I'm getting married this summer, which is really just an elaborate excuse to brew A LOT of beer for all my favorite peeps. One of the brews I plan to offer is a traditional Special Bitter that has to replicate the authenticity of those found back in good old Brittania, so cask conditioning's a must. I want to use gravity-fed dispense to save buying a pricey beer engine, and do not want any improvised apparatus lying around (including home made beer engines / casks / taps etc). So, with that said, do any of you venerable BA brewers know of the best way to get my hands on a decent firkin-sized cask without completely breaking the bank. Many thanks in advance. (p.s, i found a new oak cask available online for $150, which looks awesome but presumably wont be suitable given the assumption that unlined oak wont be capable of secondary fermentating the brew to an appropriate pressure?)
Stout Tanks has stainless firkins for $110ish. A simple spigot is all you need to dispense, probably run you 20 bucks. You'll also need the appropriate spiles for tapping and dispensing, and a place to cool the cask for a few days beforehand. If you need any help re: priming and such, feel free to PM me. And congrats!
You would get very gentle pressure in an unlined/unpitched oak cask. I wouldn't spend $150 to find out if it meets your needs on your wedding day. Seems like an unnecessary risk at the wrong time to take those kinds of risk. Last thing you really want to deal with is an oak cask dripping beer everywhere on your wedding day. Maybe a local brewery that uses some firkins could help you buy one from their vendor. If you ask nicely and pay a deposit they may let you borrow one. I wouldn't count on this because it seems like it wouldn't take much to damage the part where you hammer in the spile if you didn't know what you were doing. Maybe offer to pay to replace anything you break as well. You said no improvised apparatus but as a last resort you can use a corny keg laid on its side with a cobra tap for dispensing. Pours like a gravity keg but admittedly not as classy.
Oak sounds wonderful but is heir to many drawbacks.It needs lots of maintenance (an oak cask will leak if allowed to dry out , it's less easy to sterilise) and is pretty heavy too.It does do the job well; Sam Smith's still use them and until relatively recently that's what all draught beer came out of! The pressure appropriate for cask is well within the capability of wooden vessels.Stainless steel is far less romantic but does the job very well.
I assume you have seen this, not sure if this is more than you want to spend: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/homebrew-cask-kit-base.html I have personally used the mini-kegs as casks before. They are basically the same thing. The only drawback for you would be the size. For me, the smaller size was a plus because I am not trying the serve a wedding party sized group. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/mini-keg.html My only other suggestion was the same as above. You could use a modified corney keg laid on its side.
