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CASK ALE WHISPERER

Blog by Nigel Walsh

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Another Afternoon of Casks (and Oysters)

I missed two cask events last weekend, both evening sessions; at Two Roads in Stratford CT, and at River Horse in Ewing NJ.

I am sure that they were very interesting events with similar themes; i.e. how a regional production brewery can take a handful of their core range beers, dress them up with various edible and colorful adjuncts, to produce 15-20 unique casks.

I have attended three of the past cask events at Two Roads, and had a lot of fun at all of them.

I would have loved to attend at least one of last week’s events, but was occupied at home by a big beautiful four-footed guest that we were watching over for a couple of nights.

But come Sunday morning, the big feller got a couple of walks from me and was left with my wife to attend to, while I headed to Grand Central to meet up with my wingman Alistair, one of my oldest and dearest friends.

Our destination for the afternoon was Nod Hill Brewery in Ridgefield (well, Branchville) Connecticut, and their Afternoon of Casks V.

I have attended all of their prior cask festivals (I-IV) and had no intention in missing this one.

I would consider this to be one of my favorite cask events, alongside Caskiversary and NERAX, which also happens to be coming up this week. Yay!

It has got everything that is good about cask festivals:

This may have been the best one yet.

It was good to introduce my old mate to Nod Hill Brewery, and venture into deepest Connecticut with him for probably the first time since we both moved from Westport to NYC way back in the early eighties.

He seemed to have a great time chewing the ears off of the locals, as did I.

The beers were all beautifully brewed, conditioned and dispensed, whether by gravity from a pin or stichfaß, or hand drawn through a beer engine.

As at the last couple of Nod Hill cask festivals, there was close to a 50/50 split in pins and stichfaß, with all manner of lagers served from the latter.

Overall, there were thirty beers from fifteen different breweries, all from Connecticut.

I managed seventeen samples this time around, over the three and a half hours that we were there; we had to leave a little before the official finish to make sure that we caught our designated train back home.

Whereas in the past I may have gone for smaller samples of many more beers, this time I took it easy and basically got larger pours of the beers that most interested me; there were still a lot of beers that interested me.

If I had to name favorites, the following would be my top five, in no particular order:

  • The sweet and boozy Gorgoth Whiskey Blend Barleywine from OEC; a heavy hitter at 16.6%. I made sure to start with this, so that any brews that followed would dilute it (seemed reasonable to me at the time).
  • The iconic Fuzzy Baby Ducks from New England Brewing Company; I hadn’t seen the Ducks around for a couple of years and was starting to get concerned. Brilliant as usual, my favorite New England style hazy IPA.
  • Sive, a Foreign Export Stout; not a style that you see often, but beautifully executed as is to be expected from Fox Farm. Full bodied, roasty and bitter with hints of licorice, hitting well above its 5.8%. A beer drinker’s beer.
  • Young Freckled Rooster, an Old Speckled Hen tribute from Newsylum Brewing; a lovely beer, from its clear golden body to its foamy white head to its bready bitterness. Dispensed via handpump, it would have been my favorite brew but for …
  • Peace Pipe, a 3.7% Grodziskie smoked wheat ale from Dead Language Project of Hartford. This is not the first time that I have rated one of their beers as Best in Show, they seem to have a fine touch when it comes to brewing some of the more obscure Eastern European beers. It proved to be the perfect antidote to the OEC barleywine.

Honorable mentions?

Every other brew that I sampled.

All were very satisfying.

Hey, there was even a Kviek!

What a great day out; Alistair survived the beers, my missus survived the dog, the dog survived my wife, they all survived Mr. Bagel.

I can’t wait for the Afternoon of Casks VI.

But I do have four sessions of NERAX coming up this week.

This is a good time of the year for cask events.

Even if I have to personally miss a few.

Scorecard w/e 03/24/26

In the past week the Cask Whisperer has enjoyed the following casks, all at the Fifth Annual Afternoon of Casks at Nod Hill Brewery, Ridgefield CT:

Brew

Brewed by

Style

Dortmunder

Counter Weight Brewing Co.

Dortmunder Export

Brightwave

Counter Weight Brewing Co.

West Coast IPA

Pilsner

East Rock Brewing

German Pilsner

Summer Wheat

East Rock Brewing

American Wheat

Dapple

OEC Brewing

Dark Mild

Gorgoth Whiskey Blend

OEC Brewing

Barrel Aged Barleywine

Jade

New Park Brewing

American Wheat

Fuzzy Baby Ducks: Dolcita & Citra

New England Brewing Company

NEIPA

Barmy

Fox Farm Brewery

Burton Ale

Sive

Fox Farm Brewery

Foreign Export Stout: Irish Cream & Coffee

Voss: Nelson Sauvin

Woodbury Brewing

Kveik IPA

Young Freckled Rooster

Newsylum Brewing

Best Bitter

Where’s the Gold At?

Nod Hill

Maibock

Rabbit’s Foot

Nod Hill

West Coast IPA

Gemma

Vue Brewing

Vienna Lager

Sterk

Vue Brewing

Milk Stout: Raspberry Vanilla

Peace Pipe

Dead Language Beer Project

Grodziskie

 

Upcoming Cask Events (Festivals and Otherwise)

Upcoming Random NYC Casks

  • 5/16/26: Das Bock returns to Plattduetsche Biergarten. Again, no promises of a cask but there were several stichfaß and a surprise cask at last year’s festivities.

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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