Imperial Pilsner Cask

Natty Greene's Raleigh is having a special cask of Imperial Pilsner on Friday April 2nd. The cask will be tapped at 5pm. Be on time, I'm sure this one will go quick. They will be charging $5 for this instead of their regular $4.

French Broad Altbier Cask at Busy Bee

After enjoying French Broad's quaint tasting room last week, I was excited to hear that they would be bringing a cask of their Altbier to the Busy Bee here in Raleigh. Altbier is one of the rarer German styles, and unlike many other is actually an ale. The name actually means old beer. Now this doesn't mean old as in bad. It has a couple of implications, the first being that altbier is traditionally fermented longer than normal. The other is that the beer is brewed in the "old style" which means using ale yeast, as lagers had not been developed yet.

French Broad's version was poured with a nice creamy inch of head, no doubt that this one came out of a cask. The color was a nice deep amber and slightly cloudy. Drinking this beer was an absolute pleasure, it was very drinkable, with nice bready and caramel flavors accentuated by some light floral hops. I've had this beer in bottles before, and the cask version really stands out in my opinion.

As a final note, it appears that Busy Bee has installed a beer engine, which should mean that they will begin having many more cask events such as this one. Looking forward to their next surprise for sure!

Exciting News from TBC

From an email today:

"This Thursday, Feb. 4 Triangle Brewing Co. will be participating in the unveiling of Durham's first operational Beer Engine. We are positive that it is functional, cause Andy and I spent the better part of the day today installing it. Yes, it was a pain in the arse, but nothing is too much for our beer. The plan is to tap weekly casks of TBC everything Thursday and run it thru the weekend (or until it goes dry). The first cask that will be tapped is our IPA. So come enjoy beer at its finest. The event is also a fundraiser for a young man with autism, who will be receiving a special bike. The cask tapping will occur at 5:30pm, so swing by for a pint to two. We will also, be pouring at cask of our Best of Both Worlds Stout. Cheers and see you Thursday."

Very nice that we finally have a beer engine in the area that will allow us to enjoy cask beer more regularly. Props to Triangle and Alivia's for making this happen!