contact us linkawards linkhistory linknewsletter linkLink to hours and directions
CASK-CONDITIONED BEER IS BACK!

Yes, you read it correctly. We are once again serving genuine, cask-conditioned beers at the Albany Pump Station.

We’ll be tapping a fresh cask of Half Moon IPA each Friday at the Pump Station for the foreseeable future. Some of the proceeds from each pint will be donated to the Half Moon to maintain the vessel and its programs. Knowing that you’re helping a good cause justifies that second pint you were contemplating...

It occurs to me that some readers may not be familiar with the term "cask-conditioned." It's simple: brewers use the word "conditioned" to mean "carbonated," so these are beers that are carbonated in the cask.

The brewer puts young beer in a cask and also adds a little extra food for the yeast (in the case of Half Moon IPA, the "food" is beer that had just begun its fermentation). Extra hops are often added to the cask, too (this is called "dry hopping"). This will give the beer a big, fresh hop aroma that cannot be obtained otherwise.

The casks are kept at room temperature for a couple of weeks, during which time the yeast consume the added food, turning it into carbon dioxide that dissolves into the beer, thus making it fizzy. The additional hops also release their aromatic oils into the beer during this warm storage.

The casks are then moved to a cold room and allowed to settle. A week or two later the beer is ready to please some taste buds.

It's a lot of extra work to produce beer in this ancient manner. Very few breweries in the world still practice this art; to my knowledge, none of the world's industrial brewers produce cask beer.

A full-length article detailing cask-conditioned beers will be added to this site in the near future. If you have any questions that you are desperate to get answers for, you can e-mail our Brewmaster at George at EvansAle.com (change the "at" to an @, of course).

If you are still looking to procrastinate vacuuming the rug, I recommend taking a few extra minutes to read about the history of India Pale Ale. It is quite remarkable. Read all about it here: India Pale Ale

awards linkbrewery info linkhow beer is made linklink to beer menurestaurant info linkbanquet information linkdinner menu linklunch menu link