Producing and Serving Homebrewed Cask Ales
Here is a link to an interesting article on Cask Ale from ratebeer.com: Warm, Flat, and Boring
Making and serving cask ales has always been a challenge for homebrewers. True cask ales are vented to the atmosphere and undergo changes due to exposure to air and the critters that it contains. As a result of this, cask ales are generally degraded after a few days to the point that they are no longer enjoyable. As homebrewers, we can't do this unless we can be sure the keg will be emptied in a day or two. For pubs that don't sell enough cask ale to empty a keg in a day or two, a product is available to allow the keg to remain on tap indefinitely. Although it is not approved by CAMRA, the UK's Campaign for Real Ale, you can use a cask breather, which is designed to keep a keg's headspace blanketed with CO2 rather than Air. These are available commercially from UK Brewing, but at a rather stiff price (about $90 plus shipping). We all know how frugal hombrewers are, so I've come up with an alternative that is more reasonably priced - around $20. I'll get into more details on this later.
After it is conditioned, it is chilled to 50-55°F for a few days. 2-3 days before serving you hammer a soft spile into the top bung, allowing beer and gas to slowly escape thru it. When the venting slows to the proper rate, you remove the soft spile (slowly) and hammer in a hard spile, which prevents further venting. The day before serving, hammer the tap into the bung on the end. When finally ready to serve, remove the hard spile and place a damp towel over the cask (covering the hole in the bung). This vent allows beer to flow freely from the tap without building up a vacuum in the cask.
Now putting the strict CAMRA definition aside, nearly any beer style or recipe can be used for a cask ale. Follow the first set of steps regardless of the serving method you use. Continue with the second set if you use a hand pump, or skip to section 3 for gravity fed serving.
That's it! Enjoy a nice cask ale that should be good to the last drop.
*** The LPG (Liquid Propane Gas) regulator should be a fixed low pressure type, and it functions as a cask breather. A fixed pressure LPG regulator is designed for 11" of water column, which translates to about 0.4 psig (psi gauge). This is not enough pressure to push beer out as long as the pump outlet is more than 11" above the keg liquid level. But it does keep a blanket of CO2 on the beer to prevent staling. Connect this LPG regulator in line from your CO2 supply (at any pressure) to the keg.
Here is a good recipe to help you get started. I've brewed it several times and it always comes out great. It is an Ordinary Bitter, a session beer of about 3.5% alcohol that works very well as a cask ale.
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Cask Ale is typically made by racking into a firkin (10.8 US gal) or pin (5.4 US gal), a type of keg with a bung on the top and on the end (when laid horizontally). The bung on the top is used for soft and hard spiles, and the one on the end is for the tap (or the connection to the hand pump). You rack the nearly finished young beer into the cask (filling to the top) and add a small amount of priming sugar and some gelatin finings. If you dry hop, be sure to add a boiled SS bolt (or other sanitized weight) to the hop bag to keep it weighted down, then seal the cask with bungs. Keep it at 65°F or so for a week to condition.