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CASK ALE WHISPERER

Blog by Nigel Walsh

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Not Talking ‘bout the Weather; Talking ‘bout 2025

I was getting all prepped to make this week’s posting about the recent damp, chilly and generally dreich weather outside in NYC.

I even had some inappropriate and ill-advised quips about Greenland to throw into the (wintry) mix.

Fortunately for all of us, I got a call from Jason as I was strolling through Central Park yesterday, on my way to Myers to pick up a haggis pie or two (don’t ask), all bundled up to resist the frosty and crispy conditions (which I am not going to talk about).

He was looking for some 2025 cask-related stats for the JWF newsletter.

100 words or less.

Deliver by tomorrow if possible.

Sure I said, I can do that.

So much later, once I got home, having taken a detour from the West Village into Gowanus and back, for a pint or two at Wild East …

… I sat myself down to re-read and summarize all fifty-one (a 2025 cask-related stat) of my wacky posted tales from last year.

And after chopping the resulting mess down to 99 words and numbers, I had a whole bunch of stuff left over.

So here we are.

Attempting to expand a little on those 99 words and numbers.

Some 2025 NYC Cask Statistics

Cask outlets: 6 (2 breweries and 4 bars)

We still have just six cask outlets in the city, which is worse than Philadelphia but way better than our other large neighbors, such as Boston, Baltimore and DC.

Those six outlets are not the same ones that we started with at the end of 2024.

Outlets lost: 2 (Beer Witch, Cask Bar & Kitchen)

We lost a long-term cask venue with the closing of Cask Bar & Kitchen in the second half of 2025.

It is always sad to lose a cask-friendly bar, but I got the feeling that for a long time they were just going through the motions with their beer engine; sure, there was almost always something on the handpump, but the staff did not appear to be trained in its promotion or operation.

It was always an effort to get the barstaff to actually tell you what they were pouring and what you were drinking.

Beer Witch in (or adjacent to) Park Slope in Brooklyn was a strange beast.

Their handpump arrived without fanfare, but over the course of just a few weeks it served some interesting cask ales, including Moor Bitter from Bristol in the UK and another old UK favorite Bluebird Bitter from Coniston Brewery.

Unfortunately Beer Witch closed barely two months after we noticed it was there.

Outlets gained: 2 (Beer Witch, Rough Draft)

Poor Beer Witch, it was an interesting place while it existed.

Rough Draft came out of nowhere at the end of last year, or rather, it appeared in the relative beer desert of Hamilton Heights in way northwest Harlem.

Considering itself to be a whisky bar and a literary bar, it also dabbles in cocktails and craft beer, and most importantly, it arrived on the scene with a handpump and a cask ale from Wild East Brewing.

It has continued to supply that handpump with beers from local and more distant producers over the past several weeks, and equally if not more important, it has continued to exhaust that handpump due to neighborhood enthusiasm for the product, with occasional visits from NYC cask explorers such as myself.

I have visited four times already, most recently last week when I got to enjoy several impeccable pints of Strong Rope’s Renewal cream ale.

Long may it live, long may it prosper.

Producers gained: 1 (Eckhart)

Eckhart arrived with cans and travelling stichfaß which appeared at bars, beer stores, and beer events/festivals all over the city and its environs, all while they were building out their impressive taproom at their lager brewery in Bushwick.

While not cask ales in the British tradition, they certainly share the same characteristics of soft gentle carbonation and enhanced flavor profiles.

And they are traditional; it happens to be German tradition, but that is just fine with me.

Their tapping is just as theatrical and celebrational as pins and firkins.

The best thing is that Eckhart has made the stichfaß a regular recurring feature at their state of the art brewery/taproom, finding reasons to tap them onsite at frequent intervals.

And yes, they continue to pop up all over the city as well.

Cask festivals: 4 (Strong Rope, Fifth Hammer, Kills Boro, JWF)

Strong Rope continues to mark its anniversaries with a cask festival (Caskiversary), and Fifth Hammer continues to stage its own Caskalot festival (sometimes festivals) on a more random basis, both featuring cask ales from other NYC breweries.

We also had two new events in NYC last year.

Kills Boro Brewing held a special Oktoberfest event at their taproom in Snug Harbor on Staten Island featuring five stichfaß from themselves and four other NYC breweries.

I am really hoping that they do it again, as it was an absolute riot.

And then closer to home, Jones Wood Foundry held their first ever cask ale event at the pub, with several local brewery firkins and a stichfaß in the garden, and two Old Glenham beers on handpump at the bar.

Yep Jason, that needs to be repeated as well.

So four events all told, each in a different borough of NYC.

We need to wake up The Bronx.

Other cask events/popups: 60

Way too many to mention individually, but Brouwerij Lane continued to provide a monthly First Friday Firkin during the colder months at the beginning and end of the year, and Torst and Owl Farm managed to find reasons to put a cask on their bars many times throughout the year.

Casks turned up at Oktoberfests and Blocktoberfests, at NYC Beer Week Opening Bash and even at Das Bock!

And at beer stores all over the city both Eckhart and Strong Rope brought out their casks, and introduced me to many new neighborhoods and beer outlets.

As for the out-of-towners, Sierra Nevada brought back their Celebration Ale to several outlets after harvest time, Wayward Lane ales started popping up around the city, and even Schilling stichfaß made a couple of appearances.

Some 2025 Regional Statistics

Cask festivals: 15

Another bumper year for cask ale festivals in the Northeast Region:

  • The three mainstay events in Connecticut (at Nod Hill Brewery, Two Roads Brewing, and the Noah Webster House), all returned for another year.
  • Cask-on returned to Cask & Vine in Derry, New Hampshire. I didn’t manage to get to that one as it conflicted with the Nod Hill event.
  • Denizens Brewery in Silver Spring, Maryland held their annual cask ale festival, which I also missed.
  • Po’boy Brewing of Port Jefferson Station, New York picked up the Annual Cask Ales FUNdraiser on Long Island after the loss of The Brewers Collective at the end of 2024. I also discovered a beer engine at their brewery, which is apparently in operation during the colder months.
  • The Blue Point Cask Ale Festival returned for its remarkable 21st episode in Patchogue, New York.
  • Up in the Finger Lakes, Seneca Lake Brewing continued to hold the NYS British Real Festival at The Beerocracy in Rock Stream, New York.
  • Delaware Supply in Albany, New York held a mini-cask festival with beers from the Suarez Family Brewery.
  • The New England Real Ale Exhibition (NERAX) returned for a 26th time at the South Boston Lithuanian Club in Boston, Massachusetts, with the Cask Whisperer returning for a third time to the event; I am already booked for this year as well.
  • River Horse & DuClaw Brewing of Ewing, New Jersey held their annual specialty cask festival.
  • Also in New Jersey, Odd Bird Brewing of Stockton held at least two small cask events that I noticed, but did not get to attend last year.
  • I did get down to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the 2025 edition of the Yards Brewing Real Ale Invitational.
  • And finally we had a new event RIF-RAF held at the Guild Brewery in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I was not able to attend in 2025 but managed to get there for the 2026 re-run just last week.

There may have been more, but I did not spot them.

Other events featuring casks: 3

  • Human Robot held their Logjammin’ Lager Fest V in Philladelphia, Pennsylvania and again, I did not get to attend, so I cannot be sure that there were actually any casks, but there were a couple of names on the list of brewers (plus Human Robot themselves) who like to wheel out a stichfaß for these kinds of celebrations.
  • There were two events that I did get to in New Jersey, the anniversary celebration at Little Dog Brewing in Neptune City, and the River Horse & DuClaw Oktoberfest in Ewing, that both featured cask ales as part of their lineups.

Some 2025 Cask Whisperer Highlights

It was another prodigious if not necessarily proficient year, with fifty one postings to this blog in 2025 (135 in total).

I really don’t know how I come up with this stuff every week.

I hit the rails more last year, with several speculative trips into New Jersey, following up on rumors of cask sightings in Neptune, South Orange and Red Bank.

You can expect more of these exploratory excursions in 2026.

And finally, I did a lot of walking to many obscure corners of this city.

In all kinds of weather conditions.

Which we will not talk about here.

Scorecard w/e 01/20/26

In the past week the Cask Whisperer has enjoyed the following casks:

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

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).
ASK NIGEL

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