Headspace in casks

[wlg]

I am at a brewery that does cask conditioned beer and the carbonation level is far from consistent between the casks. I understand there are many variables here and it is to be expected with casks, but one thing I haven't seen anyone mention in the threads is headspace. If you are out there and doing cask beer, how much do you leave, if any? Thanks.

[dick murton]

None - brim fill them. Although there may be yeast in there, you don't want to make a point of introducing any air into the beer.

Keep the casks cool and move around as little as possible and fit with a soft spile soon after stillaging to allow the excess CO2 to vent off before you tap them

[Guest]

Ditto to what Dick says - no headspace at all is the way I've always gone - "air is the enemy of beer" as some brewering dude once said.

Just fill 'em as carefully as you can (slowly at first, from the bottom up) - you'll more than likely still add some O2 unintentionally, but the yeast will mop up that.

After any excess CO2 has blown off through the soft peg, don't forget to hard peg (hard spile) the cask when you're not serving, or buy a nifty 'race spile' (which does away with the need to remove & replace the hard peg & extends the life of an open cask considerably).

http://www.filton.net/acatalog/Consumables.html

Q. - is it still the norm for US cask beer to be served noticeably cloudy (as if to prove it's unfiltered nature?) - in UK this is tantamount to a German lager brewer letting a diacetyl-butter-ball out the brewery gate!

cheers
MikeMcG
Wirral, nr Liverpool, UK.

[TL Services]

+1 for brim-fill

Head volume is sometimes a big problem with kegs though, as their manufacture and the inherent dings & dents mean that metered filling can leave you with nothing or loads.

[Woolsocks]

To keep carbonation consistent, you can prime with enough sugar/wort to make sure you get at least enough CO2. After it's carbonated, put it where it's to be served from and vent it to allow CO2 to drop to the saturation point at whatever temp you're storing it.

Traditionally cask is stored/served at 13°C (55°F) which allows it to retain 1.1V of CO2 after venting. As long as you always give the yeast enough food to make 1.1V or more of CO2, you'll always serve it with that CO2 level.

[wlg]

Thanks for all the responses. I really like your suggestion woolsocks. Somebody asked about cloudy beer. Ours definately is and because we dry-hop them generously, I kinda assumed this was unavoidable for us. Anybody got nice crystal clear dry-hopped casks? Fining practices?

[Woolsocks]

50mL of biofine clear in a firkin clears it nicely for us.

[critch]

dont leave any!

we use kaskleer about 140ml in 300ml of sterile water per firkin works sound