Tonight...

Tonight we are going to the Peldon Rose Pub. Keith & Michelle chose it because of the food and the choice of beer. If you follow the link, we are shooting for the table by the fireplace. You will also notice the Cask Marque link. Cask Marque works with CAMRA in the pursuit of beer quality and the use of casks for beer fermenting and delivery. This is taken from the Cask Marque webpage:

It is known popularly as "real ale" thanks to more than a quarter-century of feverish and dedicated activity by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). But a brewer and a connoisseur will prefer the term "cask-conditioned beer", for it best expresses the unique character of Britain's great contribution to the world of fermented grain: a beer that reaches maturity not in the brewery but inside its cask in the cellar of a pub. Most beer -- and more than 93 per cent of the world's production is cold-fermented lager beer -- is filtered and often pasteurised in the brewery at the end of the brewing process. It is ready to serve as soon as it reaches its destination in pub, cafe, bar or bier keller, pumped to the bar by gas from a canister. Cask beer is different because it is a living product and gains maturity and flavour in the cellar.

In a nutshell, cask beer is handpumped out of the keg. Your typical beer stateside, and still at a lot of English pubs, is depensed by adding Carbon Dioxide to the keg and thus forcing the beer through the tap.

Cask Marque publish guides for maintaining cask cellars and make inspections twice a year to insure that their standards are being met. If I get the chance, I will try and ask for a tour of a cellar and posts some photos.

Eric and I have had "real ale" from Boston's Bistro before. They get it every once in awhile and boy is it good. There is also a Real Ale Festival in Chicago in the spring. Hmmm...road trip perhaps?