How do you serve cask beer at home?

How do you serve cask beer at home?

Serving Cask Beer At Home Casks are normally vented for 24–48 hours before serving, this is typically done by hammering a spiel into the bung hole of a cask. The same result can be achieved by fitting a valve to the gas post of your keg. Keep this open just a little, to allow the excess CO2 to hiss out slowly.

How long is cask conditioned?

With the cask in position, a hole is made in the shive and a soft, porous peg is inserted. This is left for around 48-72 hours as the conditioning process continues to work its magic on the beer within.

What is the difference between a keg and a cask beer?

Well actually, both casked and kegged beer are brewed in exactly the same way. However, casked beer is only partly ready before it goes into the cask. A keg on the other hand is like a giant can of beer. The beer is filtered and generally made sterile before going into the keg so its contents are ready to drink.

What is the difference between cask and craft ale?

The difference between craft beer and real ale. Real ales use traditional methods, continue fermentation in the cask or bottle and don’t add any extra gas once they’re brewed. Craft beers aren’t held to any technical or style rules but ‘craft breweries’ are.

How does cask beer work?

Serving Cask Beer Once tapped, the beer is dispensed by gravity. As the beer flows, air is allowed to enter through the spile (a small wooden peg used to control the flow of air into, and carbon dioxide out of a cask). I always prefer the beer engine, but the cask tap is okay for festivals and special events.

How do you store cask beer?

What temperature should I store the cask at? Casks should always be kept cool. Beer loses its flavour when it’s too cold, and worse still are “Chill Hazes”. These develop in beer stored at near-freezing temperatures, and prevent the beer clearing.

Does cask ale have a longer shelf life?

So long as it is stored at cellar temperature around 11C, and the cask is not tapped an average strength ale will last about 6 weeks; but once it is tapped it should ideally be drunk in 3 – 7 days. In a polypin, at cellar temperature, it should last for a week to 14 days.

When should you tap the cask?

Time the Tapping Right After you have waited as long as you can for the beer to condition then your beer should be tapped. 24 hours before you want to serve your beer give the keystone a good clean with a food safe sanitiser and use a clean dry tap (always make sure taps are cleaned between casks).

What makes real ale real?

Real ale is a beer that has fermented in the vessel from which it is served and the carbonation is entirely natural, not forced. Most real ale is served from a cask via a hand pump in the pub.

Can a cask conditioned ale be served in a pub?

Although this article is oriented to home brewers’ methods, it touches on concepts that can be of benefit to professional craft brewers as well. Cask-conditioned dispense of real ale is the traditional method of serving beer in the pubs of Britain.

What does it mean to drink beer in a cask?

Cask Conditioning is the process in which a draught beer retains yeast to enable a secondary fermentation to take place in a cask in the pub cellar. Cask conditioned beer is the traditional drink of the British pub, and served properly, it can be among the most subtle and beguiling of beer types.

What kind of hops are used in cask conditioned ales?

Cask-conditioned ales are often dry-hopped in the cask. I have had great success using a nylon hop bag. I tend to use between 0.5 and 1 oz of fresh whole hops per 5-gal Cornelius can. My favorite hops for this purpose are East Kent Goldings, Styrian Goldings, Fuggles, and Cascades.

When to remove sparkler from cask conditioned ale?

The sparkler is omitted whenever the carbonation levels climb on the high side of the cask ale range, around 1.7 volumes; it generates too much foaming, and without a sparkler the beer still has a creamy head because of the higher carbonation level.