Cask Ale Is Now Officially a Thing in Portland, Oregon

We sat down on a warm day a couple of weeks ago, my amber beer molten in the sunlight. It was a pint of Montavilla ESB (named, nerdily, Extra Special Baggins ), poured from the brewery’s new cask engine. “We should have done it years ago,” owner Michael Kora said, nodding toward my glass. “In March, I looked at what was selling best, and obviously Flam Tap [their flagship IPA] was number one. But the ESB was second or maybe third. I couldn’t believe it.”

It had been served from an ancient English device, passed on from Sean Campbell at BeerMongers, who had himself gotten it from Von Ebert, where it had been a holdover from the Fat Head era. It was a forlorn, nonfunctional device, and fitted with metric parts—the few it came with, anyway. That has been the typical lifecycle of a cask engine—purchased in hopes of rekindling interest in the old dispense system, a gambit shot-through with romance, only to end up gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. Michael, a tinkerer, was game to try to revive it, however, and it did fit in well with the Montavilla groove—Tolkein and music references, along with a pub-forward focus and a host of reliable regulars. Soon he was corresponding with the British manufacturer, sending pictures of what he had and getting advice on what he needed. His contact was very helpful, and managed to ship everything he needed in 48 hours. Soon it was enjoying a new life.

Montavilla is just the latest in a now substantial group of pubs and breweries serving cask ale in the City of Roses. I have been hesitant to shine too much light on this small trend, lest I jinx it, but it seems like we’ve crossed that Rubicon into full-blown popularity. Montavilla’s experience is on the upper end of success, but it’s not atypical. Not only are more and more places putting on their own engines, but they’re selling well and gathering an audience. “We wanted to bring in a whole new demographic,” Michael said. “People who like cask will go to a place to find it.” Curiously, that demo appears to be younger. Cask beer also hits that trifecta of positives: it’s lower in alcohol, which encourages multiple pints, it brings people back to beer-flavored beer, and of course, it’s only available on draft, bringing people out to the pub.

Cask in Portland

Portland has never been great for cask beer, and much of the time it was flat-out bleak. English-style pubs like the Horse Brass and Moon and Sixpence have managed to keep handles alive through the decades, and breweries like BridgePort (RIP), Full Sail Riverplace (RIP), and Deschutes (still truckin!) featured handles as well. You have to set the wayback machine on the 1980s or early 90s to find a time when traditional British styles were popular, and by the late aughts and teens they were commercial death—not a good fit for cask engines. I was always deflated to find a cask handle somewhere, only to discover the publican was serving a 7.2% IPA because no one would drink a bitter.

All of that makes the current trend so surprising. Overwhelmingly, the beers on offer today are traditional British styles. I say “traditional” because they’re not even the kinds of beers you commonly find on cask in the UK today—they’re bitters and milds and browns and stouts. And the bitters are throwbacks, with nary a Mosaic hop in sight.

I have a suspicion this is significant. The first major trend post-hops to establish itself in Portland were pilsners, and until recently they, too have been overwhelmingly traditional. It seems like schools or categories of beers are emerging that people like because they’re not IPAs. They have their own contours, their own pleasures. The breweries and pubs serving cask ale now are catering to a crowd who crave malt and balance.

Take Montavilla’s ESB. It is a combo Golden Promise/Maris Otter base malt beer with some caramel malt and a dose of earthy, orangey East Kent Goldings. It’s a proper ESB, which is to say only 5.4%, which puts it on the high side for British strong bitters, but about average for American pub ales. Last week I had a cask brown at Level that knocked my socks off, and I think it was about 4.5%. Nothing tricky about it, except that it was exceptional on cask and an unexpected perfect pairing with tacos. A couple weeks ago, LP Stout was on at Gigantic—again, no funny business, and a wonderful beer. (We have been to five breweries with our new housemate, Rosie, and three of them served cask. Hmmm.)

For those of you seeking out a good pint of cask ale here in town, this is a (possibly incomplete) list: Breweries: Away Days, Baerlic Brewing (SE), Culmination, ForeLand, Gigantic, Level, Living Haus, Lucky Lab, Montavilla, Steeplejack, Upright. Pubs: BeerMongers, Belmont Station, Higgins, Horse Brass, Imperial, Moon and Sixpence, Muddy Rudder, Roscoe’s, Tinker Tavern.

In Their Words

Michael Kora at Montavilla Brew Works (ESB in foreground)

I thought it would be good to check in with some of the folks who are actually selling cask as a reality check. Were their experiences like Michael’s? See for yourself.

Sean Campbell, BeerMongers
I have been surprised by the popularity of the cask beer program here at Mongers too. I cut my teeth pouring beers in England in the mid 1990s and have always loved cask beer. However, it takes more work to maintain and clean the system. Also, we used to have to dump beer if it did not sell quickly. There have been some changes in the technology that allows the beer to stay fresh longer.

As far as the renewed interest I think there are several factors. Lower ABV beers tend to be on cask and they seem to be gaining in popularity right now. Folks are always looking for something "hip" or "unique" and cask is having a small resurgence for that reason. Away Days has had several successful Cask Fests that have drawn a lot of interest. The Cask Passport has certainly helped too.

I also wanted to mention that we are releasing our first 15th Anniversary Beer with Away Days. Mr Ordinary an English Bitter. Of course it will be on cask!

Pete Hoppins, Away Days
I’ll have to look into the numbers but I’d say about 1/5 of all beer sales would be cask at our taproom. We also have the same beer available on cask and reg draft, the cask must outsell the draft 4-1.This helps to educate folks on the difference of draft versus cask, then we can slip them a passport and say ‘look at all the other places that sell cask.’

We're definitely seeing a shift away from hoppy beers (maybe that’s just us), and some of our more niche recent releases have done really well. Scottish Ale and London Brown Ale being two recent examples. I think folks are looking for something different right now, something more nuanced.

Van Havig, Gigantic
From our perspective, I'd say that cask is picking up a little in town and that the cask passport program has definitely juiced sales of cask. I'm basing all of this on how many pins we're sending to Hawthorne, which I think is really the most accurate way to judge these things.

On a related note, I think all of us in the industry and allied trades (such as beer writers) realize that the excitement around beer is down from the pre-COVID days. However, I do think cask represents a little bit of excitement to the “interested” beer drinker. It represents skill and tradition in a way that American hop forward beers don't, but in a way that many people seem to think lager does. It's almost as if the American beer world—or at least the Portland or PNW beer world—wants to either be beaten about the head with hops, or revel in some sort of romanticized vision of the difficulty and subtlety of lager. Cask kind of bridges those two things. I don't think it'll ever be really big anywhere in the US—it's not really big in the UK—but perhaps it may be here to stay? At least for a few years in Portland? Fingers crossed!

David Sanguinetti, ForeLand
In brief, yes, the engine beers have been popular from the beginning but very much more so during the Cask Passport. In fact, we kicked all of our cask kegs and have been dry for a week (fear not, London Porter is in tank)! We've heard from multiple people that have come in that not only the bars but also many of the breweries have been running out. I think this promotion has real potential, especially considering that we are doing it in a time with multiple false springs.*

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*It was in the 30s Monday morning, (3-4C), a drizzly and bone-chilling 45 (7C) when I walked Rosie (no dogs for her to play with at the park), and topped out ten degrees below average at 54 (12C). Today is supposed to be a repeat, and as I post this it is black as January, raining, and 42.