Whenever you are drinking from a firkin or a pin you are consuming what is called "real ale" or "cask ale".  This style of beer traditionally came out of England and was served out of wooden barrels and casks.  A real ale is the same as regular beer in many ways such as using the same main ingredients including yeast, barley, hops and water.  After fermentation is gets a little bit tricky.  Beer is transferred into a firkin or pin with just the right amount of yeast still in suspension.  Not too much to make it cloudy and yeasty; but just enough to impart a light amount of natural carbonation.  These days American craft brewers can use real ale to showcase special ingreients such as hops, spices, sugars, ect.

This week check out our Doc's Pale ale which will be served from a pin in the real ale fashion.  This already hoppy ale is aged in the pin for 3 weeks with columbus hops and orange peel to impart some spicy, floral goodness.