Cloudwater plans to ‘bring cask back’

The craft brewer and operator outlined its plans on its blog, highlighting how it will be creating up to a dozen batches of cask over the coming winter.

It also said the beer will be priced per litre, and hailed cask as “an important part of our cultural and brewing heritage”.

The blog said: “We dropped cask beer for a variety of reasons, in a marketplace that couldn’t get enough of our bolder, happier beers in bottle, can and keg.

“Only just under two years ago, this was a broadly questioned and bold move. We made more production volume available for more of the beers many of you couldn’t get enough of, and in the process gained accolades no other brewery has gained outside of the USA.

“But in the process, we removed ourselves from conversations about what cask beer could be, and distanced ourselves from drinkers that are wedded to that genre of beer.

“And at this time of year, as the nights start to lengthen and the temperature drop, a cosy pub is our favourite place to be for a relaxing afternoon pint, or a quiet evening session."

Quality focus

It added: “We miss our cask session IPAs, bitters and porters, and find ourselves drinking many a pint of cask beer and wondering how well our brown ales, or stouts and seasonal pale would do on cask.”

The post laid out how venues can register their interest in stocking the new beers, as long as they have the right environment for keeping them.

It added: “So we are going to wonder no more and produce cask beers over the autumn and winter for a small number of customers that treat cask-conditioned beers with all the expertise and quality focus they deserve.

“If you’re the sort of establishment that has a cellar that’s maintained between 10.5°and 12°C at all times, knows how to dispense cask when it is conditioned past any rise and fall of diacetyl producing [flavour components] vicinal diketones (VDK), have enough stillage to serve cask beer when it is ready and bristling with CO2, not just when of your lines is free, please get in touch to register your interest.

“We are currently proposing to make six to 12 batches of cask beer (making up between 6% and 16% of our output) over this coming cold season and promise to deliver exceptional, modern and traditionally inspired cask beers.”

The blog highlighted the importance of cask beer to the brewing industry and said the new brews will be available at the operator’s taprooms too.

Family of beers

It said: “Cask beer is more than a dispense method. It is a family of beers that are brewed to offer immense drinkability at sessionable strengths.

“While we aren’t going to return to cask and compromise on price (indeed we will re-adopt our starting strategy of pricing our beer per litre, irrespective of packaging format), you can expect incredible drinkability right to the bottom of every glass and, of course, all our cask beers will be vegan.

“Cask beer is an important part of our cultural and brewing heritage and we are excited to once again, make a direct contribution.

“We are working on offering seasonal cask beer at our taprooms and can’t wait to share our in-house cask-conditioning stillage and serving processes with you all.”