Casking Beer �

[stevered]

I have what would have been a bottling day approaching but as I am now brewing at 10 �" 15 gallons I am trying to work out what would be involved in casking rather than just bottling my beer.
Generally I leave beer in the fermenter for around 14 days then on bottling day mix in priming sugar and drop it straight into a bottle and cap it. Over the next week or so it clears and tastes great. Very simple.

When I’ve looked into on youtube about casking everyone seems to say use isinglass, mix up some more wort and yeast and pop that into the cask as well. But I can’t work out why that is or why it is different to bottling? The only finings I use are Irish moss in the boil and don't add extra yeast for bottling.

I am planning on putting my beer into one of these:
http://www.breweryplastics.biz/index.php/products/pin/

So , I have my beer which has finished primary fermentation and will have spent about 9 days on the trub. Some of it will go into the pin and some of it will be bottled. What do I need to do to it whilst transferring it into these vessels?

The other question I have is that when I bottle I can hold my beer up to the light and see if it’s ready to drink because it’s cleared �" how do you know when it is ready when it is sealed cask?

 

[simon12]

I have never heard of adding yeast to casks normal practise is to add the beer 1-2 points on the hydrometer before fermentation finishes, isinglass then makes the beer clear in about a week at 12C. This is all done so you can get your beer on tap in a pub about 2 weeks after you make it. How you tell its ready when you cant see it is its been at 12C with isinglass in it. Casks are normally used commercially if using at home you can just add beer like wen bottling but you cannot use as much priming sugar as casks cannot hold alot of pressure, time will clear the beer just like isinglass but there is no way of telling when its ready. I assume you know when you do open it it will only be at its best for 2-3days and not good after a week and terrible after 2 and you need to use disposable shives and keystones every time you fill them. Also its hard to hammer in the shives to plastic kegs as they absorb alot of the hammer blow because there not totally rigid like the metal ones. I your anywhere near Gatwick I know a place that has a load of those spare, pm me if you are and want 1.

 

[lancon]

I use the same pins, I just cask straight from fermentation, don't fine it, don't prime it and its good, sometimes a little cloudy but still very drinkable. There will still be enough yeast in the beer to continue fermentation and carbonate the beer. I normally cask after 14 days. In my experience brewery plastics shives are the best, and I use UB plastics keystones.

 

[mike77]

Do casks not start oxidizing once opened giving you only several days to drink the beer?

 

[simon12]

Do casks not start oxidizing once opened giving you only several days to drink the beer?

Yes & no. Once opened they are only at there best for 2-3 days, OK for maybe a week, drinkable for maybe the next week but awful after that and even these numbers are pushing it a bit. But I don't think its due to oxidation just lack of any remaining dissolved CO2.

 

[stevered]

I have never heard of adding yeast to casks normal practise is to add the beer 1-2 points on the hydrometer before fermentation finishes, isinglass then makes the beer clear in about a week at 12C.

Thanks that's really helpful. How does it come to condition in a week? If I put it in the bottle I leave it for a month at room temperature. If a pub brings it down to 12C doesn't that stop the ferementation and make the beer flat? Getting my beer into a pub is where I want to get to eventually I'm just trying to work out what's involved along the way.

 

[simon12]

It just does condition in a week it may be the yeast works together better when theres a whole cask of it together compared to a bottle (thats just my guess) and yeast is still active at 12C I think you need to get it down to 5-6C to stop it. I have a 1bbl brewery and we make the beer ferment at 20C for 5 days (when using SO5) Cool to 6C for 2 days and cask with isinglass. The isinglass needs stiring with a mixer every day for 3 days I am amazed noone has found anything else as good in the hundred+ years its been used.

 

[stevered]

It just does condition in a week it may be the yeast works together better when theres a whole cask of it together compared to a bottle (thats just my guess) and yeast is still active at 12C I think you need to get it down to 5-6C to stop it. I have a 1bbl brewery and we make the beer ferment at 20C for 5 days (when using SO5) Cool to 6C for 2 days and cask with isinglass. The isinglass needs stiring with a mixer every day for 3 days I am amazed noone has found anything else as good in the hundred+ years its been used.

I'm planning on using brupacks dried issinglass which it says to make up 24hrs before

So I have my 10 gallons of beer. Which will be at around 22C

I add priming sugar and isinglass (made up the previous day) to it while it's still in the fermentor and mix it all in.

I then fill up my pin and bottle the rest as per normal.

The pin and presumably the bottles can then go straight into a cold cellar and the will clear and be carbonated in a few days. Have I got that right?

 

[simon12]

I would add the isinglass to the pin as I don't know what it will do to bottles, as I said we chill the beer to 5-6C before casking it to get it a bit clearer but I don't see why the higher temp would matter to much I may take longer to clear. It should be carbonated in a week a few days would be pushin git but since you are not chilling 1st it should speed it up. I forgot to mention isinglass comes in many forms including ready to use but that expires quickly so just do what the one you have says.

 

[stevered]

I would add the isinglass to the pin as I don't know what it will do to bottles, as I said we chill the beer to 5-6C before casking it to get it a bit clearer but I don't see why the higher temp would matter to much I may take longer to clear. It should be carbonated in a week a few days would be pushin git but since you are not chilling 1st it should speed it up. I forgot to mention isinglass comes in many forms including ready to use but that expires quickly so just do what the one you have says.

This time of year as soon as it's out the fermenter it will cool to around 10C in a day or too I guess.

Before bottling I used the classic homebrew pressure barrels and I always used to make a point of keeping them at at least 18C whilst the
beer was clearing. Sounds like this was misplaced effort and a teaspoon of isinglass would have been better.

I used irish moss towards the end of the boil - that won't make any difference will it?

 

[ManseMasher]

http://www.breweryplastics.com/

Cheap as chips if you want casks. They do, as said above, give a little when trying to drive the bits in, and they will get scratched etc but only on the outside so no fears of nasty infection festering scratches on the inside.

 

[geetee]

I have heard that these plastic casks can split when dropped or after a few uses but pubs prefer them as they are lighter and easier to handle.

Casks are one of the BIG expenditures for a new Micro brewert as you need 4-6 times as many as you plan to brew each week at £65 each so it's a big investment. Plastic is so much cheaper

 

[simon12]

No irish moss makes no difference to casking at all and you should use it. I recently bought 12 firkins brewery plastics linked above wanted £30 each while crusader £55 for stainless so went with those. If you don't need your name on them there are always some less than half this price used on the siba classifieds.

 

[stevered]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I've been trying to cask my beer and not getting it right! A couple of things are going wrong so hopefully someone wiser than me can help.

Firstly, I fill the cask to just below the Shive at what ever the ambient temperature is. I don't have anything to regulate the temperature. I've had trouble with casks swelling in a hot spell and on three casks either the Shive or the keystone popped out. What can be done about that? Should I leave headspace in the cask or is it just not possible to keep casks at home without a temperature controlled room like a commercial brewery would have.

The second thing I have trouble with is cleaning them. My pressure barrels I can get my hands in with a cloth and see when they are clean. I don't have any specialist equipment other than a spray ball and with my wort pump I can pump hot water into the cask and keep it soaked but the water that goes into the cask is not under a huge amount of pressure. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to get casks clean at home? The only thing I can think of is taking them to a brewery and asking them to put them through their washer so they only need sanitising before filling other than that I am stuck.

 

[stevered]

Can anybody help with some advice?

 

[terrym]

Plastic or SS? But presumably not wooden casks?
In the absence of any other suggestions (and no personal experience) I would physically clean as best you can with a brush, and your spray arrangement, and then if plastic leave to soak with sanitiser of some sort (but not SS since you may get corrosion), and then say every five fills take it to a commercial brewery and get them to give it/them a deep clean.

 

[stevered]

Plastic or SS? But presumably not wooden casks?
In the absence of any other suggestions (and no personal experience) I would physically clean as best you can with a brush, and your spray arrangement, and then if plastic leave to soak with sanitiser of some sort (but not SS since you may get corrosion), and then say every five fills take it to a commercial brewery and get them to give it/them a deep clean.

Thanks. My casks are plastic. Do you have any recommendations for a sanitiser? I generally use bleach but I don't find that it softens gunk at all.

 

[terrym]

You could try Starsan. Diluted down I use this in the form a spray.
I also make up VWP if I want to leave things soaking.
'Gunk' may need to be physically removed.

 

[simon12]

A cask washer is just a spray ball that recirculates whatever chemical and rinse you use. Most common they are rinsed them cleaned with Caustic soda (not recommended for home use) then rinsed then sanitised. This is what I use http://blog.murphyandson.co.uk/casklean-a-neutral-detergent-ideal-for-septic-tanks/ its non hazardous but I think you can only buy it in 30Kg.

 

[DoctorMick]

Would soaking in PBW for half an hour not do the trick?