Pic(k) of the Week: Real Bright Real Ale

Real bright real ale: a pint of cask-conditioned IronMan Pale Ale (in a 3 Lions Brown Ale pint glass), as seen at Cask Lab, taught by Steve Jones —brewmaster for Oliver Breweries of Baltimore, Maryland— at Columbia Firehouse Restaurant, in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday, 16 February.

Real ale is a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops water and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide.

Brewers use ingredients which are fresh and natural, resulting in a drink which tastes natural and full of flavour. It is literally living as it continues to ferment in the cask in your local pub, developing its flavour as it matures ready to be poured into your glass.

Real ale is also known as ‘cask-conditioned beer’, ‘real cask ale’, real beer’, and ‘naturally conditioned beer.’

Campaign for Real Ale

Although cask-conditioned beer is never filtered, Jones explained, a proper pint of it will never be clouded with sediment, yeast, or haze. It will be "crystal."

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• More about Cask Lab: here. More photos: here.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the ales of Oliver Breweries.
  
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on a Saturday, and often of a 'good fermentable' as subject.