Trevor - I bet there are quite a few beer brewers on this list. Thanks for
the insight into proper cellar management for cask conditioned ales. If
your beers only requireded a couple of days storage before the cask was
empty I doubt oxidation would have ever been a problem.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas USA

"Pinky" > wrote in message
. uk...
> 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
>>
>>
>
>