During the early days of craft beer in BC casks were all the rage. Weekly cask nights kept the thirsty beer nerds busy between the cask festivals that had developed a very keen following.
Brewers would create 20-40 litres of a one-off beer and serve it directly from a steel cask. CAMRA, Central City, Tri-cities, Vancouver’s Craft Beer Week, and Yaletown had regular cask beer events back when there were fewer than 50 breweries in BC. Unfortunately, all of these cask festivals have now passed into memory with only a few still going, like the Kiwanis Alefest Crawl – Cask Ale Weekend in Prince George.
For the uninitiated, a cask is a traditional British method of serving beer via gravity rather than under pressure of CO2 from a keg. The carbonation comes from active yeast in the cask. Once the cask is opened by hammering a tap through the plastic bung, the cask will gradually lose carbonation as it warms up, and oxidize as air replaces the poured beer. Kegging replaced casks in most of the world as casks are messy, and, if you’re not careful, can be pretty awful. But when they’re done right, I truly believe nothing can touch them. Although, if you want some fun, check out the “cask fail” videos on YouTube.
One of the things I loved about that cask scene was the creativity of brewers who would take the opportunity to add wild and wonderful ingredients. 20L is an easy amount to experiment with, and some of our favourite BC brews began life as a cask concoction. However, I would also find fault with many of the beers as this method of serving casks at festivals and cask nights irked my British “real ale” sensibilities: moving open casks, poor refrigeration, chunks of yeast being served to customers, etc. While many people loved these cask events I found more and more were being turned off by this. Hearing “I don’t like cask beer” hit me like a dagger.
When I opened Real Cask at Callister Brewing in Vancouver back in 2015 I took advantage of their incubator model to show how casks can be done. The message I wanted to put across is that any beer can be put into a cask, be wild, be creative, and fun. But that should be balanced with “real ale”: traditional British beer styles served in a CAMpaign for Real Ale- (and John Mitchell) approved fashion.
After I left Callister they kept the great casks going, even winning Best Beer at the 2022 Canada Beer Cup with a traditional British style. Now CowDog Brew Co has taken over the space with Michael Hodgson keeping the tradition alive with both real ales and fun cask collaborations.
Casks have generally fallen out of favour among the beernoscenti of BC, and only a few places still have permanent casks served through a beer engine hand pump*. Main Street Brewing’s cask program continues to impress, especially as the talented Bill Reilly was working with them for a few years. In addition to having up to four casks available on their beer engines, they also offer limited runs of rotating can-conditioned cask beers, available only at the brewery.
*Editors note: you may have seen casks of beer sitting on stillage (wooden cradles), on the bar top or at a pouring station at a festival, without a way to effectively keep them cold. Beer or cask engines are manual pumps which allow the cask to sit under the counter in a cooler or fridge, keeping the beer at a proper serving temperature.
Nearby R&B Brewing keeps their famous East Side Bitter on cask most of the time, which gives us an opportunity to try cask and keg versions side-by-side.
Moody Ales & Co in Port Moody has some legit real ale with a twin cask engine pouring two cask beers at all times. Check out what’s currently on cask on their website.
Here on Vancouver Island, there was a rich cask tradition in the brewpubs of Victoria and Nanaimo but now there’s only Spinnakers Brewpub with a full cask program. Luckily Spinnakers do a fantastic job with the casks thanks to 40+ years of brewing experience!
The current winners of the cask battle are the wonderful folks at Smugglers Trail Caskworks. As you can expect from the name, quality casks are a big feature in their impressive Langley tasting room as well as regular cask festivals. For their head brewer Tom’s take on casks check out this great video on their Instagram page.
Of course, there are still a few breweries and pubs that have occasional or weekly casks:
CrossRoads Brewing & Distillery in Prince George: Starting late last year, CrossRoads is celebrating Wednesdays with Firkin’ Hump Day, where they tap a cask of specialty beer at 4:00 PM. Each Firkin is one-of-a-kind, featuring a unique twist on a classic beer style.
Kelowna Beer Institute in Kelowna: in addition to tapping a fresh cask every Thursday, the Beer Institute is also known for hosting large cask events throughout the year like the 11th Cask Throwdown coming February 27, 2025. Four of their staff have each created a cask, but only one will be declared the winner. And don’t forget the 24 day advent calendar of casks that are released each year leading up to Christmas.
Longwood Brew Pub & Restaurant in Nanaimo: a new cask is tapped every Friday at 2:30 pm. Their brewer tends to lean towards traditional brews like IPAs or ESBs for the base and experiment with different hops. Be on the lookout for more unique offerings at events or holidays like Valentine’s Day where the weekly cask will be a black current Irish red ale to pair with the evening’s menu.
The Parkside Brewery in Port Moody: Parkside taps a new cask every Wednesday. Recent offerings have included brews like a Blueberry Pomegranate Berliner Weisse, and an Orange Chocolate Stout.
Steamworks Burnaby Brewery & Taproom: unique casks are tapped on the last Thursday of every month. Recent offerings have included a Winter Ale and Hazelnut Chocolate Stout.
