Draught beer - Definition and Overview

Draught beer (also called draft beer or tap beer) is beer that has been served from, or has been conditioned in, a cask.

Recently, the term has been used misleadingly on canned or bottled beers to imply that these taste like those that have come from a cask. Draught beer is usually unpasteurised and therefore suffers no loss of taste due to boiling. It should be consumed after being "tapped", and is generally truer to the flavors of the ingredients as pasteurisation exposes the beer to heat and changes the flavor profile. Draught beer should be kept refrigerated between 2°C (35°F) and 4°C (40°F). Above 6°C (44°F), a beer may become wild, turn sour & cloudy in a day or two. Below 6°C (44°F), a keg of draft beer should last 20-30 days before it loses its fresh brewery taste and aroma.

Draught also denotes the pumping of carbon dioxide into the beer keg. Some types of canned draught beer use widgets to introduce nitrogen gas, simulating the head of a true draught.