Cheers From The Colonies - Question For The Cask Ale Brewers

[IanCompetent]

Hey everybody - greetings from Canada!!! I have an affinity for British beer and in the last few months have begun to do cask-conditioned ale on the home brew level. My system is relatively simple; I use plastic polypins, priming them with corn sugar, adding a few teaspoons of yeast and storing them in a small fridge at 13 degrees Celsius. So far the results have been varied. Some have primed well and I was able to serve them with a gravity pour. Most have required a beer engine (I purchased one from Angram about 3 months ago) with a sparkler because they simply don't prime well enough. While I have no problems with sparkled ale (my apologies to all of the Southerners out there) I do like to have the option to gravity pour. I usually aim for 1-1.5 units of CO2 and use my calculator on my ProMash programme to determine how much sugar to use.

I guess my long-winded preamble brings me to the question: What are the cask brewers out there using for a system?? Any good recommendations for a substitute cask?? The polypins are decent because they are flexible and quite portable. Unfortunately, they are also semi-permeable (as all poor grade plastic is) and I'm figuring that the CO2 is escaping before it gets to settle into the beer. So far, I've only had to vent a couple of my "casks" and most of the time the ale is simply flat. It's usually just myself and a few others drinking my stuff so I'm looking for vessels in the 1-2 gallon range. Unfortunately, it's hard to find something in that size that is air-tight.

Please understand that cask-conditioned ale is virtually non-existent on this side of the pond. Here in Halifax, we do have one cask brewer but he infuses his casks with CO2 and then seals them. His beer is excellent, but I'd like to avoid this process if possible. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!! Cheers!!! :

 

[RobWalker]

can't help much, but posting to subscribe!

a lot of us use these types of things, they are great for british ale, the carbonation level is about right and can usually pour most of the way to the bottom. they take about 5 gallons (about 6 US gallons.)

 

[IanCompetent]

Thanks Rob, those containers look like they could work. Somebody from England posted a YouTube video and I noticed that they were using something similar to one of those.

The spigots are in different places on both of the examples that you have posted. Is there an advantage of having one over the other?? Also, is there a way to vent the beer during fermentation??

Thanks again for the reply!! :hat:

 

[Windy]

Thanks Rob, those containers look like they could work. Somebody from England posted a YouTube video and I noticed that they were using something similar to one of those.

The spigots are in different places on both of the examples that you have posted. Is there an advantage of having one over the other?? Also, is there a way to vent the beer during fermentation??

Thanks again for the reply!! :hat:

"Spigot" - translation = "tap" :)

The top one collects the beer from a float near the top of the liquid, the bottom one collects it out of the mud at the bottom...

Most people ferment in a seperate vessel and put it in the keg when it's finished fermenting, I use a seperate lid with an airlock fitted instead of a pressure valve.

:

 

[wilsoa1111]

i use a combo of the pressure barrels (with a wee tap mod) and then bottles (for when the beer gets a bit oxidised to recondition them)- the top tap kegs seem to be a bit of a pain always needing co2 and messing to make the float work (so simple is best) and ive yet to have a bad pint from my youngs value kegs- certainly not had a problem with "the mud at the bottom" if using a good yeast it stays put really well provided u dont move it too often- both do give a proper cask ale feel and taste and the beer keeps quite well esp if can inject co2 every now and then (cheating but invaluble)

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome to the forum Ian. I have been using polypins around 30 years using a handpump for about the last 3 years. As you can imagine over that period of time I have tried a lot of different ways of doing things. Not sure what difference corn sugar makes but I've always used standard cane sugar. When I used to serve by gravity I would normally add between 60-80gms of household sugar and barrel a couple of points above final gravity, put somewhere warmish in the house, allow the pin to expand, normally around 2-3 days, move back to my garage where it is a around 16c in winter to 19c in summer. After a few weeks conditioning I found it was at it's peak. If then drank in 2 weeks it would stay in condition until maybe the last 2 or 3 pints which can be a bit flat. Nowdays with the handpump I still barrel over the FG and put somewhere warm but only prime if it needs it. I find the action of the handpump gives me enough life.

 

[IanCompetent]

First off, I want to thank all of you guys for your replies. People over here are really into bottling and kegging; cask-conditioning is generally a forgotten art form.

dennisking - I pretty much do exactly what you do. I usually shoot to rack to the cask at about .012 and serve it at .010. I have also noticed that when I leave the pin out at room temperature, it expands a lot better than when it is in the fridge, but that seems to be ass-backwards from what I understand about brewing science. For my next batch, I am going to aim to let the pins expand, then condition. I'll let you know about the results. I may give cane sugar a try, corn sugar is generally considered the main priming sugar over here but maybe cane works better. Again - I'll be more than happy to post my results.

wilsoa1111 & Windy - I am definitely intrigued by these kegs. Can you get them from any home brew shop in the UK?? I can't imagine finding one in Canada or the US. Is there really a problem with "mud" getting in your beer?? I tend to only use a few different yeast strains (Wyeast's "1098 British Ale," "1318 London Ale III," and "1084 Irish Ale) and all of them floc really well and tend to leave tight cakes in the bottom of the fermenter. Does the yeast you tend to use influence which keg you would buy?? Also, do either of you have a recommendation of where to purchase one??

Once again - thanks to all of you guys for the advice!!

 

[dennisking]

Personally 13c seems a bit low for cask ales but it is all down to personal taste. I tried the "keg" barrels myself a few years back but found the beer to gassy for me. I love cask ales and although you will never beat a proper barrel, conditioned in a pub cellar I find polypins the nearest you can get for home consumption.

 

[Windy]

wilsoa1111 & Windy - I am definitely intrigued by these kegs. Can you get them from any home brew shop in the UK?? I can't imagine finding one in Canada or the US. Is there really a problem with "mud" getting in your beer?? I tend to only use a few different yeast strains (Wyeast's "1098 British Ale," "1318 London Ale III," and "1084 Irish Ale) and all of them floc really well and tend to leave tight cakes in the bottom of the fermenter. Does the yeast you tend to use influence which keg you would buy?? Also, do either of you have a recommendation of where to purchase one??

Yes, any home brew shop or home brew internet shop and the cheaper ones are sold in supermarkets too!

The mud does depend on yeast etc but is only an issue until it has settled, taking the liquid from the top means that you can start to drink it without waiting for it to settle all the way to the bottom, for some beers that may be a week or two earlier. Normally we pressurise them and use the fitted tap to pour, but some do connect beer engines to them.

 

[pittsy]

Hi Ian if you click on the links on the top and bottom pages you will find the barrels Wendy mentioned :thumb: