Help with Cask-conditioned ales!

[MidwestBrew]

Hello Everybody,

I'm about to cask condition a beer for the first time and was hoping to get some helpful hints/tips on what works best. I will be using a firkin and dispensing by gravity.

How long do you need to let the beer vent prior to dispensing? I will only have soft and hard spiles at my disposal.

How do you keep the cask at proper temperature while it is sitting on the bar? I have thought about ice bags or gel packs between bar towels.

Any other tips on cask ale that you have would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
Bob

[Damase]

My two cents, but I am sure there are plenty more folks out there with much more experience than I...

Venting, I have always vented until foam stops running out, typically I will use a venting tool, but if I do not have one I will use the hard spile to make the hole and then put a cloth over it while venting (that way it does not go everywhere too badly.) Once it is done foaming, if it foams at all, I will put the soft spile into the bung. When I am done pouring for the day I will hard spile it.

As to keeping it cool, gel packs, ice packs, or those ice blankets made of those small squares where you can remove a square to put it over the bung work really well.

[NHBrewer23]

The time required to vent the cask directly correlates to how much pressure has developed within the cask. Typically I will fill the cask when the beer is has around 1-1.5 plato left to ferment. This will give the beer a low to moderate amount of CO2. If I could measure I would say around 2.00-2.20 volumes of CO2. I vent it typically 1-2 hours before an event. I will place it on stillage 4-6 hours before tapping to allow yeast to settle and the beer to warm up a bit.

I will vent the cask by hammering in the soft spile rather than the hard. I typically place a towel over the spile to catch the foam. Once the cask has settled down, I will then hammer in the gravity tap. I prefer the soft over the hard for venting because the soft will allow the pressure to bleed without having to keep an eye on it. The hard always has the chance of popping out. With the soft, you don't need to change out the spile to pour. Just replace the soft spile with a hard spile at the end of the night.

As for keeping it cold... I typically won't bother depending upon the event. If the cask will be kicked within hours, I would bother. If the cask is going to sit for the weekend, I will put the cask in a walk-in overnight. For outdoor events, I will sling icebags or gel packs over the cask. If you plan to have cask on on a regular basis for extended periods of time, UK Brewing Supplies offers a copper coil for the cask that can be tied into your glycol run.

Good luck.

[wlg]

I agree with the soft spile strategy, but not the ice bags. If they do anything (kinda depends on cask material) they may over-chill the beer. Plus if this beer is the centerpiece of an event and you have it up on the bar the leaky ice bags are pretty tacky IMHO. I chill ours into the upper 30's/ Lower 40's in the walk-in the night before and then take it out around ten in the morning of for a happy hour event. The beer winds up almost the perfect temp. We have stainless casks and use pins, not firkins, and the beer is gone w/in an hour or two. I also spile it and drive in the tap/cock/shank at this point so that the cask sees all the agitation at once, and as far from serving as possible. I have found that the cask may need to be vented up to 3+ hours w/ the soft spile, but we tend to over-carb a little. I would say be thorough w/ the venting if you have no beer engine. Nothing will kill your cask events quicker than weepy bar tenders. Good luck!

[chaser]

I usually vent with a soft spile two-three hours before pouring. When I go to pour I take out the spile and use a Co2 setup which fits into the bung (where the spile was). I keep it at just registering on the regulator (2-3 psi), which keeps a co2 blanket on the beer and makes sure it doesn't oxidize too quickly (typically takes us two-three days to pour through, so this might be overkill, but I don't like over oxidized cask beer). As for serving temp we put it in a 40-45 degree walk-in over night, take it out around 11 and put a insulating blanket over it. It stays right around 50 degrees for the busy part of the day. I've also used ice blankets to keep it cool, but have found that the bartenders didn't keep up with changing them out enough to keep the beer at a temp where it would actually sell. They do work though if you are diligent. Bartenders seem to hate dealing with cask beer, so make it easy for them.

[MidwestBrew]

Thanks for all the input,

Has anyone ever used a Race Ventilator with gravity dispense before? Has it worked well for you?