
We sampled 5 different ales, one cask and one keg-style for each ale. The five that we sampled in order were Granite Best Bitter, McLean’s Pale Ale, Black Oak Pale Ale, Wellington County Ale and ending with C’est What Coffee Porter.
There were representatives from three of the breweries there to talk about the differences between beer from a cask and a keg.
Brewmaster Charles McLean was there, bringing along his nearly 30 years of cask brewing experience and his McLean’s Pale Ale. He was joined by Ken Wood, owner of Black Oak Brewery, which is now getting set up in a new location in Etobicoke, and Bruce Halstead from County Durham Brewery in Pickering.
Between rounds I also had a chance to talk to Ken Wood, whom I found friendly, easy to talk to and quite enthusiastic about his new brewery which is going to allow him to experiment with new recipes and seasonal beer. I look forward to visiting his new brewery once opened.

Cask conditioning keeps the yeast cultures alive which continues to react with the ingredients which in turn continues to mature the beer and creates a natural carbonation.
My top 3 of the night were:
1- C'est What Coffee Porter - Cask
2- McLeans Pale Ale - Cask
3- Mcleans Pale Ale - Keg
There were no losers. In head-to-head between cask and beer for each brand, my score was 3-2 for cask over keg.
It was a great evening, learning and sampling, sampling and learning!
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