Beer, beer … glorious beer!

Draught beer generally refers to beer that is hand pumped from a barrel (a keg or cask) and served in glasses, usually in a pub or bar. 

The precise definition of a draught beer is open to wide interpretation, with purists arguing that a draft beer must be served direct from a keg at source, direct for consumption. In this case, both draught beer that is then bottled and canned beer that is pressurised using a widget do not qualify as draught beer. 

Draught beer is generally unpasteurised (which means that it has not been sterilised) and for that reason must be consumed in a certain amount of time before it goes off. If a pint has gone off, you would be sure to know as beer is made, after all from plant matter, and rotting plant matter tastes bad! 

There are occasional allegations that a pub is ‘watering down’ its beer in order to make extra profit. As unscrupulous as some landlords are (yes, they do have to make a living!), draught beer is very unlikely to be watered down. Piercing a barrel pressurised with carbon dioxide (as many of them are), in order to insert water into it would be costly and very dangerous.

For many people, draught beer is the standard to adhere to.

It is unclear exactly why this is, as draught beers vary greatly in style and quality: notably, the term draft does not denote that traditional brewing methods have been employed during production.

Most likely, people are keen on the overall experience of drinking beer with a good head from a standard beer glass, in a pub. Draught beer is the beer that most people will have grown to enjoy over time.

However, draught beer will often fall short of the standard promoted by groups such as CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) who dismiss any beer that has had carbon dioxide added at the point of sale. For this reason, whilst many cask ales are real ales, and whilst the terms ‘draught beer’ and ‘cask ale’ are synonymous to an extent, there are a number of draft beers that are not real ale. A cask ale must not have any pressure added to it:

• Put simply as the term ‘draught’ simply means ‘to draw’ beer, a cask ale is a draught ale (as beer is ‘drawn for a barrel for service),
• Whilst a draught ale (because it may have carbon dioxide added) is not always a ‘cask ale’.

See… clear, as mud!

This is further complicated if we consider that cask ale is not always real ale

Fortunately the average punter, even with discerning tastes, may well just want to enjoy a beer regardless of whether it was draught ale, real ale or canned beer.

Of course, here at the Shepherd & Flock we always have an excellent choice of beers ... and they all taste good!