Pic(k) of the Week: The spigot is closed.

Commercial cask ale in America is dead.

After a resurgence —beginning in the late 1980s and continuing through the late 20-aughts— American 'real ale' now appears moribund, relegated (with rare exceptions) to one-offs, terrible technique, and Frankensteinian experiments in extranea.

The photo above is a redo of a shot I took in 2012, at a cask ale festival at Mad Fox Brewing, a brewpub in Falls Church, Virginia. Mad Fox is not a cask offender but a fierce advocate for real real ale. Alas, it closed on 21 July 2019, after a nine year run.

The timing feels congruent. I'm sad (and thirsty). The spigot is closed.

-----more-----

• How commercial real ale went wrong in America. Via YFGF (September 2015).
• Doom and gloom aside, there is cask ale accreditation and training for pubs and brewery taprooms in the U.S., available via Cask Marque. Read more: here.


• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays, occasionally with a good fermentable as the subject.
• Photo 29 of 52, for year 2019. See it on Flickr: here.
• Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1.
  • Lens: Olympus M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 L
  • Settings: 18 mm | 1/80 | ISO 200 | f/4.0
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


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