Large Mason Jars as Casks

So I wanted to cask condition my mild, but I can't go through a corny in 3 days, so I'm looking for another vessel. I'm thinking that if I took a large mason jar to a machine shop they could drill a spigot-hole and I could put some brass fittings on it for a spigot. Does anyone know if a mason jar like this could hold pressure?

http://www.goodmans.net/get_item_bl-70011_ball-creative-container-one-gallon-ideal-jar.htm

canning jars are designed to hold negative pressure...a vacuum. they don't hold positive pressure for crap.

A machine shop isn't likely to have the ability to drill a clean hole in glass. A glass cutting shop might be able to do it. It's a pretty moot point, though, as malkore hit the nail on the head in the post above.

That's too bad...

Why not use 3L plastic soda bottles? You'll just pour instead of tap...unless you want to make an over-elaborate system for dispensing less than a gallon of beer.

Look for 5L minikegs with the built-in taps.

http://www.weekendbrewer.com/minikegs.htm
http://www.beer-wine.com/product_info.asp?productID=1056&sectionID=1
http://www.homebrewshop.com/misc/minikegging.html

The 2-piece bungs act like the cask's shive and spile; in fact, you can use a hard spile to knock out the center plug of the 2-piece bung, vent the keg, and draw off more beer. If you want, you can use soft and hard spiles in the 5L keg just like conditioning real ale in a pin or firkin. I've done it, it's fun and easy, and at the end you get 5L of real ale that won't go off when it's just you drinking it over the weekend!

Just make sure you don't overcarbonate the ale. Remember, never more than 2 volumes of carbon dioxide in solution, ever! 1.8 volumes is a good target to shoot for - since we can't tell how much is in solution at casking time (I don't know a homebrewer who owns a CO2 tester!), we have to sort of guess. There are lots of carbonation calculators in the internet.

There are a couple of books that are indispensable (har):

CAMRA's Cellarmanship

Terry Foster's Pale Ale in the Classic Beer Styles series

Here's an old but still relevant article.

Cheers,

Bob

You're right, Yuri. 3L soda bottles would work great. The keg idea sounds a bit more sexy.

I agree, go 5l mini keg route, and build one of these!

That is my next project and I've already got one of these.