Westy's Guide to Cask Ale Management

Soldato
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Hello,

Seeing as there are a few members on here who are into their ale, I thought it might be a good idea to show those who don't know exactly what goes on in the cellar, to enable you to get great beer at the pump :)

Note to readers: If you're interested in this subject, please feel free to post with any suggestions, comments or questions. However, if you're not interested and you're just going to post crap, please avert your eyes from the subject matter and instead, point them to the top left of your screen, where you'll find the back button. Thanks!


The Cask Ale I'll be demonstrating with is Young's Special - 4.5% ABV.

Ok, so first things first. When the cask ale is delivered to the pub, it's in a suspended state. All the oxygen is sucked out, and it needs to be conditioned further in order to make it ready to serve.

Step One: Rest, or Sit the cask - exactly what it says. Leave the cask to rest for around 24 hours before doing anything else. In our pub, I use Autotilts. They are sprung, and tilt the cask as it's served, to get the maximum yield. They're not cheap, at around £60 each, however they're a fantastic bit of kit and I'd never want to be without them.

The cask sitting on the autotilt:
IMAG0021.jpg


All ale casks have 2 main features.
The Shive:
IMAG0022.jpg


And the Keystone:
IMAG0023.jpg


After the cask has rested for 24 hours or so, the first thing to do is Vent. This releases the initial pressure in the cask, and allows the fermentation process to continue.

To do this, I use a Spile. There are 2 types, hard spiles and soft spiles. Hard spiles are non-porous, and soft spiles are, yep, you guessed it, porous.

So, first of all, the hard spile goes into the shive:
IMAG0024.jpg

Note: not driven all the way in, all we're looking to do is release the pressure. Just a short, sharp tap will do, then gently knock it in so it seals, in preparation for the next part, which is:

Tapping - Driving the tap into the keystone. The tap is where (logically) the ale is dispensed from.

IMAG0025.jpg

Note: When tapping the cask, don't mess about. Hit it. Hard. Expect to lose a little bit of beer from the keystone, but not a lot. Make sure the tap is closed! Make sure it's secure, then move onto the final step:

Quite simply, pull out the hard spile, and pop in a soft one. This will now enable the beer to breathe and fully ferment/condition.

Soft spile in:
IMAG0026.jpg


Once it's ready to serve, check the beer directly from the cask, then at the pump, making sure that the line is clean.

End result:

IMAG0027.jpg



Note: This particular method is one that I use, and have been for years. Different landlords may have different techniques, but the end result is the same.

Hope you found this insight into my job interesting :)
 
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Damn, that was actually interesting.

Where do you get the auto-tilts from, a friend of mine has a pub and i am sure he would be interested in some of those.


P.S That pint looks awesome.
 
pros and cons to auto tilts. A lot of places will not use them as prefer to do them thereselves, as if the auto tilt moves to quickly then the sediment is disturbed. Plus is costs more money than a few chocks of wood under the barrel.


Now you need a guide to pipe cleaning and filtering back, Yes no one does filtering back, but people do do it. Cask that is not Keg, Keg is rather dangeroue is you dont fully decompress the barrel before you undue the connector.
Plus the breweries dont like you having a keg key.
 
Also remember to check the tap is closed
before knocking it in :p

Aint that the truth and always remember when you remove the soft peg after initial venting get ready for a possible face full of hops and beer.

You can always tell a true cask cellar by the amount of hops on the ceiling directly above the cask ale area.
 
pros and cons to auto tilts. A lot of places will not use them as prefer to do them thereselves, as if the auto tilt moves to quickly then the sediment is disturbed. Plus is costs more money than a few chocks of wood under the barrel.

Was about to ask this, back when I was doing this (15 years ago) just nudging a cask was enough to cloud the beer for a while.

Used to hate changing the Guinness barrels, inevitably ended up with a Guinness shower :mad:
 
Cheers.

Found it interesting, People laugh at me for drinking ale and such and Im only 23 but I just cant stand that watered down mass produced rubbish.

I love learning what goes into all of this.

See how most pubs have a manual tap for serving ale, so you have to physically pull the lever to get it out. how does it work. is it just a case of the lever forces air into the Keg forcing the ale out?

(Sorry if the question seams daft, Thats my ADHD and mild aspergers LOL)
 
Cheers.

Found it interesting, People laugh at me for drinking ale and such and Im only 23 but I just cant stand that watered down mass produced rubbish.

I love learning what goes into all of this.

See how most pubs have a manual tap for serving ale, so you have to physically pull the lever to get it out. how does it work. is it just a case of the lever forces air into the Keg forcing the ale out?

(Sorry if the question seams daft, Thats my ADHD and mild aspergers LOL)

Not daft at all. What you don't generally see attached to the lever under the bar is a vacuum type pump (think a foot pump for car tyres but in reverse) - pull the lever and the pump draws the beer through (the soft spile that Westy mentioned is important at this point - it allows the air into the top of the cask to replace the beer. Try it with a hard spile in and you won't get anything).

Lager etc is gas fed down in the cellar, the barrels for these are pressurised (and when they fail they fail big time :eek: )
 
Damn, that was actually interesting.

Where do you get the auto-tilts from, a friend of mine has a pub and i am sure he would be interested in some of those.


P.S That pint looks awesome.

Here you go: http://www.auto-tilt.co.uk/ - First link on google ;)

Magic_x_uk said:
pros and cons to auto tilts. A lot of places will not use them as prefer to do them thereselves, as if the auto tilt moves to quickly then the sediment is disturbed. Plus is costs more money than a few chocks of wood under the barrel.


Now you need a guide to pipe cleaning and filtering back, Yes no one does filtering back, but people do do it. Cask that is not Keg, Keg is rather dangeroue is you dont fully decompress the barrel before you undue the connector.
Plus the breweries dont like you having a keg key.


True, a lot of places still use chocks under the casks, its mainly down to cost. An auto-tilt shouldn't move too fast if its properly sprung and maintained - mine are filthy, so my task today is to clean and lubricate my 2 spares and rotate them in :)

Funnily enough, I had literally just done a draught line clean just before I took those pictures last night - however ale line cleaning is an ongoing process, I like to clean every barrel, however that's not possible sometimes, so a flush through with water is the very least I'll do. Next time I clean one I'll try and remember to write another guide.

Goliath said:
Was about to ask this, back when I was doing this (15 years ago) just nudging a cask was enough to cloud the beer for a while.

Yep, that's true - it's called "Knocking" - disturbs everything, and it has to re-settle. That process is also handy for "re-activating" ale - if it goes flat too quickly, a good way to get it going again is to seal the cask with a hard spile, then roll it around the cellar a few times, then leave to settle.

Robbie G said:
Ewww! Is that a wart, or a blister?

God knows. I just haven't got around to freezing it off :p


Thanks for all the comments, glad to see some people are interested :)
 
Spot on dude - although you forgot to mention one very important part:

Always ensure that the taps are closed before tapping a barrel!!!
 
Good stuff. I do love Ale, although I usually convert to a nice local cider during the summer months :cool:

Couple of questions, how long does the Ale last once you have applied the soft spile? Why do pubs that sale ale refer to it as "real" ale rather than just ale?

Thanks!
 
Good stuff. I do love Ale, although I usually convert to a nice local cider during the summer months :cool:

Couple of questions, how long does the Ale last once you have applied the soft spile?
The usual time is around 3 days from first serve. However, you can make it last a bit longer by re-sealing the cask at night by closing the tap and knocking in a hard spile.


Crizzy said:
Why do pubs that sale ale refer to it as "real" ale rather than just ale?

Thanks!

Basically, the difference between "ale" and "real ale" is that the yeast is still present in the cask when it comes to "real ale". Something called Finings is added, which helps to draw the yeast down to the bottom of the cask, leaving clear ale which can be served.

That's a very basic description, if you're after more, check here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cask_ale
 
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