Perhaps it’s the special pouring process, whereby the beer is hand-pumped using a special “beer engine.” Maybe it’s how the cask, or barrel, is tapped – it’s placed in a wooden frame known as a stillage that’s set at a slight pouring angle, then a wooden “tap” is hammered into the cask itself.
Or it could be that the beer’s serving temperature — known as “cellar temperature” at 50-55 degrees as opposed to the now-common 35-40 degrees — better showcases the complexities of its flavors.
Actually, there are lots of reasons that Coast Fork Brewer Stephen Mathys loves “cask” beer, and that he’s thrilled to have the option to serve cask beers here at the Brewstation. It all stems from trips to the mother country for this self-professed Anglophile and lover of nearly all things beer, and British.
“I’ve always been into the way that things used to be done, and I really fell in love with cask ale when I was in England,” Mathys said. “It didn’t take long once I figured it out, that as soon as I go into a pub, I look for that handle.”
Mathys also soon discovered that, because cask beers eventually become exposed to open air and are unpasteurized, they don’t last long after they’re tapped. This means that a cask of beer has likely not traveled far and is thus typically quite local, often brewed at the pub itself.
“You go into the average English pub, and everybody has Grolsch and Stella,” he said. “But whatever cask beer they have is not from far away, which is way cool.”
Thus it is here at the Brewstation, where the beers that find themselves in casks have all been brewed within yards of the bar. There are a few other brewers in Oregon that are mad about the cask, including Plank Town’s Steve Van Rossem and John Crane, a Van Rossem protégé and owner of Three-Legged Crane in Oakridge.
And it seems that, wherever there are cask beers to be found, fans of this particular style tend to gather round. We’re no exception, as the small casks of beer that Mathys has brewed so far (a cask only holds about 40 American pints) have all disappeared quite quickly. A cask of Brice Creek Brown Ale disappeared in one day.
Today, we’ve got Mathys’ Row River Red Ale on cask, and if you hurry, your bartender can “pull” you a pint before it’s gone!
