Well well I've lernt something already from you on the cask ale. Gathering it's an English Extra Special Bitter style beers you'll be brewing for this. I remember awhile back reading about sorta deflatable casks they deflate as you use the beer up I think it's to stop oxidizing beer as you drink.There is carbonation, not like keg but thats part of the beauty in my mind. I think it naturaly carbonates as it ferments in the cask but I read different idea's on wether you need to add sugars or even wort that you've saved to get the right carbonation. Theres defiantly an art to it! I do have a "Beer engine" and want to put it to good use hopefuly.
Ah trust an Englishman to give us the nod on Cask Ale eh?There's very little difference between cask and keg beers. Mine are exactly the same, the keg ones just get put under gas.
I use pins too, an ideal size for many of us. They get filled to the brim to exclude any oxygen and sealed. Sometimes they dry hopped but rarely. Sometimes they're fined for clarity, that's less rare. There's never anything else, no priming sugar etc.
Once breached they have a shelf life of three days or so, although that can be extended by putting CO2 on top of the beer through the vent.
Once you put CO2 on top of cask beer it puts you at odds with CAMRA and the accepted definition of real ale. I can't abide CAMRA but many take them very seriously
I follow/stalk/watch an English fellas Vlog on YouTube his brewery is Harrison's Brewery. He's a craft brewer I watched him ever since he was brewing at home just like us. Have you heard of him by any chance? I'm sure his brewery is in Nottinghamshire he won best brewery of Nottinghamshire county last year I'm sure...Oh, and happy to help! Being English had to come in handy one day...
Well I'm from Aus so Can't speak for the Yanks but let's just say I would never heard of "Cask Ales" as a thing if not for hombrewing.Give me a shout when you make it.
Should also say at this stage that it may well be that some US brewers are experimenting with cask and carbonation might be one of those experiments, although I can't see how, but the traditional/English style is as I've said. Everything else is something else.
There's no carbonation in cask beer. There will be some CO2 as it goes through secondary fermentation in the cask but it isn't for carbonation, just a by product that is vented off.
When we tap and vent a cask it's open to atmosphere so any gas in th vessel is gone. As has been said, any head is formed at dispense via the pump (very properly called a beer engine - full marks for that!)
Is anything added to create a secondary fermentation, or is it more just finishing off the primary in the cask? So it's transferred a few points shy of terminal gravity? Or is it more the other ideas of conditioning, things like cleaning up some of the fermentation by products.