'Crask' and the Great Keg Debate

Well well well we seem to getting a new word mentioned in the beer world recently. 'Crask' for all you new to the word its craft beer served in a Cask (think of Wierd Beard and Wild Beer on cask and you'll catch our drift). Os likes the word but I loath it as good beer is good beer what ever the dispense method is but Os is an ex marketer so loves his buzz words!

So a 1⁄2 a pint from Siren served on hand­pull would be a “Crask” beer. There you have it (or not in my case).
 
CAMRA & Kegs
Craft beer fans, and the craft beer industry in general, have spent the last few years arguing with CAMRA that regardless of its serving method good beer is good beer, so beer should be served by whichever method the brewer believes its best for their product be that cask or keg. Now we're getting to get to a point where that is now generally accepted by CAMRA who have finally relented that Key­Keg conditioned beer is Real Beer so its good to see “Key Keg” bars now at CAMRA festivals this year.

It does frustrate that CAMRA find it still hard to acknowledge the wonderful new craft beer revolution simply because it comes out of a keg. Most of our customers are not bothered but we do get the odd one who'll just only drink from our lovely hand­pull.

"Bah" CAMRA say to beer forcibly ejected with gas from a steel keg! Unfortunately the old school CAMRA brigade still have lots of emotional baggage around the thought and 1960's flash backs to Watneys Red Barrel, god forbid, so it'll be a few more years before we see a UK craft steel keg at a CAMRA event and I think that is a real shame.

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Lessons in the liquid you love: Beer Strengths

At Kraft Werks we often get asked why is “craft beer” so strong in alcohol compared to so called “traditional ales”. I think we have all seen so called traditional ales such as bitters, golden beers and milds now tend to be around 3.8% these days well this wasn't always the case. Beer strengths in the UK were much higher traditionally prior to the 1970's, things started to change slowly from the 1930's through to the 1970's with increased taxation on beer alcohol levels, homogenization and mass production.

Having taken a look at the fascinating beer blog Barclay Perkins, we've seen that traditional XX & KKK beers were the very popular with British drinkers and these beers were often 8, 9, 10% or even stronger.

As one well beer-informed customer told recently me the Victorians would have given 3.5% to their children at the dinner table. Also, prior to the 1960's, we would have been drinking beer more commonly in half’s rather than pints (probably a refection of those higher ABVs and changing tastes) with pints of beer being requested and not given as a standard in pubs. Another interesting fact is a lot of British beers historically were barrel aged for up to a year before serving in pubs and prior to WW1 beers were often blended in the pub for the customer (interesting as we now associate blended beers purely with the Belgium brewers). So the next time you're in Kraft Werks and you see a 9% Barrel Aged Imperial Stout Beer on draught, when it's served in a half pint, remember that’s a true “traditional” ale. A fact overlooked is that craft beer really can often be a more genuine representation of the historical British beers.