Cask widge venting
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@Rmr9 Did you ever get anywhere with this? I have been given 3 4.5 gallon stainless casks (pins) by a brewery. I have a box of bits, he said they were all I'd need, including taps. I'm looking forward to doing a couple of pins for a local barbie (when allowed out to play!) and the plan is to do a Burton Pale, and a strong dark porter/stout and serve straight from the cask. I was wondering how long I'd need to condition before broaching, and then obviously it'll be 48 hours before they are ready to draw off. I'd think both casks will be empty by the end of the night! ATB, John.
Hey John,
I brewed a nice porter in November and had it over the holidays. It went pretty well, I fermented and then transferred into the pin with about 2oz of corn sugar to prime it. I wasn’t sure what amount to prime with, I’ve read people using anywhere from 0 to 4+ oz but I didn’t want to end up with a mess or too lively a cask. I let the beer condition for 2 weeks in the basement before tapping with my cask widge. I didn’t know how long to vent for so I started in the morning and kept a close eye on it. I think it was done around 8 hours. It was really good - and with the cask breather lasted about a month. The quality did deteriorate in the last half week but it was still good enough for me!
Wow 3 pins and the accessory pieces? What a score! You’ll be the hero of the party that’s for sure. Funny you should mention wanting to do a pale and a porter, as I’ve just casked a strong bitter over the weekend. I figure 2 weeks to condition for this one as well. I’ll update when I’ve tapped it.
All the best,
Ryan
I brewed a nice porter in November and had it over the holidays. It went pretty well, I fermented and then transferred into the pin with about 2oz of corn sugar to prime it. I wasn’t sure what amount to prime with, I’ve read people using anywhere from 0 to 4+ oz but I didn’t want to end up with a mess or too lively a cask. I let the beer condition for 2 weeks in the basement before tapping with my cask widge. I didn’t know how long to vent for so I started in the morning and kept a close eye on it. I think it was done around 8 hours. It was really good - and with the cask breather lasted about a month. The quality did deteriorate in the last half week but it was still good enough for me!
Wow 3 pins and the accessory pieces? What a score! You’ll be the hero of the party that’s for sure. Funny you should mention wanting to do a pale and a porter, as I’ve just casked a strong bitter over the weekend. I figure 2 weeks to condition for this one as well. I’ll update when I’ve tapped it.
All the best,
Ryan
Hi Ryan, many, many thanks for your reply! :hat:I thought this may be an old thread and I could not find anything that really answered my questions. You have done so perfectly. I've brewed for years, I think one of my threads on here refers to brewing in the shed with the hot-rod car and literally dipping pint glasses into a dustbin! I'm a bit further on now. Yeah a bankrupt brewery (sadly) has donated 3 pins to my cause. Along with a box of bits - shives, keystones, a few spiles (I think they are called) and two taps, a plastic and a wooden one.
Anyway to cut a long story a bit shorter, I've brewed for years, and this year we (a few mates) have decided to try 'real ale' from a cask. I have no problem with the brewing, I have a 3 vessel set-up and brew all-grain. My efficiency is usually around the 80 - 85% mark and I get good results, which everyone says would compete well with any of our local breweries. Normally I bottle everything, I'm not a fan of spending huge amounts of money on these Cornelius things, though they may work for some, I don't think they'd work for me. It's the gas and everything that I sort of feel a bit daunting (I'm currently drinking a Burton Pale Ale bottled last July).
So when 3 casks turned up I jumped at the chance. Now I'm bu**ered if I know how to condition ale in a cask! So I was looking for a bit of guidance on here. I can clean them, but then ... fill them up add a bit of sugar and bung 'em up tight. I am okay with broaching a cask, I've done that at our local beer festival, and hope to help out later this year as well. But I had no idea what fits between brewery and tapping casks; the conditioning bit.
I'll go with your excellent advice. So yes, 2 ounces of sugar in solution sounds okay to me. 2 weeks to condition, is what I'd give my bottles (unless my milk stout - about 3 months!), and then vent for 8 hours? No problem, sounds good and more or less what I was expecting.
Many thanks for the heads-up on this. I will let you know how this goes. It will be June before this actually happens.
Cheers
John.
Anyway to cut a long story a bit shorter, I've brewed for years, and this year we (a few mates) have decided to try 'real ale' from a cask. I have no problem with the brewing, I have a 3 vessel set-up and brew all-grain. My efficiency is usually around the 80 - 85% mark and I get good results, which everyone says would compete well with any of our local breweries. Normally I bottle everything, I'm not a fan of spending huge amounts of money on these Cornelius things, though they may work for some, I don't think they'd work for me. It's the gas and everything that I sort of feel a bit daunting (I'm currently drinking a Burton Pale Ale bottled last July).
So when 3 casks turned up I jumped at the chance. Now I'm bu**ered if I know how to condition ale in a cask! So I was looking for a bit of guidance on here. I can clean them, but then ... fill them up add a bit of sugar and bung 'em up tight. I am okay with broaching a cask, I've done that at our local beer festival, and hope to help out later this year as well. But I had no idea what fits between brewery and tapping casks; the conditioning bit.
I'll go with your excellent advice. So yes, 2 ounces of sugar in solution sounds okay to me. 2 weeks to condition, is what I'd give my bottles (unless my milk stout - about 3 months!), and then vent for 8 hours? No problem, sounds good and more or less what I was expecting.
Many thanks for the heads-up on this. I will let you know how this goes. It will be June before this actually happens.
Cheers
John.
Figured I’d throw an update out there! I tapped my cask on Monday and vented Tuesday for about 8 hours. This batch was really lively so I vented it for another 3 hours Wednesday afternoon. Rigged up my engine and pulled a couple pints. Great stuff!
I think my standard amount of priming sugar will be 2oz of dextrose moving forward, that coupled with 8-12 hours of venting has worked so far.
On a related note: I pulled the first pint through a sparkler tip and really enjoyed it. Then I decided to take the sparkler off and was blown away by the difference between the two! The non sparkler pint had a delightful hoppy note that wasn’t present in the first pint. What’s nice is my wife loves a nice malty beer so sparkler for her, and I enjoy some hops so no sparkler for me! I know this is super obvious to some people on the forum but to someone from the US who’s only spent a few weeks in the UK, it’s fantastic to see the differences first hand!
I think my standard amount of priming sugar will be 2oz of dextrose moving forward, that coupled with 8-12 hours of venting has worked so far.
On a related note: I pulled the first pint through a sparkler tip and really enjoyed it. Then I decided to take the sparkler off and was blown away by the difference between the two! The non sparkler pint had a delightful hoppy note that wasn’t present in the first pint. What’s nice is my wife loves a nice malty beer so sparkler for her, and I enjoy some hops so no sparkler for me! I know this is super obvious to some people on the forum but to someone from the US who’s only spent a few weeks in the UK, it’s fantastic to see the differences first hand!
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