The latest Sugar Bowl/Alley Kat cask ale event went off this evening, and it hit new heights in beery-ness. By my watch, the cask ran out in exactly 1 hour 4 minutes, which is unquestioningly the fastest ever in Edmonton. But, I am told (and I could be wrong here) that it is faster than the Wild Rose cask night, which usually runs out in about 75 minutes or so. I say this not to one-up the good folks at Wild Rose – because clearly their event is a huge hit (plus they do it more often) and I wish I was down there for it more often.

I just simply want to highlight that the Edmonton event is getting more popular, not less, as it moves along. As a bonus, there were many new people there tonight, suggesting it is not just the same beer geeks each time. I have also heard rumblings that a second pub in town wants to do a cask event as well – which means there may be more love to go around soon. It is a great example of “if you build it, they will come”. I feel a bit of personal pride knowing that I helped coax it into existence, and I can only hope that it takes off like crazy over the next few months. Maybe the Sugar Bowl will do it more than once a month? That would be cool.

At any rate, the beer tonight was Alley Kat’s Amber with a nice dose of dry-hopped goldings and fuggles. I found, surprisingly, that it wasn’t the hops that accented the beer, but chocolate. For some reason the cask conditioning brought out the chocolate notes in the beer. Normally the chocolate plays a supporting role, with caramel and a touch of darker malt in the front role. However, the chocolate steals the show, which made the beer a VERY different creature tonight.

This is why I love cask ales. You never know how it will play out. Yeast has a mind of its own, and ain’t that wonderful? Can’t wait for the next one. August 19. Mark your calendars. The folks at Alley Kat are threatening a porter with some kind of dry hopping. Yum!

See you next month.