Why is this beer not coming from a cask?
We sell beer in casks to many customers but for some venues there simply isn’t enough demand for cask beer, so it ends up spoiled and down the drain. That's why we offer our beer in keg but set up to be served via a traditional handpull. Traditional cask beer is important to us, both as a brewery and as drinkers, but cask beer needs a quick turnover and in these brutally tough times for the hospitality industry that simply can't always be guaranteed. This method gives them and their customers more choice.
How is it different?
This is the important bit: it's the exact same unfiltered, unpasteurised live beer we put into our casks, made in small batches from our independent brewery in Leith. It's exactly the same liquid as in our casks, it's not dispensed via gas pressure. The difference is that as a keg is a sealed container it allows us to blanket the beer with sterile inert gas (generally CO2 or CO2/N2 mix) as the keg empties - keeping beer-spoiling oxygen and bacteria out and allowing the venue to pour beer in a traditional style for longer. By adding an aspirator into the set up, we ensure CO2 is released and not absorbed into the beer, a solution approved by CAMRA. Above all else, it’s important to us at Pilot that our beer reaches your glass in the best condition possible.
