You Casked for It: More Cask Releases Moving Forward

Casks! Casks! Everyone loves casks! Well, maybe not everyone… But those who do will be excited to hear that we are going to change the way we manage our cask program going forward. We currently set aside two Mondays out of the month for special cask releases that we market a week or two in advance. This schedule gave us time to build excitement and inform people about the beer that will be on the cask engine.

This has worked great so far, making our Monday nights that much more special when you come to visit! However… I want more. More casks. More hops. More fruits. More puns. More El Vulcano. More manual pulling of beer.  

My aim is to have more casks on the engine throughout the year. As of now, Black Star Co-op releases a cask on a Monday and by Wednesday, it’s often gone. That means a cask is usually only available for 3 out of every 12 days. Though the few days our casks are available may engender an air of exclusivity, which is what we were aiming for, I want to see what happens when it’s more available. Bottom-line: I want to have more delicious under-carbonated beer waiting to be tapped.

This will change the way we advertise our cask releases. Instead of having a two-week heads up for the exact day a cask will be released, we will send out information on Facebook closer to the tapping of each release. We will let you know in the monthly newsletter which house beer you can expect to find casked each month. This month, expect special casks of Pneuma, Vulcan, and Rover. 

That being said, our beer production is highly seasonal, and the warmer months (now) generally yield beers less likely to be casked up. But we’re going to try to implement this new system and pull that engine all summer long (El Vulcano, anyone?).

By doing this, the Co-op will have casks available more often–including during peak weekend hours. For all who have asked “whats on cask?” and too often received the reply “nothing!”—this change is for you. I want everyone to be able to enjoy the traditional re-fermented ale offering that is cask-conditioned ale as whenever the mood strikes.