The Small Miracle of £4 Pints of Ale (Again!)
We last ‘did’ £4 pints (AKA Taproom Prices) in August as a way to keep our beer fresh.
Now we revisit the scheme for the first half of January (2nd– 15th to be precise).
The Great Artisanal Mystery of cask ale is really a happy partnership between the pub, which ‘keeps’ it, and you the drinker working together to serve/drink the freshest, frothingest, pro-biotic ale known to mankind.
Long-time readers of these dialectics will recall that friend-to-the-pub Charlie McVeigh was once sceptical about my ‘all-in’ approach to cask ale at The Blue Stoops. I wrote at length about that pre-launch row here.
In essence, his worry was that cask ale only remains fresh for 2-3 days once a barrel is ‘tapped’ in the cellar. Having four hand-pumps, each connected to a 72-pint firkin of ale, meant that in a lager-dominated age we’d be throwing our fine ale away as it went off. Thank the Lord he was wrong, The Blue Stoops has become something of a beacon for cask ale drinkers, and has also ‘turned’ a fair few girls and boys onto the true path of pro-biotic, fresh ale righteousness.
I knew it was going to be all right when, a few days after opening, a supremely poised and elegant woman sat down on her own in our bar at lunchtime and demolished a frothing pint of Allsopp’s India Pale Ale with a dozen Carlingford oysters, a barely perceptible look of ecstasy flashing across her features intermittently.
All of that said, even I have mild concerns regarding maintaining volume through four lines of cask ale in the first two weeks of January.
I therefore officially revive ‘Taproom Prices’, our January promotion which offers all* hand-pumped ales at just £4/pint for from 2nd-15thJanuary. No voucher or QR code needed. Just approach the bar and order a pint from one of our four hand-pumps and you will be charged £4. How is this possible? How can we ignore the punishing economics of London pub management and offer beer at such a ridiculously low price on a corner in W8? Well, the Blue Stoops is Allsopp’s taproom, and we brew the beer ourselves, so we start at a lower cost-base but also hope that keeping the beer fresh and flowing freely will save us from the risk of throwing any of it away.
Cask Ale: An Explainer
Cask Ale is one of old England’s great treasures, endemic and unique to these islands. This is a historic and naturally fermented beer which is hand-pumped from a beer cellar, using those antediluvian handles you see sticking up on pub bars. This beer pumping system was actually invented by a Dutchman, Jan Lofting, in London in 1688 and is known as a beer engine. The pumping of ale from cellar to glass by actually aerates and enlivens the beer. This process is an essential part of what makes it so unique and delicious.
Cask ale may only be correctly drunk in a pub which takes the 'keeping' of it seriously. It is very different from plug-and-play keg beers like lager. Cask ale is an artisanal drink which needs care and attention in the cellar to be truly great. At its best it's effervescent and frothy, not fizzy. Better than the best continental lager. Better than Guinness. Better even than the stout we sell at Stoops – Murphy’s Draught Irish Stout (the pride of Cork city).
*There is an exception to the £4 rule, the last pints of Arctic Ale may well be available at this time and, as it is more than twice the strength of most cask ales (at 11%!) and only available by the half, we will charge £4 for that measure. More info on Arctic Ale here.