Cask conditioning

[redear]

While I was in england I had several realy nice beers that were cask conditioned and were not carbonated at all and had to be pumped out of the keg with a special tap. They were also served room temp. Anyone know more about this system and where one may be able to get hold of the type of keg and tap needed? I know I could get recipies but it would be silly to try it without the keg.

 

[Janx]

Recipes are just like any other beer. You make a Pale ale and instead of bottling or kegging, you cask it.

Cask conditioned beers actually are lightly carbonated at first. They are naturally conditioned in the cask like homebrewers naturally condition in the bottle. That carbonation dissipate quickly after tapping and no more gas is added as in a regular kegging system.

The beer engine you pour these beers with is just a pump. You can find them, but a quality one is a very expensive thing. It can cost as much as the rest of your setup...several hundred dollars. As far as a cask, I imagine you could use a stainless keg so it would be easy to clean.

Check ebay for engines. I've shopped around a bit, but the cost for good ones is scary.

 

[redear]

Thanks again Janx.
Good reference there btw.

 

[Janx]

Hey redear,

Coincidentally, I was just reading the book Mild Ale from the classic beer styles series. It's by David Sutula. It has a fairly extensive section on cask conditioning, which is the preferred way to serve a Mild Ale. It has very useful equations for how much CO2 to add, finings, sugar, types of casks, etc. I don't think it deals with serving (nothing to that really anyway) but it might be worth a look if you really want to make some authentic cask conditioned ales. Cheers!

 

[redear]

Thanks, Ill look it up at my HBS