Cask-Conditioned Beer Now On Tap!

It's finally here.

The St. Francis Brewery now features Cask Conditioned Ale served via a traditional English beer engine (pictured right).

So what makes this different from our regular beer?

Several things. All of our regular beers are force-carbonated. This means, once the beer is transferred into one of our six vessels, I pressurize the vessel and then bubble carbon dioxide through the beer until it is carbonated.

With cask-conditioned ale, I take beer from the fermenter and fill up the firkin. There is still a little bit of yeast floating around in this beer. Then I’ll add a little bit of sugar to the firkin before sealing it up. The yeast eats the sugar and starts giving off carbon dioxide, which naturally carbonates the beer.

Cask-conditioned beer will not be as bubbly as our other beer. It will always be a little flatter, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Cask conditioned beer is also served at "cellar temperature" or right around 50 degrees, so it will seem warmer than our other beers.

Finally, cask conditioned beer cannot be filtered, so it will be a bit cloudy. This is the extra yeast that is in the beer, and it’s actually beneficial.

The beer we will feature will change all the time. Our first beer is cask-conditioned Nut Brown Ale, which has been infused with toasted oak. The oak gives it a nice barrel-aged flavor with a slight hint of bourbon.

The price of our cask-conditioned offerings will be the same as our house beers.  Quantities are limited, so when the current selection runs out, you'll have to wait for the next.