, but this always involves a leap of faith that goes beyond your trust in the dedication and honesty of the bar owner―you also have to trust the brewer and the entire infrastructure of our three-tiered system.

That’s because cask-conditioned beer is not a style but the result of a specific process of brewing, fermentation and dispense. At every point in the supply chain, critical steps must be taken to deliver to you that authentic, beautifully served, sumptuous glass of beer you were hoping for.

That process, once widely followed around the world, persisted in the British Isles while other nations adopted different methods, so it remains strongly associated with British ale styles. Indeed, even contemporary American consumer expectations about the appearance and flavor of British styles are still largely driven by this tradition, whether we are aware of this or not.

Regardless of style, authentic cask beer will have certain shared characteristics. At the very least, it should contain live yeast, because it completes its secondary fermentation in the cask. Then it must be kept and served at a cool cellar temperature (52-57° F), naturally carbonated to lower levels than standard draft beers, and dispensed without the use of any extraneous carbon dioxide pressure. The result should be decidedly less gassy, lacking the often prickly, acidic bite found in other beers. The mouthfeel is softer and gentler, while the slightly warmer serving temperature allows for a greater range of flavors and aromas to emerge.

Going Live

Few consumers are aware that the presence of live yeast is the defining characteristic of cask beer. If it’s not there, it is something else entirely. It doesn’t matter if it’s been stored at cellar temperature and served via handpump or from a gravity tap―it is not cask-conditioned, merely in a cask. The distinction is critical. Brewery-conditioned, filtered beer that’s been racked into a cask might still be very tasty, but it’s just a warmer version of a brewery’s standard beer dispensed from an unpressurized container. Authentic cask-conditioned beer completes its secondary fermentation in the cask. Period.

Two other distinguishing features of cask beer run counter to expectation. Despite the mythical image of British ales, cask beer should never be served flat. And no, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been to pubs in London that serve it that way―it’s simply not correct. A beer without any carbonation is dull, lifeless, at best insipid, and certainly not what the brewer intended. A good head and the resulting “lace” adhering to the sides of the glass are signs that both the brewer and the pub’s cellarman have done their jobs well. Indeed, many brewers still add a small dose of a sugary solution known as “primings” to the cask to produce a more vigorous secondary fermentation and livelier condition in the beer.

The other feature that runs counter to expectation is clarity, and by that I mean the beer should be brilliantly clear, without any floating particles or haze. The fact that cask beer is unfiltered leads to the misconception that it’s OK if it is served turbid and cloudy, but this is definitely not the case.

In the U.K., a cloudy pint is never accepted at a pub―it is sent back and replaced with another without question. In this country, especially in the craft beer market, clarity isn’t considered a requirement. These days, even the most casual beer drinker has likely been exposed to German hefeweizens or Belgian-style white ales, so a cloudy pint is often considered a sign of quality. But beer styles that traditionally have a hazy appearance are almost never served in cask-conditioned form. For those that are―British styles like mild/brown ale, pale ale/bitter, porter and stout―cloudiness is typically a sign that something is amiss.

If you’re presented with a muddy pint of cask-conditioned beer and told by the server that “it’s supposed to be that way,” don’t believe it. In fact, it’s a sure sign that something has been neglected in the process or the bar staff doesn’t know any better. A slight haze―OK, cut them a break. But otherwise, send it back. If they are unwilling to pour you a clearer pint or offer you another beer, you have little choice but to drink what you’ve been given and chalk it up to experience. Just make a note to yourself that you won’t order a cask beer at that establishment again.

You see, most brewers typically add “finings” to cask-conditioned beer. Finings (a substance whose purpose is to attract organic compounds like spent yeast, hop particles, and other proteins and cause them to fall out of solution and form stable sediment at the bottom of the cask) have been used for centuries as a means of clarifying beer. They were employed long before modern methods of filtering were invented.

Finings are not required, as most beer will ultimately “drop bright” when given enough time to settle in its serving vessel. But as a practical matter, a pub can’t wait indefinitely for beer to clear. Finings make the process more predictable and controllable.

So, if a cask of beer is given ample time to settle and reach its optimal temperature in the bar cellar, and assuming that certain basic techniques have been applied in the pub’s cellar or cooler, the beer in your glass should be absolutely bright and clear. The only exception is if haziness is considered proper for the style of beer being served.

In the U.S., cloudy cask beer is most often a sign that the beer is still “working,” that is, it hasn’t been given the time to complete its secondary fermentation and drop bright. It’s also a sign that the cask might have been jarred or shaken prior to dispense. On the other hand, it can also be a sign of infection, either in the cask itself or due to dirty beer lines and handpumps. In this instance, the aroma and flavor will be obvious indicators, and any good bar or pub should take it out of service immediately and replace your beer without question.

The home bar can take many forms, from a shelf in a cupboard to a fine drinking emporium that would rip Norm from his corner stool at Cheers. It really comes down to available space, your personal taste and how much you want to spend. No matter how sophisticated you want to go, the major advantage of a home bar is that it is your private sanctuary. No jabber jaw yokels, unless you invite them. No loud music, unless you play it. No annoying distractions, unless you create them. You are the publican responsible for everything from the beer selection to the level of the lighting.

Part of the fun of having a home bar is outfitting it with an array of gadgets that will make your friends envious. Refrigeration, blenders, bar tools, décor, games—even the bar itself is an opportunity to make a statement. Let your instincts take over and start planning your bar.

We were running late, as usual, and when we reached the cave, the gate in front was closed. Several people lingered there. Suddenly, one of them announced that since there were enough of us now, we might as well go in. Our surprise guide opened the iron bars and led us on a fascinating journey more than 1 kilometer into the Earth, complete with a view of a few ancient paintings of prehistoric animals in one hidden recess of the cave. It was a giant step backward in time that made our entire trip worthwhile.

Caves may be in the news these days as hideouts for terrorists, but our efforts to search them out are nothing new. Caves have lured us into their depths for centuries. Natural caverns throughout the world have revealed not only the wonders of mysterious rock formations and passageways that lie beneath Earth’s surface, but also the earliest vestiges of human history. In them have been found the archeological residue of bones and skull fragments of our prehistoric ancestors, as well as the first records of human-made marks on the planet. In the caverns of Lascaux in France, Altamira in Spain, and dozens of other sites throughout the world, paintings depicting men and beasts dance across the rock surfaces of caverns that once functioned as humanity’s shelters, storehouses, and even cathedrals.

Deep in our distant past, caves provided a home for human hunter-gatherers, allowing them to escape the ravages of wet and stormy weather, as well as animal predators and other enemies. Here man made his fires, fashioned his weapons, and kept his food.

When our forebears learned to grow crops and build huts, caves still kept their useful function as ideal places in which to store food, where cool temperatures year round helped preserve it.