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Whenever I'm out in a bar I always see bottles of ale or ale on a pump but I have never seen a bar that serves ale from a regular tap why is this ?

Why serve ale from a Pull Pump, instead of a Beer Tap?

Is there a reason for this?

Jamie Eltringham
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    I suspect where you live might be a major factor in the sort of beer taps you see. In Southwestern Ontario, for example, I see mostly pressure taps, but in England a Real Ale must, by definition, be pumped. The main difference is that Real Ale is naturally carbonated, while other styles allow artificial supplementary carbonation. – Darwin von Corax May 19 '16 at 20:13
  • @DarwinvonCorax yea i'm from England Thanks for the information lets see if anybody has any more information to add or if you want to add a answer – Jamie Eltringham May 20 '16 at 06:59
  • You should be able to find many pressure taps in England. With the popularity of American and European lagers there (Heineken, Budweiser, etc), they would be not be served from a hand pump. Guinness is served on a nitrogen mix from a pressure tap. Even many English beers are not Real Ale. Try some different pubs. – jalynn2 May 20 '16 at 20:37
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    Jamie, sorry for the off-topic comment here (please feel free to flag as obsolete once you've seen it), but I wanted to make you aware of this meta post that will be of interest to you. – Monica Cellio May 22 '16 at 19:17

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Collating Darwin and jalynn's answers and some experience running a real ale bar:

In the UK, real ales will always be served from a hand pump, as per the definition from CAMRA:

Real ale is a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops water and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide.

But you will always see Carlsberg, Budweiser, Heineken, Guinness, Stella etc pumped using CO2.

If you haven't seen them, it must be down to the pubs you frequent :-)

Rory Alsop
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