AVONDALE — The Beer Temple wants to become the rare Chicago institution outside of the Bulls to clinch a three-peat this weekend when it challenges breweries in Pennsylvania and Seattle to see who can pour more pints of one of the world’s most esoteric styles.

The Mild Masters Invitational, which runs Friday-Sunday, will pit the decorated craft beer bar and bottle shop at 3173 N. Elston Ave. in a three-way tilt devoted to English mild ale, a smooth, toasty and very light ale hand-pumped from a cask engine.

“We’re big fans of a style that … well, it doesn’t exactly set the world on fire. It’s not the coolest of styles, but we really like it and we thought the idea of a ‘March Mildness’ was particularly funny,” said Beer Temple owner Chris Quinn.

For two years, Quinn’s bar has spent the third weekend of March going head-to-head with Pennsylvania-based Forest & Main. Founded near Quinn’s native Philadelphia, the brewery makes one of his favorite expressions of what he describes as an amber-colored quaff as full in flavor as it is light in alcohol (typically less than 4 percent ABV).

All weekend, a real-time scoreboard will keep tabs on pints served at each location. Beer Temple customers can also collect stamps on a “Mild Masters” card similar to a sub shop loyalty program: Order 10 mild ales Friday-Sunday and get half-off all pours of the style at The Beer Temple the rest of the year.

Credit: Provided

To win the first two years, Quinn’s bar sold 440 pints during the inaugural showdown in 2024 and fell just short of 500 when it won again last year. The trophy: The Golden Sparkler, a small replica of a plastic fitting used in some cask engines to impart a thick cap of foam.

“As ridiculous of an event this is, it is only fitting to have this be the trophy,” said Quinn, who noted that, crucially, the Golden Sparkler can be drank out of a-la the Stanley Cup. “Mild is an obscure style, serving something on cask is obscure and mild on cask is as obscure as it gets.”

The vast majority of draft beer served in the United States is pasteurized and comes out of a keg cold and fizzy. Cask-conditioned beer, a British speciality historically called “real ale,” is instead allowed to continue fermenting in its vessel. It’s served at “cellar temperature,” similar to how a glass of white wine might be, Quinn said.

Writing for the Oxford Companion to Beer in 2012, the English beer writer Barrie Pepper declared that, when served properly, cask-conditioned beer “can be among the most subtle and beguiling of beer types.” Its natural carbonation crackles on the palate, and it should never be “warm and flat,” Quinn said.

The Beer Temple has offered cask-conditioned beer since its taproom opened about nine years ago. Bartenders use a hand-operated hydraulic pump to draw the beer from casks stored in the basement. The bar has 21 beers on tap, and Quinn said its rotating cask selections have been among the top-three lines for years now. The Beer Temple plans to install a second cask line soon, he said.

“I think people are coming around to the idea that there are other styles that are more drinkable, and when you have something from a cask there really is an experiential component to it because you … cannot drink cask beer at your house,” Quinn said.

This weekend, Forest & Main’s English mild ale will be poured at the Beer Temple, at least at first, Quinn said. He’s also stocked casks of mild ales from area breweries such as Revolution, Art History and Phase Three to fill out a rotation. Casks of Forest & Main’s mild ran dry both years, prompting frantic search for replacements locally.

“Trying to find a keg of beer is one thing; trying to find a cask of mild is unimaginable,” Quinn said.

Chicagoans hoping to help The Beer Temple conquer this year’s Mild Masters Invitational will need to bring it — plus an extra companion or two. The first two head-to-heads have been with Forest & Main’s original brewpub, which is in a borough outside of Philadelphia with a population of just 6,800. Now that the brewery has added an outpost in the city, Quinn figured it’d be only fair to count milds poured at both locations.

And when Quinn learned that Forest & Main’s own English mild showcase was inspired by a longer-running one at Seattle’s Machine House Brewery, he extended them same invitation he sent eastward two years ago.

“I basically challenged them to a duel,” he said. “Come on and get your butt kicked if you dare.”

Their response proves that the yearning for English mild supremacy knows no borders.

Credit: Provided

In one post rallying its own faithful, Machine House wrote, “I know we just won the Superbowl but really Seattle’s reputation is literally on the line now.” The former owner of a now-closed beloved Seattle beer bar is traveling from Arizona to spend the weekend working guest bartending shifts.

“Whoever is pulling pints this weekend will have to make sure they’re working out ahead of time,” Quinn said.

For his part, Quinn has been sounding the alarm on social media, posting an “emergency broadcast” on Instagram last week.

“They’re coming for it,” he warned, holding the Golden Sparkler aloft. “We need you.”

Despite the less-than-mild talk among competitors, Quinn described a “friendly rivalry” and a shared enthusiasm “for a really cool style of beer that probably a bunch of people haven’t ever heard of before.”

“That’s kind of the real reason for it, to have a celebration around a style that’s worthy of celebrating,” he said.

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