So cask ales are starting to get noticed in the U.S. --- You'll see breweries have Firkin (unit of measure of cask) Fridays and similar events. They're also known as real ales since they are cask-conditioned and do not need carbondioxixe to carbonate - like bottling I suppose. Except once it's tapped it only lasts about a week. Anyways! My friend and I wanted to make an experimental 10 gallon cask ale, and we did - A Chocolate Vanilla Stout. Will having a party tomorrow to "kill the cask". I had to make a stillage so the sediment can drop beneath the spigot when serving --- here is what I rigged up - just want to provide in case someone else wants to make somthing similar down the road. Cheers! Joe
Prettty cool stuff. Great job. If you do more casks in the future you guys should look into buying a cask respirator setup. It's basically a co2 regulator that will only supply a small amount of co2 to your cask so that it can be "good" for an extended period of time without adding excess co2.
Any idea how long the keg would be drinkable with the respirator? Say if the beer you have casket it a stout and the cask is not refrigerated.
I would assume a long time. I can't imagine it being any different than cellaring bottles. Because it's keeping co2 in the headspace at all times the beer won't go completely flat and should be fine as long as the beer isn't infected. I've never done cask beers or used this respirator valve thing tho so all just my opinion.
The device that provides a layer of CO2 to cask beer is called a cask breather. I do not know how long this extends the life of cask beer. Cheers! http://www.micromatic.com/cask-breathers/cask-breather-cask-b#tabcontent
I was going to say that it might work better if the stillage stand was below the cask! Anyways, nice job - all you need is something to keep the cask in place and tilt it forward, and this seems to do that perfectly. Cask beer, as traditionally thought of, will last 3 - 5 days before going off, using air. With a rebreather, that can certainly be extended, but not forever; it'll still turn, but I've heard that it lasts a couple weeks. Personally, if I had a cask rig, I'd only plan to use it for parties and times that I expect that it'll be kicked or nearly so that day.
Ahh yes! My buddy recommended this to me, as we were a little worried how it would taste, when we finally threw a party for it. Lucked out this time, but good to know!
