“Cask ale is a living product,” says Ted Sobel, who owns Brewers Union Local 180 in Oakridge, Oregon. “I tell people often that they are drinking beer fresh out of the secondary fermentor.”
Cask ale is unfiltered beer that’s been racked into casks, or firkins, sometimes with added unfermented wort or priming sugar. Yeast then continues to ferment and condition the beer in the cask. It’s served at cellar temperature, about 55°F (13°C), which opens up flavors and highlights its creamy texture.
For some brewers, serving beer on cask is a forgotten tradition. For Ted Sobel, it’s a way of life. In the 1990s, Sobel fell in love with the concept of an English public house when he was traveling and brought the idea home with him to Oregon. Brewers Union Local 180 is not a bar or a restaurant, he explains, but rather a public house where people go to enjoy low-ABV beers over long conversations.