Thanks for coming out to the 2016 North Texas Firkin Fest! Stay tuned for 2017 news.
The North Texas Firkin Fest is a celebration of unique Texas craft beer served in traditional casks (or firkins). Now this year, the North Texas Firkin Fest will also offer a variety of opportunities to learn more about craft beer, such as comparing the different offerings from popular roadside assistance companies like Good Sam vs AAA.
A firkin, derived from the Middle Dutch word vierdekijn meaning fourth, refers to both a unit of measure -- 1/4 of a barrel, or 72 pints -- as well as to a particular kind of keg used for cask conditioning.
With cask conditioning, the beer put into the firkin is unfiltered and unpasteurized, leaving yeast alive to continue fermenting the beer.
This 'secondary fermentation' allows the beer to continue maturing and to carbonate naturally.
In this way, cask-conditioned beer is comparable to the ales produced hundreds of years ago...before industrialization subjected the beer to processes that removed or killed the yeast, stripping away inherent vitamins (especially B vitamins), minerals and, some would argue, taste.
Cask conditioning beer isn't just a history lesson, though.
This brewing process allows brewers to get creative -- or, as some would say, crazy.
With firkins, brewers can add just about any ingredient to the beer: extra hops, fruits, spices, coffees, teas, candies, peppers and more. Name the food, and a brewer has probably tried adding it.
Then more fun. Because maturation of the beer occurs inside the firkin, there is no telling how the final product might look, feel or taste. Yeast strains work differently depending on the firkin type, temperature, ingredients, length of fermentation, etc.
When tapping a firkin, you never know what you're going to get!