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Cask
ale (or
real ale) is young beer that has been placed in small, metal, English
casks called firkins. In the sealed firkin the beer undergoes a
special conditioning process whereby the yeast produces carbonation and
wonderful flavor components and then settles to the bottom of the
cask. After a time, excess carbonation is vented and a serving
tap is hammered into a spout on the cask. The beer is served
without pasteurization or additions of artificial carbon dioxide or
other gasses. This is soft, fresh, living beer the way it was
meant to be served!
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Tips for bar and brewpub owners on how to
condition and serve a good cask ale:
- Clean and sanitize
the cask thoroughly with caustic, and be sure to brush and clean both
openings. Seal the small opening at the end of the cask first.
- Using the large
center opening, add your beer to
the cask at the end of primary fermentation with enough sugar and yeast
to carbonate it lightly. If the beer has little to no residual
sugar, about 6.5 ounces of dextrose corn sugar will lightly carbonate a
10.8 US
gallon firkin. Fill the cask all the way and
remember to use a fining of your choice (gelatin works well). If
a dry-hop bag is added to the cask, try to add a large, sanitized
piece of stainless steel to the bag to make it sink to the bottom and
not clog the top bung
during later spiling/venting. Seal the cask with the large
plastic bung.
- High-gravity beers
can condition at 55-65 degrees F for weeks or months. A 5% abv
ale should be ready to soft spile in 7-10 days or
less.
- When you think the
beer has conditioned and built up some carbonation, roll the cask for a
few feet (to equally distribute the sediment), and set it up level and
horizontally on its wooden platform (stillage) with the large, center
bung up. Keep the cask
in horizontal stillage for a few days as close to 50-55 degrees F as
you can.
- 1-2 days before
serving, hammer in a dry SOFT spile through the middle depression on
the
large, center bung of the cask. Beer and gas should escape
through the soft spile. This is done to check the amount of
carbonation and allow excess gas to be vented slowly (so not to dredge
up sediment). When the venting slows, wipe off the soft
spile. When it takes three seconds or longer for beer to flow
back through the spile, this means the cask is probably ready for a
hard spile. With ALL spiles, leave the top one-third of the spile
showing out of the bung so you will be able to grab the spile with
pliers when it’s time to remove it. There is no need to sanitize
the spiles.
- Remove the soft
spile SLOWLY with a set of pliers. If you feel pressure begin to
push up the spile, be ready with your mallet and another soft
spile. Hop bags and yeast can sometimes clog the soft spile and
make it look like the carbon dioxide is done venting. Often you
will have a stream of beer come out when the soft spile is
removed. If so, quickly hammer in another soft spile and keep
watching the venting – you may have to use 2-3 soft spiles (or more) to
get to the correct level of carbonation. It always helps to have
a towel ready.
- When you remove the
soft spile and only get a puff of gas (little to no beer venting from
the cask),
hammer in a hard spile (again, only two-thirds of the way in so you can
pull it out later). Some hard spiles will still vent a tiny
amount over time – this is OK – if the hard spile gets really soaked in
1-2 days, pull out the hard spile and replace it with another.
- Hammer in your
sanitized serving tap (into the middle of the sealed, smaller bung at
the end of the cask) a few hours before you are ready to start
serving. Be sure the tap is closed when you hammer it in.
- If you must move
the cask a short distance from the stillage area to the serving area,
do so very gently, keep it level, and then give the cask a few hours to
settle.
- The cask should
really be kept around 50-55 degrees F for the entire serving
time. Cask ale served at room temperature does NOT last long and
is NOT usually very pleasant.
- When you are ready
to serve, pour some beer into a glass to test the internal pressure of
the cask. When the beer flows very slowly into the glass, remove
the hard spile with pliers, place a damp towel over
the top of the cask (to cover the empty spile hole and keep the cask
cool), and start serving from the tap. Never draw beer through
the tap
with a spile in the cask.
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For used
casks and all supplies, check out UK BREWING SUPPLIES, www.ukbrewing.com, phone
717-560-9447.
* UK Brewing offers a cooling “saddle” that is a system of
metal tubes that sit on top of the cask and work from your glycol draft
cooling line. Gelatin ice blankets and insulated cask jackets are
also very useful (and less expensive) cooling tools. If
kept at 50-55 degrees and hard spiled between serving days, a typical
cask will taste good for maybe 2-3
days.
I hope all this is clear, and please feel free to E-MAIL me with any
questions or suggestions. I hope you will prepare and serve a
cask ale soon -- your customers will love you! |
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