Cask Ale - Bright Beer

Bright Beer

Cask ale has finings added which drag the yeast to the bottom; when the finings have cleared the beer it is said to have "dropped bright" and the beer will look clear rather than cloudy. However, if a beer has been filtered, or has been cleared of yeast by using finings, and then "racked"—transferred to another container—this is "bright" or re-racked beer. Bright beer is essentially unpasteurised beer that has been cleared of yeast and placed in a different container. It no longer sits on the yeast. As such, strictly speaking, it is not real ale because it cannot continue to ferment in the container in which it now finds itself. A more useful definition would recognise that, since bright racking and drinking quickly is technically no different to filling up a glass from the original cask, the important elements of real ale are the secondary fermentation, that it is free from extraneous carbon dioxide, unfiltered, not lagered, etc. Putting beer into another container before your glass for ease of quick use does not change any of this.