Casks

As you may have read *ahem* :mrgreen:

This week I recieved a 4.5 gallon pin of Valliant from Batemans Brewery, Lincs.

This was delivered to me by one of my engineers yesterday, he collected it at 10am just after they racked it from primary to their other pub bound casks.

I was told that when i recieved it I should peg it with a soft peg for 24hrs (whilst it's fretting) then hard peg it, which I have done. The plan is to leave it in the fridge at 12 degrees for 10 days or so then move it to the serving/cellar fridge for 24 hrs then tap and serve.

Anyone with cellar experience that can offer other advice or tell me if I have it wrong.

Cheers, Wez.

I have only recently tapped my first cask so I'm not qualified to give you any advice other than to buy this book.

/Phil.

How are you finding it, i'd be interested to know the stages from FV to serving :)

Try these Wez they pretty much sum it all up!

Here's the first link

Craftbrewer site

Some unrelated beer stuff for your enjoyment

Thanks BZ thats tomorrows browsing sorted

No probs Wez!

Wez said:

How are you finding it, i'd be interested to know the stages from FV to serving :)

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It was actually a great success. I brewed a 1.042 beer as normal and waited until it was completely fermented out. Then I racked it to the cask leaving a small amount of head space for priming and fining.

I think some breweries will stop the fermentation a few points above expected FG and then rack. The rest of the fermentation happens in the cask so no priming is required. I didn't do this as I have a real problem with diacetyl being formed by racking too early.

So, I then primed with 80g of white sugar (in 4.5 gallons of beer) which I prepared by disolving in water in which I also disolved a sachet of gelatine for fining. by adding the fining and priming sugar the level in the cask came up to just about the bottom of the shive bush.

I forgot to add my dry hops at this point then hammered the shive in and left for a week or maybe two at garage temperature.

At that point I drove in the tut which released a lot of gas. Then I put in a soft spile for a day or so before tapping the cask and replacing the spile with a hard one. Now because I didn't cool it to cellar temps I lost almost all carbonation but the beer was very good and was typical of that which you get in pubs that use a stillage at the back of the bar.

Next time I'll try and keep the temperature down with ice and wet towels.

The books will tell you that you need to use the beer in 2 or 3 days before it goes off due to oxygen enterring the cask. I found that by removing the hard pile, pouring a pint and then replacing the spile the beer only started to show signs of oxidising by day 7. As I was off work at the time though I did manage to drink all 4.5 gallons in those 7 days and didn't waste any

Hope this helps.

/Phil.

I reckon a cask breater is all but essential for barrel use at home.
I have one sat gathering dust that will be put into use with a corny....when I brew something to go in the corny
I'll let you know what I think.

Vossy1 said:

I reckon a cask breater is all but essential for barrel use at home.
I have one sat gathering dust that will be put into use with a corny....when I brew something to go in the corny
I'll let you know what I think.

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I wouldn't necessarily say it was "all but essential". By ensuring the hard spile is replaced after pouring I managed to get 7 days out of my pin. You just need to learn to drink faster :lol:

Keep in mind that to use one on a cask you need the special spile adapter thing.

Also, I have used a cask breather on a corny and am undecided on how good it was. It really didn't extend the life of the beer by that much. Maybe a couple of weeks longer than without it. The problem was that without a reasonable pressure in the corny the lid doesn't seal effectively (I have some kegs that do but most of mine don't). This means that although CO2 is pulled into the keg when you pull a pint, the beer's still open to the air, albeit with a layer of CO2 on it.

Of course, it's better than drawing in air but unless the lid can be sealed the beer will still spoil eventually.

/Phil.

I wouldn't necessarily say it was "all but essential". By ensuring the hard spile is replaced after pouring I managed to get 7 days out of my pin. You just need to learn to drink faster

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I realised that the o-ring may be an issue, and have a bag of super soft red lid seals from Can Direct.
I tried the red super soft o-rings for the dip tubes and corny posts, but found them too soft for repeated use (they frayed).

However, the lid o-rings usually only get taken off and put on once or twice at most, and I havent had a leaking keg since moving over to them....well worth a go

After reading this thread I've volunteered to help set up the town beer festival. Come mid September I should have at least some experience of tapping and spiling (sp?) a cask to report back on.

I'll see if I can sneak my camera in too

You'll get a whole heap of great info there. Well done JP. :clap: :clap: :clap:

Right, my cask :pray:

I've followed the instructions sent from the head brewer

As it had been transported 140 miles on a warm day in the boot of a car :whistle: tap a soft peg into it for 24hrs then replace this with a hard peg (done that) but there is some pressure building up and some foam appearing around the peg. I've wiggled the peg loose and vented it and tapped it back in (twice now) - is this normal

He also told me to move it to serving position 24hrs before serving, do you go along with that

Hoping to tap it this weekend

:

Wez said:

I've wiggled the peg loose and vented it and tapped it back in (twice now) - is this normal

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Yes quite normal. So long as the temperature is right it'll keep venting until it has the right amount of gas in the beer.

Wez said:

He also told me to move it to serving position 24hrs before serving, do you go along with that

Click to expand...

Again, yes this will allow the finings to do their thing and the **** to settle out.

/Phil.

Re: Temperature

It's doesn't fit in the fridge :? so it's in the garage, at about 17 or 18 degrees :whistle:

Please tell me that it'll be reet!

Also, do i have to wait for it to stop venting?

You'll be OK with 17C or so but you'll lose condition quickly. So drink up :drink:

You don't need to wait for it to stop venting before you drink it so long as it's pouring clear. Bear in mind that if you leave the hard spile in and too much pressure builds up, the moment you open the tap you run the risk of dragging up some of the lees into the beer. You want to wiggle the spile out, pour then replace the spile.

/Phil.

Could i wiggle out and replace with a soft pourus peg?

Yes if it's still giving off gas. You want it totally out while pouring though.

/Phil.

Nice one Phil, really appreciate the help

One more question - If I don't get to drink this all at the weekend can I transfer the remainder to a keg and pressurise with c02 to keep it in good condition :hmm: