Let's get ready to roil!
This summer, I plan to go for a pint or three at the Queen’s Arms in Corton Denham, Somerset. Because I can't recall ever having drunk in Somerset before. There may have been a rugby club trip to Taunton in my polytechnic days. But back then, counties and countries all blurred into one long kebab & flatulence-riddled hangover.
And I want to drink Moor beer. And I really want to drink it unfined. And I want to see if it's a hard knock to sell the stuff.
Maybe UK drinkers accept hefeweizen because they've been told that cloudy is to style. But cloudy cask = fault. Too difficult to persuade cask drinkers that it could be otherwise? Well, if drinkers of the 'nation's favourite' can be taught to accept the fault - I'm sorry, defining feature -of DMS then surely the cask-drinking minority can be persuaded that turbid cask can be flavoursome?
Perhaps the answer lies in appropriate glassware. Or not, as the case may be. I can understand how licensees are loathe to serve turbid cask, lest it be seen as an indictment of their general cellar quality. If they serve you hefe it's likely to be in a branded vase-like glass that positively screams "It's OK! It's supposed to be cloudy! It's foreign muck!"
Given that there are so few UK cask brewers who release unfined beer, perhaps they ought to also supply suitable vessels for its consumption. Something that enhances the flavour and doesn't offend others' sensibilities. Traditional beer, traditional tankard. Or in this case, nano-keg and old-skool leather.
And I want to drink Moor beer. And I really want to drink it unfined. And I want to see if it's a hard knock to sell the stuff.
Maybe UK drinkers accept hefeweizen because they've been told that cloudy is to style. But cloudy cask = fault. Too difficult to persuade cask drinkers that it could be otherwise? Well, if drinkers of the 'nation's favourite' can be taught to accept the fault - I'm sorry, defining feature -of DMS then surely the cask-drinking minority can be persuaded that turbid cask can be flavoursome?
Perhaps the answer lies in appropriate glassware. Or not, as the case may be. I can understand how licensees are loathe to serve turbid cask, lest it be seen as an indictment of their general cellar quality. If they serve you hefe it's likely to be in a branded vase-like glass that positively screams "It's OK! It's supposed to be cloudy! It's foreign muck!"
Given that there are so few UK cask brewers who release unfined beer, perhaps they ought to also supply suitable vessels for its consumption. Something that enhances the flavour and doesn't offend others' sensibilities. Traditional beer, traditional tankard. Or in this case, nano-keg and old-skool leather.
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Moor had a Meet The Brewer at Cask on my birthday back in February. They had some unfined ale on sale (forget which one) and it was really delicious! One of my favourite brewers. Completely adore the industrial design of their pump clips too. Deliciously utilitarian.
ReplyDeleteBut UK cask beer that hasn't dropped (perhaps rushed, under-conditioned?) isn't nice. While sediment at the end of the barrel means...we're at the end of the barrel, which may itself be the problem.
ReplyDeleteBut I've noticed even at the end of a cask that's in great nick and selling really well that once the sediment is there, there's a muddy texture and a sense of the taste being deadened.
Given unfined styles such as weizen, unfiltered lagers don't have this, I wonder whether it's the isinglass which kills the flavour.
i.e. cask beer with sediment in it *is* usually a sign of a bad pint.
That doesn't follow, of course, that cloudy unfined cask beer wouldn't be super.