Sorry to everyone else but this is about beer and not wine!!!


Bill
It is a long time ago and I cannot pretend to be the expert that I was in
1974!

First of all the art of cask conditioned beer is certainly not a dying art.
Indeed many "free houses" ( i.e privately owned pubs) make their own range
of draught beers.

I cannot now actually remember but it was obviously important that the cask,
once tapped and spiled ( a spile is a pourous wooden peg which allows air to
enter the cask - slowly_ as the beer is drawn off and is also a part of the
final conditoning). Thinking back I would expect my 18 gal ( imp) Kilderkins
to be on service for not more than about 2 days maximum. But I could protect
them a bit as well and I certainly remember that on a slow moving barrel I
would squirt some CO2 into the barrel at the end of the evening before
putting a hard spile (ie non pourous) into the barrel for overnighting ( I
had a couple of CO2 cylinders for my lager "keg"beer). The importance was
that I was serving a "live beer" which would continue to be in condition
until the last pint was drawn off . At weekends when the beer was moving
much faster I could filter of the "ends" of a barrel and carefully feed it
into the new one -- bu this took a keen nose and sense of taste to ensure
the "old beer" was still in good condition. I certainly did not run an old
fashioned "feedback" s ystem where the spillage from the hand pumps was fed
back into the "mild" barrel.

I also startled the villagers in Somerset in 1971 when every new order was
serverd in a clean glass. And I never pulled a pint that washed my taps in
the newly pulled pint ( ie I didn't let my beer taps dip into the beer
filling the glass.

There was a lot of resistance to the "clean glass " policy when I first
started but within 6 months it worked well and apart from the fact that all
my draught beers were served in prime sparkliing condition it all meant that
all my wastage was at a minimun. it also meant that I had to have a strile
glass washing machine -- now that was difficult in 1971 and I didn't find
the solution to my problem until 2 years later.

It was also very ,very important that all the pipes feeding the beer from
the cellar to the bar hand pumps were washed regularly and a sensible
landlord cleaned his pipes on Friday afternoon so that his beer for the w/e
were being pullled through the cleanest systems all of the w/e. You could
certainly tell the lazy landlord who din't do this -- I couldn't now but
then I am certainly not a beer drinker over the last 25 years.

Right that's enuff!
On the dark stout that I make for my 98 year old Dad in a 5 gal ( imp)
barrel, I use conditioning sugar and indeed i top it up with CO2 when needed
to keep it incondition -- it is just the same as i did years ago but not
quite so demanding.

To be honest the essentialls were
1. A clean well washed cellar.
2. regular cleaning of the pipes - espescial b4 the w/e.
3. Clean glasses every time so the beer can show itself off
4. No cheating with old sour beers! -- ie great care and a lot of time.

Producing good draught beer, on demand, is much more difficult than
producing a good bottle of wine!

another apology to all of us wine buffs! Sorry!


"William Frazier" > wrote in message
...
>
> Pinky wrote "Since all my beers were "cask conditioned" it was essential
> to keep the
>> cellar clean and any spillages made when tapping a new barrel were washed
>> away immediately. As I remember I had 3 different types of draught
>> bitter, and 1 "mild" ( a dark beer). The draught lager and the Guinness I
>> sold were my only preconditioned beers that came in special "kegs" and
>> needed CO2 pressure to feed to the bar."
>
> Trevor - I've made ales for years but have always bottled with some sugar
> to carbonate. I've read with interest about cask conditioned ales in
> which no carbon dioxide was used to fill the void as the ale was drawn
> from the keg. This of course exposes the ale to air and subsequent
> oxidation. I imagine it took some good planning to keep the beer fresh.
> How long did it usually take to empty a cask of ale in your pub. Am I
> correct that serving real cask conditioned ale is becoming a lost art in
> the UK? I keep trying to brew a proper Mild but mine continue to be thin
> bodied...any pointers? Thanks.
>
> Bill Frazier
> Olathe, Kansas USA
>
>