Cast Condition - and yeah... I put them in the keg-orator

[tgrier]

ok... I am a newb well this is my 5 and 6 th batches.

I only have one line on my gas and it is in use.
So I generally cast condition or put the sugar in the corny and add the beer.
and let em sit.

I did 2 recently IPA and a Pale Ale. I put set them at room temp.
Well 3 days into it... I need some room in the spare room and I put them in my kegorator. Well it has been a total of 7 days now and they are not carbed.

soooooo... I took them out.
Question .. .will the yeast warm up and do its thing? Or should I force carb them at this point?

Thanks all.
T
Austin, Texas

 

[bradsul]

'cask condition'

Putting them in the kegerator made the yeast go dormant, hence the lack of carbonation. Warm them back up to room temperature and give the kegs a roll on the floor to get the yeast back into suspension. In a couple weeks they should be nicely carbed.

 

[tgrier]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have been hitting the homebrew that is in use tonight.. so sorry about the typing...

Thanks agina.

T

 

[glennduggin]

I am looking at using my corny as a cask and I was wondering if you had any issues with bringing up extreme amounts of sediment in when you did yours? My "out" line goes to the bottom of the keg, which is where the sediment will be, so I am afraid it'll just pull all that spent yeast up.
thanks!
glenn

 

[BierMuncher]

I am looking at using my corny as a cask and I was wondering if you had any issues with bringing up extreme amounts of sediment in when you did yours? My "out" line goes to the bottom of the keg, which is where the sediment will be, so I am afraid it'll just pull all that spent yeast up.
thanks!
glenn

Generally it will clear after the first pint.

I cut my straight dip tubes down about 1/4 inch and gave my bent tubes a sharper bend to keep them from "scraping" the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Germey]

I am looking at using my corny as a cask and I was wondering if you had any issues with bringing up extreme amounts of sediment in when you did yours? My "out" line goes to the bottom of the keg, which is where the sediment will be, so I am afraid it'll just pull all that spent yeast up.
thanks!
glenn

It will, but only for a few pints or so (depending on various factors). Once its all chilled and the CO2 is equilibrated and it has sat that way for a few days, pour a glass and dump it. (or drink it if you want, it won't hurt you). Pour the second one and observe the clarity. It should clear up pretty quick. Your first pours may have some extra sediment for a while, but nothing like the first one.

 

[glennduggin]

what if I am using a corny but I want to cask it without using CO2?

 

[glennduggin]

and how would i go about doing it without a hand pump? Is it even possible?

 

[cubbies]

To my knowledge no. You can naturally carb a keg, but then you still need CO2 on low pressure to serve. I have heard of beer engines in the past, but I have no idea what they are or if they are practical for homebrewers.

 

[bradsul]

I naturally carbonate all my kegs so yes you can definitely do that. A beer engine is basically a manual hand pump to draw the beer out of the keg, rather than pushing it out with gas pressure from the CO2. The problem there for homebrewers is that you need to allow air into the keg to prevent a vacuum as the beer exits. That provides a lot of the flavour changes that are desired from cask conditioned ale but it also spoils the beer very quickly.

There is a device called a cask breather that apparently gets around this by providing a very low pressure blanket of CO2 only for the purpose of preventing spoilage. I haven't seen any for sale anywhere though, I imagine the setup would be pretty expensive by the time you got a cask breather and a beer engine.

 

[Germey]

and how would i go about doing it without a hand pump? Is it even possible?

I can think of any number of ways to get pressure in a corny without CO2, but the main problem is Oxygen. Once you start going, you better have a party and polish that thing off in one night as your beer will start oxidizing and be stale pretty quickly.
Do you just not have CO2 and are wanting to use kegs, or are you wanting to replicate "real ale"?
If it's the former, use bottles until you get a CO2 bottle. If it's the latter, the true real ale systems are more complicated than a home brewer would want to get into and they are also subject to a fairly short lifespan once serving begins. You can get the same effect by just using CO2 at low pressure to push the beer out and not force carbonate. If you are in a pinch (friends are coming over in a few hours). You could get the beer cold, then put it up on a table or counter and use gravity/siphon to serve it out of a party tap. Just take off the Gas-in post when your initial positive pressure gives out.

 

[glennduggin]

Thanks for all the info. I just bought a kegging system and then the next day stumbled across the CAMRA site and it blew my mind. I have my first batch in the keg with CO2. I guess if I want to keep that "real ale" flavor I will just stick to bottling ( I just got my ingredients together for a Belgian and I would like to keep that "authentic" taste) and use the keg for parties and what not.