Celebrating Edmonton’s first Cask Event back in 2010.

It has been four-and-a-half years (May 2010) since Edmonton got its first cask night, which was at the Sugar Bowl (see article here). The first few events were high energy, anticipated and joyful. They were something a beer geek made a point of attending. Over the past few years, the number of venues hosting monthly or weekly casks has grown significantly. By my count the Sugar Bowl and Next Act, the first two to embark on the project, continue their monthly events, while Craft and Beer Revolution do weekly casks. Others have come and gone over the time, trying it out and deciding against it.

At the Edmonton Oktoberfest Festival last weekend, I got to talking with the good folks at Edmonton Beer Geeks Anonymous about the state of cask in Edmonton. They were there to babysit a handful of casks that were being served up throughout the two day event. I have been mulling over that conversation in the days since, wondering about what is going on with cask in Edmonton.

Much of the energy behind cask has ebbed and the hoped-for next steps are yet to arrive. There is, of course, the excellent EBGA Real Ale Festival once a year, which retains much of that buzz of beer adventure. But otherwise I wonder if we have lost some of our momentum recently?

I will admit that I have not been attending the cask events much in the past couple years – so clearly I am part of the problem. It is mostly life that has gotten in the way; they are often at times when I have other commitments. But, really, that isn’t much of an excuse.

However over the summer I did make it to a Sugar Bowl cask and to a couple of the Beer Revolution casks. My experience was that the buzz simply wasn’t there. Most of the room had no idea a cask was being served and it was clear to me that it was more of an average night with an added option, rather than an event per se. I saw few of the beer crowd that in the past I could reliably meet at such events (and still do at festivals and the like).

When cask events first started, the beer would last less than an hour. Today they make it through most of the night, with some reports of never getting to empty. I suspect that is one of the primary reasons for the lack of an event feel. There is no pressure to be there on time (or early) lest they miss out.Plus maybe with 10 or so events a month, there is less novelty to it. “I’ll catch it next week” is an easy response.

The initial instinct is to suggest that Edmontonians just aren’t that interested in cask, or that there are too many cask nights around town. Upon reflection I don’t think that is the case. I think it is an interplay of factors. First, building awareness of cask, building a cask-culture so to speak, takes time. It is slow work. Most beer drinkers are just starting to wake up to craft beer, let alone something as strange as cask. I think there are more people today who are aware of what a cask is, and have even tasted one, than four years ago. Yet it is a process that takes years, not months. It is a slow build.

Second, I do think for beer geeks some of the shine has ebbed around cask events. When they were new, everybody wanted to be there. Now they are more commonplace and so there is less of an air of “must attend” around them. For guys like me, there is simply less drive to carve the space out on my calendar. I think this is neither surprising nor disappointing. It is part of the natural evolution of trends. A hot beginning followed, if they are sustainable, into a more toned-down attraction, one that hopefully slowly continues to grow. We are in that latter phase at the moment.

Councillor Ben Henderson tapping the first cask at the Edmonton Oktoberfest Festival.

Third, the changed atmosphere could be seen as a sign of maturation. Casks are not these wild, wacky one-offs, but are just a part of a slowly growing beer scene. Beer people know they are there, attend sometimes and other times not. Others stumble across it accidentally because they happen to be there – which happens more often due to the increased frequency of the events. In a way I am buoyed by the fact that a regular cask offering is considered par for the course at good beer bars in town. That the Oktoberfest Festival felt a need to have casks (even if Germany doesn’t really do that) speaks to how ingrained cask is to “good” beer events.

I think the issue here is not the trajectory of the cask events themselves, but our expectations back when they started. I re-read the posts I did around that time and I am downright giddy with anticipation and excitement. I was a key part in getting the first Sugar Bowl cask night going and remember at the time hoping they would ramp it up to weekly and with longer term hopes of a permanent tap devoted to cask.

When I think about that, two things become evident. First, my hopes of more frequent events did occur. Not at the Sugar Bowl, who are likely both too small and too busy on an average day to support a weekly cask, but a cask ale fan can now get one a couple of times a week if they go different places. It is easy to lose sight of that when we think about that lost excitement that surrounded those first few. Second, we were, understandably, impatient to put on our big boy pants in the world of cask. Speaking for myself, at the time I don’t think I realized how organic the process needs to be, and thought it could be pushed faster.

Edmonton is not yet ready for a ongoing cask option. That can make us feel discouraged, or we can choose to see that as the next challenge to meet. How do we develop enough of a cask following that one of the better beer bars feels they can sustain a dedicated cask engine? Well, if we have learned any lessons from the last four years, it means being patient, slowly expanding the reach of cask and creating a niche of consumers who clamour for it. That will take time, but as I reflect upon this I am optimistic we will get there eventually. Just maybe not fast enough for those of us who long for the pubs of Britain or the craft beer bars of the U.S.

In the meantime I think we beer geeks need to re-commit to making it out to at least some of the cask events. If for no other reason than SOMEONE needs to drink all that good beer!