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Author Topic: Rock Bottom firkin servings  (Read 1855 times)

Offline ynotbrusum

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Rock Bottom firkin servings
« on: March 30, 2014, 06:30:19 am »
My wife and I met another couple at Rock Bottom Brewing yesterday and they had 2 "firkins" on beer engines, so I ordered an oatmeal stout to see how it tasted.  It came very carbonated with nitro-like creamy foam, so I had to ask the server about it.  She said that she couldn't lie to me - it was just a warm keg sitting beneath the bar being served on nitro.  After having a nice cask pour the night before at a really impressive bar, this left me quite disappointed.  I have to say, though, that the regular nitro poured oatmeal stout was good. Just wondering why they would pass off a warm keg served with nitro through a beer engine as coming from a firkin ....anybody who knows enough to order a cask ale would immediately know that this is not that.
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Rock Bottom firkin servings
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2014, 08:47:02 am »
My wife and I met another couple at Rock Bottom Brewing yesterday and they had 2 "firkins" on beer engines, so I ordered an oatmeal stout to see how it tasted.  It came very carbonated with nitro-like creamy foam, so I had to ask the server about it.  She said that she couldn't lie to me - it was just a warm keg sitting beneath the bar being served on nitro.  After having a nice cask pour the night before at a really impressive bar, this left me quite disappointed.  I have to say, though, that the regular nitro poured oatmeal stout was good. Just wondering why they would pass off a warm keg served with nitro through a beer engine as coming from a firkin ....anybody who knows enough to order a cask ale would immediately know that this is not that.

That's pretty lame. There are enough craft beer drinkers around now that it's (sort of) surprising that somebody would do that. I'm pretty sure 'pretty carbonated' doesn't come out of most firkins. Reminds me of the first and only trip I made to the BJs Brewhouse in Indy. I tried the sampler flight and found every beer watery and bland for style. They even had a 'RIS' of ~ 1.050 that seemed pretty insulting. Then I looked through a small window into what looked like a decorative case with 2 small conicals inside, obviously there for display. So I asked the bartender if they actually made beer there - he said no, that they make it in Reno and truck it up there. To the novice the conicals looked like their 'brewery room'. I was pissed. And their beer sucks.
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Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Rock Bottom firkin servings
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2014, 09:00:33 am »
My guess is that they wouldn't serve enough cask beer to burn through firkins faster than they could spoil and even if they actually served cask beer it would probably turn off many people who are unfamiliar with the idea that warm and flat beer might be something you could prefer to drink. That, in turn, would improve the probability that the casks go bad before they go empty.

I do not believe "firkin" has a particular meaning ascribed to it under any law that would prohibit Rock Bottom from calling something a firkin that isn't. It is lame as heck though.
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Offline ranchovillabrew

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Re: Rock Bottom firkin servings
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2014, 09:19:18 am »
The rock bottom I go to regularly has a beer on cask. It is a popular option and is a properly tended cask. The corporate recipes are decent but the one offs are usually very good.

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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Rock Bottom firkin servings
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2014, 01:24:12 am »
I do not believe "firkin" has a particular meaning ascribed to it under any law that would prohibit Rock Bottom from calling something a firkin that isn't. It is lame as heck though.
Not by law enforceable in the US that I know of, but a firkin is a 1/4 English bbl.  Like a quart is 1/4 gallon. If they are serving it out of a keg that size then they are right, it is technically a firkin ale.  But yeah, that's lame.
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Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Rock Bottom firkin servings
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2014, 01:36:28 am »
I might be wrong but seems like I've heard people complaining about the firkin cops before.