Franconian Beer Message Board

Homebrewed cask
Posted by Mark Andersen on 2011-11-19 05:13:39
1. Primary in a carboy as usual. 2. Then rack straight to the cask with priming sugar and finings (I used gelatin). What I need to work out is how much yeast from the primary should I put into the cask. Clearly I did not put enough in there on this batch. 3. After about 10 days in the cask I drove a hard spile into the bung vent on top (there wasn't much to vent this time so this wasn't hard but they say you can get a bit of an explosion sometimes). I just kept a hard spile in there. Although some info I read says to use a soft spile if the beer is well carbonated. 4. After 2-3 days of spiling I banged the tap in through the keystone with a rubber mallet. This went smoother than I expected. I setup a simple stillage rack using 2x4's. The book "Cellarmanship" by Patrick O'Neill was very helpful. I think the main lesson I learned this time is to use a lower gravity beer until I get this down to a reliable procedure. I think I would have been much better off casking a nice hoppy pale ale instead of a stout on my first attempt. So back to the drawing board. I think I'll brew the pale ale tommorrow. Seriously, Nick with the kind of beer you love to brew and drink you need to get one of these casks. All told it was about $200 to get the whole rigged setup. Not bad for something that will last long, long time.
 
Followups:
                                                 Homebrewed cask by Fred Waltman on  2011-11-19 11:39:56
                                                 Homebrewed cask by barry on  2011-11-19 11:34:51
                                                   Homebrewed cask by Mark Andersen on  2011-11-20 11:04:52
                                                     Homebrewed cask by Mark Andersen on  2011-11-20 11:17:23
                                                       Homebrewed cask by Mark Andersen on  2011-11-20 11:20:50
                                                         OT: Homebrewed cask by barry on  2011-11-21 02:50:47
                                                           OT: Homebrewed cask by Mark Andersen on  2011-11-21 05:53:52
                                                   Homebrewed cask by Nick B. on  2011-11-21 06:57:01
                                                     Homebrewed hopping rates by Nick B. on  2011-11-21 07:05:59
                                                     Homebrewed cask by Mark Andersen on  2011-11-21 07:34:34
                                                       Homebrewed cask by Nick B. on  2011-11-21 07:40:37
                                                     Homebrewed cask by barry on  2011-11-21 08:28:57
                                                       Homebrewed cask by barry on  2011-11-21 08:32:37
                                                       Homebrewed cask by Nick B. on  2011-11-21 08:51:22
                                                         Homebrewed cask by Barry on  2011-11-21 11:43:28
                                                           Super-Low-Gravity by Nick B. on  2011-11-21 23:34:49