Phoenix Facts

"Live Beer" or Real Ale.

Real ale is the term normally associated with cask beers (beer containing live yeast which continues to ferment after leaving the brewery).

"Real ales" reach maturity in the cask in the cellar of a pub rather than in the brewery. Most beer is cold-fermented lager beer and is filtered and often pasteurised in the brewery at the end of the brewing process. It is ready to serve as soon as it reaches the pub. Cask beer is different because it is a living product and gains maturity and flavour in the cellar. When ale fermentation is complete, cask-conditioned beer is run or "racked" into casks and sent off to pubs. Finings made from isinglass is poured into each cask to help clear it while many brewers add a handful of hops and extra brewing sugar for a good hoppy aroma and a successful secondary fermentation.

In the pub cellar, kept cool at 11 to 12 degrees C (52-56 F), the living yeast cells in the beer continue to turn the remaining sugars into alcohol and CO2. The publican, or his cellarman, monitor the development of each cask carefully. The beer is then pulled by beer engines, triggered by handpumps on the bar, to the drinkers' glass.