Unlike beers stored in a regular keg, cask-conditioned brew goes in unfiltered and undergoes a secondary fermentation in the container (aka the cask). The yeasts remain alive, affecting the beer’s flavors and character. A good beer on cask is a great beer, but attention newbies: Cask brews are served at a warmer temperature than regular draughts.

Here’s where to try them.

Beers We Love 

 

Mac and Jack's African Amber

My beer story starts with pizza. As a New Jersey native who’d recently relocated to Seattle, I was determined to find a slice of home—preferably loaded with sausage, peppers, and onions—within blocks of my new Belltown apartment. But all I came across were soggy crusts and sadness, paired with the finest beer I’d ever had: a Mac and Jack’s African Amber. It was the perfect rust-red ale, smooth and rich, a refreshing break from the same old Smithwick’s served in Every. Irish. Pub. And did I detect a hint of fruit? I imagined pairing it with steak, chocolate, oranges. I wanted to sleep with it, wear it. Who came here to order food? Thanks to this liquid comfort, my adopted city had snuck into my good graces. I quickly ordered another.
 - Laura Dannen

Cask Central
Every spring the Washington Beer Commission (­washingtonbeer.com) organizes a cask festival at which several dozen in-state breweries pour from 
over 70 different casks. It’s well worth the $35 cost 
of admission.

Unfiltered Pub Crawl
There are too many pubs tapping casks to list them all, but here is a sampling: West Seattle pub the Cask
(thecaskseattle.com) plays host to a revolving set of fresh regional brewskies, and the Hopvine (3pubs.com/hopvine.html) staff taps a cask every Monday, an event that coincides nicely with the Capitol Hill pub’s 5 to 7pm happy hour. Elliott Bay’s West Seattle brewpub pops a vintage cask one Wednesday a month, the Burien pub does the same on Thursday (elliottbaybrewing.com).

The Redmond Two-Step
Equipped with a few tables and a tiny bar, Redmond beer and wine store Malt and Vine (maltandvine.com) doubles as a sipping spot for serious geeks, who wander in on Wednesdays to try the cask of the week. Nearby, visit stellar brewery Black Raven (blackravenbrewing.com); the staff taps a firkin, an 11-gallon cask, every Wednesday at 4pm.

Thirsty Thursday
On Thursday, May 19, the first day of Seattle Beer Week 2011 (seattlebeerweek.com), West Seattle’s Beveridge Place Pub (beveridgeplacepub.com) hosts its annual Cask-o-Rama, a rowdy celebration of local beer and your chance to try cask brews exclusively produced in Seattle.