I finally have a wing man again.
It has been a couple of years since my son has been able to accompany me to cask ale festivals around the Northeast.
A couple of years that I have been forced to endure enjoy endless hours of beer drinking all by myself.
But after a successful tryout at the JWF cask event a couple of months ago, and a near miss with the Blue Point tickets, I was finally able to remind one of my oldest and dearest friends that cask is still king, and to persuade him to accompany me on my latest trek, this time into the backwoods of Rhode Island, to attend the second edition of RIF-RAF (Rhode Island’s Finest Real Ale Festival), once again held at the Guild Brewery in Pawtucket RI.
Now where, you might ask, is Pawtucket?
I may have asked as well, but for a visit I made over twenty years ago during a driving tour of National Historic Sites around the Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts borderlands.
I remembered the town for the historic mills, the weir across the Blackstone River, and the “falls” a little further downstream.
I was hoping they would occupy some of our time between beer sessions, weather permitting.
As I had no plans on driving this past weekend, other methods of transportation would need to be researched.
I knew that I could get Amtrak to Providence, and fortunately there was a seasonal discount on fares, so I did not even have to bother checking the buses.
That left the leg from Providence to/from Pawtucket to be sorted out.
That leg turned out to be surprisingly easy, quick, and inexpensive … and almost (ha!) hassle-free.
The MBTA Providence/Stoughton Line running between Boston and Providence made its first stop at Pawtucket, did the run in under 15 minutes, and charged a pittance for folks of our advanced years; what could go wrong?
Of course we got off to a typical Amtrak start, leaving Penn Station thirty minutes late, causing us to miss our desired connection, and requiring us to hang around the area by Providence Station for something like forty minutes.
Which gave us plenty of time to scope out the State House, river and canal, and little else.
There is little else.
Sure, there were offices, plenty of offices, and some housing conversions, but no on-the-ground infrastructure (he means Irish pubs) that we could find.
So after a couple of short walking loops, we returned to the station to locate a ticket booth or machine for our MBTA tickets.
Zilch.
No booth and no machine.
We did eventually notice that the coffee stand at the station advertised MBTA tickets, and enquired at the counter.
The bright and cheerful salesperson had no idea what we were talking about, but after consulting with somebody in the back, poked around under the desk and cranked up the obviously little-used machinery.
And so, after a short interval we had our freshly minted return tickets in hand, and watched the board for our platform to be announced.
A quick inquiry with the train staff milling around on the platform, confirmed that we were about to get on to the correct train, and then we were rolling.
The conductor locked the doors near to where we (and everybody else) were sitting, then strolled right past us all and planted himself by the doors at the other end of the carriage.
Without bothering to check anybody’s ticket at all.
The lack of a ticket machine was starting to make sense.
Crazy sense.
The ride was short and uneventful until we pulled in to Pawtucket and tried to exit the train.
Via the still-locked door closest to us.
These things aren’t designed for the average commuter to pry open, probably with good reason.
We eventually figured out that we needed to hurry along to the door at the other end, where the conductor was conveniently standing, and directing a seemingly endless wave of humanity towards us, impeding our progress to the actual open door.
I managed to catch his attention with a frantic two-handed wave over the heads of the onrushing crowd, and obligingly he stepped back to the door controls and managed to signal to the driver that we needed to stop again, to let two idiots off of the train before it reached the end of the platform.
Fortune was with the idiots.
We did not get to experience Attleboro MA, wherever that it.
After all of the unnecessary excitement, we were able to walk to our hotel in under ten minutes, passing by the cask festival venue on the way.
A quick check in and then back out to the deserted streets; we passed nobody outside on our walk to the hotel and back to the Guild Brewery.
But once we got inside, it seemed like the entire county was in the taproom, and judging by the number of cars in the parking lot and overflow lot, it seemed that everybody had arrived in their vehicles, and we were the only folks who dared to go out on foot, or were staying close enough to do so.
We were very close, and made it from the hotel to the brewery with ten minutes to spare before kickoff.
They directed us to the Barn in the back lot.
We had a thirst.
They had the casks.
Twenty eight of them.
A combination of pins and firkins and a single stichfaß, evenly split between Massachusetts and Rhode Island breweries.
All lined up alphabetically by brewery name.
We tackled them independently.
Before I could even get a sip of my first beer I was warmly greeted by Gary from NERAX who had helped with the set-up and stayed around for the first session.
I would also later re-introduce myself to Mark from Aeronaut, having met him at a couple of prior NERAX events.
There was also this high table of three younger guys who came dressed in kilts, just for the fun of it.
Little did they expect that they would be approached and entertained by my loquacious Glaswegian buddy for several rounds.
But back to the beers.
I began with the middle table, where five casks from the host brewery were located, and went straight for their rye porters first; they had two variants, the base beer which I started with for reference, and a version dry-hopped with chinook hops.
Both were excellent; I ended up rating the base beer my second favorite of the festival.
And then I selected beers at random, but planned to avoid any that were outrageously strong (none, luckily) and those that were over adorned (also none, yay).
The style origins were nicely split between German/Czech (40%), British (30%), American (25%) and exotic (5%), with the average ABV somewhere around 5% or maybe even slightly lower.
And as I have found in other cask events nearby in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, there was a good representation of stouts, porters, brown ales and ambers.
Other than some judicious dry-hopping, the vast majority of the casks were free of any adjuncts.
The one notable exception being an English Pub Ale from Buttonwoods (Providence RI) that was brewed with oysters in the boil and tarragon in the whirlpool; nice mineral edge to it with only a faint taste of the tarragon in the finish.
At under 4.5% it was very enjoyable and made my honorable mentions list.
My favorite was the Old Ironsides black IPA from Backbeat (Beverly MA), which actually tasted to me like a cross between a bitter and a smoked porter, and hit the sweet spot at only 4.8%.
And rounding out my top-3 was the Lagered Hedonism Polotmavy, the Czech amber lager from Moniker Brewing (Providence RI) poured from the lone gravity keg.
It was a lively one to tap and really wanted to dole out milk tube pours, but once settled, the gentle carbonation and mouthfeel were perfect.
Moniker also brought along a Czech pale (light, only 3.5%) lager in a pin which I sampled on the second session, and got an honorable mention as well; it would appear that they have a deft touch with lagers.
The event came with eight tickets that could be redeemed at a quarter pint per ticket, or combined for half pint or full pint pours; I went for eight individual samples and then bought a four pack extension to bring my total intake up to twelve pours (three pints) on the first session.
We left at last orders on day one and strolled back in the direction of our hotel in search of food, having already scoped out the attached tequila bar and grill on our way out; open till 1am, woohoo!
We arranged to meet in the hotel lobby for breakfast way too early for both of us, and settled in to slowly sip coffee for a short while without eating a thing; well, we did eat late and may have had some alcoholic beverages just a few hours before.
I then crawled back upstairs until checkout time and did some research on alternate transportation options back to Providence; that whole MBTA experience was a little too dodgy to be trusted to get us home late in the evening.
I found a bus.
Right at the train station.
Sorted.
Of course as soon as we checked out we had to verify that the bus actually existed and had reasonable and frequent departure times, so once again we strolled back past the brewery to the station.
And then wondered how we were going to kill the next three plus hours until the second session started at 3:30 pm.
There wasn’t much going on in that part of Pawtucket, and again there were very few souls on the street other than ourselves; it’s a shame, Pawtucket would make a lovely historic commuter town for Providence and even Boston.
The town isn’t shabby it is just deserted, with very little infrastructure (shops and bars) to draw the townsfolk out of their homes; it appears that most of the punters at the local hostelries (two breweries and two distilleries) all drive in from elsewhere.
There does seem to be some new development in the immediate area of the station and some subtle conversion work going on in a couple of the warehouses, so maybe there is hope.
I like the place, but then I like all gritty historic places, I was brought up in one.
It was that historic element that drew us to the riverfront to use up some of our available downtime.
The Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park sits right on the river in downtown Pawtucket just a few short hilly blocks from the station, the brewery and the hotel.
It, and the on-site Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark (birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution), have been listed as “temporarily closed” on Google Maps for a long time (seasonal? Small-g Governmental?), but I was hoping that we could still visit and walk alongside the river and between the old industrial buildings without having to deal with fences or the authorities.
Come to think of it, it was also closed when I last visited many years ago.
Oh well.
It is a cool place to visit anyway, if you are in the area that is.
We did get easy access to all of the outside areas, and there were plenty of informational signs to read and keep us occupied for about an hour.
Which was coincidently just enough time before the brewery opened again for the day.
The weather held out but it was threatening to rain at some point in the afternoon, so we wandered back up the hill and back over to the Guild, to park ourselves in the taproom for over three hours, carefully nursing a couple of low-abv beers and an even lower-abv hard soda, as a palate cleanser.
There were three separate 30th birthday parties going on behind us, complete with kids and dogs, all arriving by car again, but the friendly crew behind the bar were happy to let us two old fogies occupy a couple of barstools and chat quietly while our beers laughed at us.
But by 3:30 we were ready to settle up and head back out the rear door to the Barn again.
Ding ding!
Round two!
It was always going to be a relative short session as we were keeping an eye on the clock, the weather, and the bus.
So we stayed within the eight beer boundary and paced ourselves for two hours.
I sort of had a plan this time around.
Which was to focus on sampling all of the remaining beers from the Rhode Island breweries, only veering into Massachusetts to catch up on some old friends, Harpoon (Boston MA) and Cambridge Brewing (in the guise of Castle Island Brewery, Norwood MA).
After which, we said our thankyous and goodbyes to all of the working crew and quietly slipped out into the damp evening, to walk a couple of short blocks to the bus stop.
And I am happy to say that the return journey was completely uneventful; transportation arrived at the appointed time, connections were made without drama, and we even arrived back at Penn Station when we expected, that is to say, very late.
Of course NYC was as lively as expected, above ground and underground, even at midnight and beyond.
It was a good roadtrip (railtrip?) and I suspect that I may have convinced my mate to tag along to more of the many events coming up in the next few months.
So, if you are planning on attending any of the events below, come and say hi to my wing man.
Scorecard w/e 01/13/26
In the past week the Cask Whisperer has enjoyed the following casks, all at the 2nd Annual RIF-RAF Real Ale Festival @ The Guild, Pawtucket RI:
Brew | Brewed by | Style |
Robot Crush | Aeronaut Brewing | American Pilsner |
West Coast Bobby | Angle Tree Brewery | West Coast IPA |
Old Ironsides | Backbeat Brewing | Black IPA |
Screaming in the Woods Vol 3 | Buttonwoods Brewery | Pub Ale: Oysters/Tarragon |
Cambridge Amber | Castle Island Brewery | Amber Ale |
Hardline Kolsch | Devils Purse Brewing | Kolsch |
Hoppy Guildmore | Guild Brewing Company | American Pale Ale (APA) |
Jam Sesh | Guild Brewing Company | Berliner Weiss: Mixed Berry |
Low Ryeder | Guild Brewing Company | Rye Porter |
Low Ryeder: Chinook | Guild Brewing Company | Rye Porter: Chinook |
Watchusett Country Ale | Harpoon | Amber Ale |
Lagered Hedonism Czech Pale Lager | Moniker Brewery | Czech Pale Lager |
Lagered Hedonism Czech Amber Lager | Moniker Brewery | Czech Amber Lager |
Almost Friday | Origin Beer Project | Helles |
Bryter Pilsner | Pivotal Brewing | Oak-conditioned Pilsner |
Fade to White | Proclamation Brewery | Witbier |
Friendly Favor | Ragged Island Brewery | Robust Porter |
West Coast Lawn Boy | Tilted Barn Brewery | Hoppy Lager |
NZ Pils | Tower Hill Brewing Company | American Pilsner |
Winter Ale | Tower Hill Brewing Company | Spiced Winter Ale |
Ruckus! | True West Brewing | New England IPA |
Upcoming Cask Events (Festivals and Otherwise)
- 2/7/26: Strong Rope 10th Anniversary/Caskiversary @ Strong Rope in Red Hook
- 3/20/26: Two Roads 2026 Cask Fest @ Two Roads Brewing, Stratford CT
- 3/22/26: An Afternoon of Casks V @ Nod Hill Brewery, Ridgefield CT
- 3/25/26-3/28/26: 2026 edition of NERAX. Tickets now available.
- 5/23/26: NYS Brit Festival @ Seneca Lake Brewing Company, Rock Stream NY
Upcoming Random NYC Casks
- Nothing on my radar yet.
NYC Cask Venues
Known Operational/Active Beer Engines
- Jones Wood Foundry (x2)
- Fifth Hammer
- Wild East
- The Shakespeare (x3)
- Drop-off Service
- Rough Draft
Occasional Pins (worth a follow on Instagram)
- Strong Rope
- KCBC
- Tørst
- Blind Tiger Ale House
- Threes Brewing
- Brouwerij Lane (First Friday Firkins)
- The Owl Farm
- City Swiggers
Cask Venues Reachable from NYC by MTA or NJ Transit Train in Under two Hours
Metro-North Hudson Line
- Draught Industries, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
- Coopers, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
- Happy Valley Arcade Bar, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
Metro-North Harlem Line
- The Ambleside Pub, Mt. Kisco NY (four handpumps, Old Glenham beer range).
Metro-North New Haven Line
- Marlowe Artisanal Ales, Mamaroneck NY (one handpump, Marlowe beer range).
- Nod Hill Brewing, Ridgefield CT (two handpumps, Nod Hill beer range).
NJ Transit NJCL Line
- Triumph Restaurant and Brewery, Red Bank NJ (one handpump, Triumph beer range).
- Little Dog Brewing, Bradley Beach NJ (one handpump, Little Dog beer range).
