Can Cask Beer be Mimicked in something besides a Pin or Firkin?

[DuncB]

I was lucky enough to purchase 2 working beer engines for a song,

I had to pay " a fistful of dollars" for my beer engines but worth every cent.
I transfer into a 4 litre keg and have been pulling the PRV, but that soft spile in the tubing on the gas connector is genius @McMullan.

Got to find a soft spile or materials to whittle one or several?

 

[DuncB]

Some ale yeasts keep chugging away for ages. If you do " cask ale " into a keg and then check the gravity after a few weeks also having noted the beer tastes drier you'll see that gravity has dropped. This behaviour not a problem if you are getting it to the consumer within a couple of weeks of production and then it's drunk in a couple of days ( or hours depending on your customers).
Looking forward to my Five points best clone, just needs a bit more clearing for perfection.

 

[McMullan]

I had to pay " a fistful of dollars" for my beer engines but worth every cent.
I transfer into a 4 litre keg and have been pulling the PRV, but that soft spile in the tubing on the gas connector is genius @McMullan.

Got to find a soft spile or materials to whittle one or several?

They're made from very porous wood like cane/bamboo. Very fibrous. Still difficult to blow through mind. When wet with sanitiser they 'bubble' as CO2 escapes. Bit like a slow leak.

 

[DuncB]

Thanks @McMullan, they are quite a light wood so I'll experiment with some softwoods until I get back to the UK and pick up a stock of them.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

If in the states, casksupply.com or ukbrewing.com both sell spiles. They’re cheap— buy instead of trying to diy it.

 

[DuncB]

If in the states, casksupply.com or ukbrewing.com both sell spiles. They’re cheap— buy instead of trying to diy it.

It's not the cost, as my location says I'm in New Zealand. Post to here is taking a ridiculous amount of time. Whittling will be a lot quicker until I return to UK in the summer and will get them there. If you are in the USA I'd still look at RLBS in the UK for their great range of cask and real ale dispensing supplies.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

It's not the cost, as my location says I'm in New Zealand. Post to here is taking a ridiculous amount of time. Whittling will be a lot quicker until I return to UK in the summer and will get them there. If you are in the USA I'd still look at RLBS in the UK for their great range of cask and real ale dispensing supplies.

Sorry, using mobile, and it doesn't share user location!

 

[McMullan]

Just remembered you're in NZ, @DuncB. Are you sure they're available

It's not the cost, as my location says I'm in New Zealand. Post to here is taking a ridiculous amount of time. Whittling will be a lot quicker until I return to UK in the summer and will get them there. If you are in the USA I'd still look at RLBS in the UK for their great range of cask and real ale dispensing supplies.

I sent some yeast slobes to NZ after the pandemic hit and it seemed to take a month of Sundays. I think global supply chain issues are here for a while, unfortunately. But a soft spile is easy to hack. The main idea is to create a slow leak so it (the 'secondary' conditioning) can be checked occasionally. But, if you're around to keep an eye on things, an open PRV or gas disconnect is going to work fine.

 

[DuncB]

@McMullan
I liked the elegance of the wood spile in the ball lock connector. I did try using a spunding valve for the secondary but they really don't cope with the low pressures. I'm happy to have a fiddle with some wood and give it a go. Licorice wood / sticks are quite porous but might flavour the air!
I find that opening the PRV on a mini keg with the beer engine is even a bit restrictive for letting air in on a mini keg so pulling the spile out would be useful as well.
The post is taking forever that's for sure, luckily good supply and reserves of yeast, it took five weeks for dry LA01 to get here from the USA and then sometimes 2 weeks for stuff from China and then others 10 weeks. The world has gone crazy, thankful there is a malt industry here and that it's an essential supply.