Page 23 - Thirst Magazine Issue No. 3 Coffee & Tea

STORAGE

Although you can get beer called “draft” in cans and bottles (a topic for another day)
the term is generally reserved for beer stored and dispensed from either a cask or a keg.
The most notable differences between the two are:

CASKS KEGS

Traditionally made of wood, although in Generally made from stainless steel or
recent years metal and plastic casks have aluminium, although plastic kegs are also
become more common. seen increasingly often.
Cask ales are served via gravity or vacuum Kegs use pressure to dispense the beer,
using a beer engine. though they can be “tapped” like a cask
in certain circumstances so the beer
Metal-hooped wooden casks have been used to store can be hand-pulled from the keg using
beer for over two thousand years in Northern Europe. a beer engine.
Beer in a cask is generally unpasteurised allowing
the yeasts in the beer to condition and mature the
beverage over time and take on flavours and aromas Beer manufacturers began using metal kegs more
of the wood it’s stored in. commonly through the 1960s and by the 70s most
beers were served from kegs. The advantages were
clear; they were cheaper to use, easier to sterilise
and re-use, prevented spoilage (unlike a damaged
wooden cask) and their ability to be pressurised
allowed manufacturers to follow market trends
towards more carbonised beers.

he process of storing beer in wooden fizzy lagers, the forced carbonisation of the keg
casks occasionally results in one batch of a system, along with the many benefits of storing them
specific cask beer tasting slightly different meant that the days of wooden casks as the main beer
to the next. Many consider wooden cask storage vessel were numbered.
Tale the purest form of beer, although in Today the vast majority of beer is stored and
recent years plastic and occasionally metal casks have served from kegs, whether it’s commercial lager
become more popular as they allow for more stable or craft beer. The systems have become more
and consistent beer, are cheaper, and easier to sanitise. sophisticated and the carbonation effect can be
Casks can’t be pressurised significantly, so all the managed to serve the beer at just the correct level.
fizz comes from the natural fermentation processes. But cask ales never really died away and could
But a keg has to be pressurised to dispense it. A always be found through the 80s and 90s being used
drawback of this (or benefit, depending on your point by independent brewers of real ale. And thanks to
of view) is that the beer is more greatly carbonated the craft beer boom of recent years, cask ales have
and fizzy when served. Though the merits of this effect even had a resurgence in popularity, with consumers
on ales have been debated for decades, the benefit for appreciating a more traditional and pure form of beer.
light beers and lagers was immediately clear. With Some manufacturers now even produce the same beer
market forces in the 80s lined squarely behind chilled, in both cask and keg form.

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