Casks

[Donny]

Hey guys,

Managed to (briefly) get down to the Fransican Well Cask fest last week for a nosy. Tasted on or 2 of the brews and they were lush. Seeing the casks being tapped got me thinking that they were something that I would love to get into.

Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of casking?
Where can they be bought and how easy/hard they are to use?

Have many of you mad lot gotten into it?

Cheers in advance

[dcalnan]

Yeah they're nice, but it doesn't suit long term dispensing of beer, they don't use co2 to dispense so they fill up with air and oxidise the beer. I think there's a company called emerald that make them in Ireland.

[cruiscinlan]

Hey guys,
Tasted on or 2 of the brews and they were lush. Seeing the casks being tapped got me thinking that they were something that I would love to get into.

Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of casking?
Where can they be bought and how easy/hard they are to use?

Have many of you mad lot gotten into it?

Here's the company dcalnan was talking about: http://emmerald.com/

I agree that cask ale served by a handpump is gorgeous stuff.  I had the chance to try Galway Bay Buried at Sea on cask and draught side by side and they are completely different, the cask being far superior.

I think cornies offer the best of both worlds, and the CO2 blanket keeps your beer fresh.  CAMRA for instance don't consider the use of cask breathers which allow in CO2 to replace air as real ale and I understand why but unless you run through the beer in 4 days/week it will spoil on you.

[Donny]

Yeah I was thinking of making a wheat beer for my sisters wedding in September. Since it will be all drunk at the same time casking it might be a good way to go.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I use a couple of small cornies for casks and pull through a beer engine, and it works fine. I've tried using a sterile filter on the gas inlet and it worked fine and the beer was good for a couple of days once broached, you could try this instead of buying a cask breather. You could also make up a filter using some tubing and cotton woll
I have shortened the pick up tube by about 1/2" (12mm) but it still blocked when using hop pellets loose for dry hopping. I now dry hop with one of those stainless mesh balls.
I had a pint of Sharpes Doom bar in Spoons at Gatwick last week and it was vile - completely oxidised,  hard to justify not using a cask breather in those circumstances.
As you are intending on consuming the beer in one day a Corny keg hooked up to a beer engine should see you right.

[Tom]

Re: Wheat beer on cask. You won't get the carvonation levels you want that way, unfortunately.

[irish_goat]

Re: Wheat beer on cask. You won't get the carvonation levels you want that way, unfortunately.

It works if you make a Belgian style wheat with oats in it. The cask serve normally makes it nice and creamy but, yeah, I've had a hefeweizen on cask and it wasn't great and lack of carbonation was the main problem. Cask temperature doesn't really suit the style either.

[Taf]

I had a handpump setup at home before with a corney with a non return valve. Basically, the corney was on a very low gas setting, with just enough gas to form a blanket over it to stop it going off. The hand pump pulled the beer through, and the non return valve stopped air going back into the corney, so the beer would last as long as regular beer in a corney. I got rid of that setup as I prefer keg beer, but it did work well.

[Donny]

Re: Wheat beer on cask. You won't get the carvonation levels you want that way, unfortunately.

It works if you make a Belgian style wheat with oats in it. The cask serve normally makes it nice and creamy but, yeah, I've had a hefeweizen on cask and it wasn't great and lack of carbonation was the main problem. Cask temperature doesn't really suit the style either.

Well it looks like bottles for me then. Maybe when ive a few more ales under my belt Il try it out.