Cask Party! Real Ale Brewing Co.'s Rio Blanco Pale Ale

If you’re a College Station resident and wish to become a serious beer drinker, there are 2 places you’ll come to rely on.  The first, of course, is Spec’s Liquor; it’s the best place to find beer in CStat.  H-E-B, for being a supermarket, has a great selection as well.  However once you get into buying the seasonal releases and rarities, H-E-B doesn’t compete with the wide selection that Spec’s has.  In fact, I talk about Spec’s so much I’m starting to think they should be paying me for advertising. Pay me in beer, perhaps?

Nobody ever pays me in beer...

The second place in CStat for the dedicated brew fanatic is O’Bannon’s Irish Pub (which I also mention quite a lot.)  One of the best things about this pub is they don’t try to appeal to the typical American college student market.  Instead of having the nightly specials on domestics (also known as Big 3 swill), they have specials based on new and interesting releases or seasonal brews.  One of the most obvious indicators of O’Bannon’s dedication to beer artistry is their occasional cask parties.  Not many breweries sell small cask conditioned batches of their brews, they’re more difficult to transport and can be a lot of work on the server’s side.  A few breweries in Texas though, do produce some casks and O’Bannon’s is usually lucky enough to get their hands on one.  It’s always an interesting experience drinking a naturally carbonated living beer.  It’s even better when you can taste the same beer pressurized in a keg or bottled up, and get the chance to compare the differing flavors.

Pictured: a creative alternative to the keg

Last Wednesday’s cask party was sponsored by Real Ale Brewing Co. in Blanco, TX.  This craft brewery, most famous for producing Fireman’s 4, is located in the heart of the central Texas. These guys are so dedicated to the brewing tradition of creating ‘real ale’ that they named their company after it.  The team is currently running a 60 barrel system and with it can produce anywhere between 54,000 and 72,000 barrels each year.  A barrel is equal to 31 gallons, according to Title 1: Chapter 1 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code.  All of that volume is matched by a 16 head bottle filler running a daily average of 1200 cases per day.  As you can tell, this little brewery is working hard.

I now own a similar glass

The cask Real Ale brought last Wednesday was one of their original 3 brews: Rio Blanco Pale Ale, a Texas take on English pale ale.  Since the 2011 Great American Beer Fest just happened, I think it’s noteworthy to add that this brew won a gold medal in 2010.  Along with the cask, those awesome folks brought over 100 branded tumbler glasses; buy the beer, keep the glass.  At $5 total, getting to keep the $3 glass, I don’t see how anyone could pass up the deal.

My pint of Rio Blanco was gravity pulled through an agitator to sort of kick up the carbonation.  The result was a finger of thick, creamy white head.  Strong retention with this brew, but I’ll admit I did drink it fast.  The color of the brew was a cloudy burnt orange color, the haze was most likely attributed to the yeast still contained in the cask. The smell and taste were identical in this brew, starting out very strong with zesty Saaz hops, heavy herbal note and some bittering oils.     There was a soft malt backbone that basically acted as a medium for the hops to shine through.  The beer felt oily at first but it does finish clean.

I’d rate Real Ale Brewing Co.’s cask conditioned Rio Blanco Pale Ale 3.5 out of 5.  There wasn’t anything spectacular about this beer. Saaz hops dominated this brew; as tasty as Saaz hops are, they’re really only a piece of the puzzle.  This beer would make for a good casual brew, one I’d surely drink again, but not one I’d rave about.  You should know though, what I'm really looking forward to trying are the Mysterium Verum series, they're so... mysterious.