When it comes to cask ale, the prejudiced beer drinker need not apply. Cask beer or ale requires quite the opposite from its consumers as the unfiltered, unpasteurized fermented beverage is unique, in not just flavor but in service—the beer is served from the cask without nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. In other words, it’s flat and at room temperature. Although that report may seem flaccid, the beer itself is far from it. Conditioned and matured in the cask with traditional ingredients, the beer goes through secondary fermentation inside the barrel as well resulting in a natural effervescence and poured directly from there.
Somewhat naked without external additions to clothe its flaws, cask ale is an English-style ale staple and brought true to form in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle by Machine House Brewery. So much that, according to co-owner Alex Brenner, they have a few British Seattle transplants as regulars. “The mild (ale) is an ex-pat favorite,” explains Brenner as he tends the three-cask bar on a busy Saturday afternoon in their open-air, fútbol-streaming south Seattle taproom. The Mild Ale was my particular favorite that day as well. The “mild” denotation is due to it’s 3.7 percent ABV and in reference to the traditional English style that was produced from the run-off of a strong ale. Lighter in body but dark in color, this mild is reverse face in its flavor with rich chocolate and roasted coffee bean alongside a roasty, toasty malt and cream-filled mouthfeel.
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