Cask Beer

[FirstLadyofBeer]

I'm making a cask beer for the Blue Point Cask Beer Festival, this will be my 1st cask beer. I'm thinking about making a coffee milk stout. When should I brew it so it has enough time in the cask? and any other tips for making a cask conditioned beer?

 

[RM-MN]

Ummm.. Last year? JMHO

 

[FirstLadyofBeer]

The homebrew group I'm in only told us we're in it last week and they know we haven't started anything just yet, esp since we would have to borrow a cask from the group.

So anyother advice?

 

[RM-MN]

Beers mature slower the darker and higher alcohol they are. When you brew a stout you need to know that for it to be at its peak will take more time than a low alcohol light color beer. You didn't say when the festival will take place so more advice would depend on how much time you have.

 

[jhall4]

The cask aspect specifically is ALL about freshness. Once a beer is in a cask it should be served as soon as it reaches the desired level of carbonation.

How much time your beer spends in the primary fermenter (and possibly secondary) is a different issue, but a beer would normally only be in a cask a few days to maybe a couple weeks before serving.

 

[FirstLadyofBeer]

sorry i thought i included the date, there's no specific date but its always the end of April

 

[Eddiebosox]

The cask aspect specifically is ALL about freshness. Once a beer is in a cask it should be served as soon as it reaches the desired level of carbonation.

How much time your beer spends in the primary fermenter (and possibly secondary) is a different issue, but a beer would normally only be in a cask a few days to maybe a couple weeks before serving.

right. one of my biggest regrets is that my favorite beer is cask conditioned English real ale, yet its so hard to replicate as a home brewer. The onyl way to do it is with a cask, and then you have to drink it all within a day or two of putting it in the cask, and then you need special equipment. there are ways to imitate it, and when i brew my own I will carb it at something like a 1.0 to get a low carbonation, but its never quite the same.

 

[FirstLadyofBeer]

would i be better off doing something light? I've been thinking about a pepper saison, I just worried that i wouldn't get the carbonation that a saison needs

 

[RM-MN]

Didn't cask ales originate in England? How about an English bitter?