railway cask night

i made it to cask night at the railway last week
unprecedented - that's three in a row i think!
(won't be making it this week, i have a solstice party to host instead...)

the cask was driftwood's blackstone porter

three casks of this lively ale were brewed
one at camra's winterfest, this one at the railway
and the third will be tapped at st. augustine's tonight

i hear tell that the initial pour was all thick head, so think a straw wouldn't sink through it
(apparently they experimented!)
definitely still a very thick head when i got mine
the head lingered quite a while and was practically spongey to the touch
(yes, i experimented too!)

malty, not quite sweet, but something along those lines
quite murky
the sweetness is nicely balanced by the sour mash they tossed in there
lots of yeast at the bottom of the glass

i got a chance to talk to ian, the brewer of this fine cask
he thinks there was some secondary fermentation
he likes that there is some coffee coming out when the beer clears
he's the one who said it was a "lively" beer
with that kind of head, yup, lively is a good descriptor
ian is very pleased with this beer
and he likes the redesigned label on the bottles - the boots add a nice touch
he's not sure why the went with boots though!
the blackstone is available in bottles - $4.75 a piece

we also talked about the fat tug - which he reports has had its recipe tweaked a few times
its more balanced now
and its really doing quite well

he also suggests everyone try the old cellar dweller barleywine
you can lay that puppy down for up to five years apparently

we had a second pint of the cask
and then when it ran out they gave us the last pour for free
and its a good thing they did because it was not really drinkable
too much yeast and the head didn't dissipate even after half an hour!
we switched to the red racer esb to round out our evening

the final pour - check out that yeast!