In the UK, and around the world, cask conditioned beer is seen as a British phenomenon and yet, there are pubs around the world like Notre Dame Lujan in Argentina that offer cask beer. In this three-part series David Jesudason investigates the type of customer who drinks in these pubs. Are they locals or British people who live abroad? What kind of experiences are they looking for? Are they wanting to recreate a slice of home or is it because of a genuine love of British beer? David looks into the practicalities of serving British beer abroad and whether the beer and the pub experience can be considered as ‘good’ as it is in the UK
David is a freelance journalist published by BBC Culture, Guardian, Pellicle and more. As a British-Asian campaigner for racial equality David seeks transformative narratives through writing about beer.
Cask is the ultimate British food and drink success story: invented by the British, served by the British, drunk by the British and misunderstood by the rest of the world.
Or so I thought until I researched the history of real ale – which owes a lot to outside influences, such as Dutchman John Lofting who was responsible for the beer engine – and how its popularity has touched places outside the UK. So as well as serving Belgium beers, from craft breweries Brussels Beer Project and Brewery de la Senne, Jenlain Delcourt and his partner Jody Lecieux at GIST in Brussels also pull cask beer for their thirsty drinkers.
“We are the only pub in Belgium to pour cask with hand pumps,” Delcourt says about his pub that serves a cross section of the public from locals and students through to civil servants. “Others have tried it but they’ve managed to finish a cask in three days.”
Therein lies the problem. Cask has to be more popular than a curiosity for it to work otherwise there’s too much wastage and not much profit for bars outside the UK. Luckily this isn’t an issue at GIST and the outlet provides empty casks (barrels) for the local Brussels breweries to fill with ale asking them to make “British-inspired ales”.
“Generally,” Delcourt says. “In one evening one cask can be emptied [drunk]. We serve pints and half pints.”
GIST serves the usual range of cask beer you would find in British pubs from the usual bitters to pale ales and even milds all served from two handpumps – pretty good going considering other Belgium bars usually end up with wasted beer.
There is one twist, though, the real ale is served at 5C a lot colder than you would find bitters in your local boozer. “Belgian people are not ready yet for warmer beer,” Delcourt says. “They’re ok with the beer being flatter but serving it to them warmer is tricky.”
Maybe that’s due to his drinkers being used to colder beer but you’ll be glad to know that it isn’t a completely alien world as most people pair his beer with crisps.
“We serve the beer to all types of people,” Delcourt adds. “We get British people. We also get middle-aged people and young people who come because they’re interested in cask.”
The beer that Delcourt has found popular tends to be around 3%-5% alcohol by volume (the alcohol strength) and it hasn’t worked when he’s put stronger beer on handpumps – maybe because Belgium beer in general can be more potent than here. (My favourite Belgium beer Hercule Stout clocks in at 9% ABV).
The “British-inspired” beer that’s brewed for GIST is pretty similar to what we’re used to in this country but often it comes with a Belgium twist.
“It’s not like fruit beer,” Delcourt says. “It’s hints. It’s hints of floral but it’s still British-style beer.”
Delcourt’s love of British beer started 15 years ago but he is a bit of an outlier in his country where most of beer drinkers would scoff at the idea of drinking bitters when their brown bars are packed with Belgian classics – I discovered Hercule Stout on one of my many pilgrimages to the country cycling around and discovering that their bars have huge selections of strong beers.
“Belgium people are Belgium people,” he says. “If you tell them that British ales or German beers can be better than the Belgium ones then they could be offended because they see Belgium as The Beer Country.
“It’s easier to pour cask ales in Belgium now but most of the bar owners are a bit afraid with the dispensing method because you need to finish the cask quickly. It’s a lot to understand and learn and most bar owners in Belgium are not ready to learn.”
When I speak to Delcourt, most people in Belgium are working from home due to Covid which has hit his business. Employees of the European Commission have been rightly cautious to return to their offices and this has had a knock-on effect on his business. The cask was at times shelved when customer numbers dropped but as the video above shows the pumps are back in action and drinkers are queuing up to pay €4 a half for a taste of Britain.
It seems nothing, not even Covid, can stop cask.
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