Efficiency and Yield Up

[Steve SPF]

My mega boil has come out of the fermenter and I'm really pleased. Efficiency is up to 75% and the yield is 70 litres.

The efficiency is particularly pleasing. I think a careful mash and proper attention to all the temps are key to that. A very interesting brew session.

 

[GFHomebrew]

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My mega boil has come out of the fermenter and I'm really pleased. Efficiency is up to 75% and the yield is 70 litres.

The efficiency is particularly pleasing. I think a careful mash and proper attention to all the temps are key to that. A very interesting brew session.

And what is that there vessel you've pictured Steve?

 

[Steve SPF]

And what is that there vessel you've pictured Steve?

Ah, those. They're 4.5 gallon 'pins' , I guess not everyone has seen those, or knows what our funky UK cask sizes are so...

Two pins equal one firkin. Two firkins equal one kilderkin. Two kilderkins equal a barrel and your hogshead is a barrel and a half but you don't see many of those these days.

These days, of course, we're very metric so it's all blimmin hectolitres but us dinosaurs can still get pins and think in gallons

 

[GFHomebrew]

Ah, those. They're 4.5 gallon 'pins' , I guess not everyone has seen those, or knows what our funky UK cask sizes are so...

Two pins equal one firkin. Two firkins equal one kilderkin. Two kilderkins equal a barrel and your hogshead is a barrel and a half but you don't see many of those these days.

These days, of course, we're very metric so it's all blimmin hectolitres but us dinosaurs can still get pins and think in gallons

Ok so you've got two of them there stacked one on top of each other.
Now once your ready to consume how do you go about getting a draught from them?
You spike em or something don't you?
Forgive my metric Cornelius consuming ignorance

 

[Mark Farrall]

...Two pins equal one firkin. Two firkins equal one kilderkin. Two kilderkins equal a barrel and your hogshead is a barrel and a half but you don't see many of those these days...

Ye gods!

Very happy I was born as metric was being pushed out in Aus.

Though for some reason height of people is still imperial. Height of anything other than a person is generally metric, but people are imperial.

 

[Steve SPF]

 

[Steve SPF]

Ok so you've got two of them there stacked one on top of each other.
Now once your ready to consume how do you go about getting a draught from them?
You spike em or something don't you?
Forgive my metric Cornelius consuming ignorance

Traditionally they would have been laid down on a stillage with a tap in the front and soft peg in the top so it could breathe as the beer was drawn through the tap. This genius invention is a 'cask widge' which is, as you say, 'spiked' through the keystone with the cask stood on end, it draws from the top of the beer and wastes very little.Needs a hand pump (beer engine) to do the actual dispensing.

I've just ordered some slim 20lt Sankey fit kegs as well. A bit trickier to work with than Cornelius kegs but much more robust I think. Also, Corny kegs are getting a bit out of control price wise.

 

[Steve SPF]

Ye gods!

Very happy I was born as metric was being pushed out in Aus.

Though for some reason height of people is still imperial. Height of anything other than a person is generally metric, but people are imperial.

We got decimalisation at the same time, deeply confusing for small humans!

 

[Bubba Wade]

I think we need to see a picture of this tapped and operating. Not something you see down here in Louisiana.

 

[Steve SPF]

I think we need to see a picture of this tapped and operating. Not something you see down here in Louisiana.

I will post some pics and info. They're just so normal to us that it's easy to forget they may be unusual to others.

 

[Steve SPF]

 

[Megary]

Two pins equal one firkin. Two firkins equal one kilderkin. Two kilderkins equal a barrel and your hogshead is a barrel and a half but you don't see many of those these days.

That's the most wonderful thing I've ever read on the internet. I've committed it to memory.

I'm going to start calling my kegs "pins" and I just can't wait until someone asks me, "What's a pin?".

 

[Nosybear]

That's the most wonderful thing I've ever read on the internet. I've committed it to memory.

I'm going to start calling my kegs "pins" and I just can't wait until someone asks me, "What's a pin?".

And I thought US conventional units were bad....

 

[Bubba Wade]

I take it that you are using a beer engine with this. How long will the cask be good for once it is tapped?

 

[Steve SPF]

That's the most wonderful thing I've ever read on the internet. I've committed it to memory.

I'm going to start calling my kegs "pins" and I just can't wait until someone asks me, "What's a pin?".

Brilliant! Archaic British measurements back in the house! Wonder if I can still get malt in bushels...

 

[Steve SPF]

I take it that you are using a beer engine with this. How long will the cask be good for once it is tapped?

Yes, we need a hand pump for dispense at the bar. The beer is at its best for three days and then it's downhill from there. We can often go a week with one tapped but that's pushing it.

This is what CAMRA was born for, to campaign for the retention of cask when the brewers were trying to get us to drink keg beer. It's tough for a commercial brewer with such a fickle product.

 

[Bubba Wade]

I like the idea of the hand pumped ale. However, even making 2-1/2 gallon batches, it takes me longer than three days to go through a keg. I have seen some systems that people have developed that use very low pressure CO2 on the air intake to preserve freshness. This allows a corny keg system to be used with a beer engine. I guess I will add this to my upgrade list.

 

[Steve SPF]

I like the idea of the hand pumped ale. However, even making 2-1/2 gallon batches, it takes me longer than three days to go through a keg. I have seen some systems that people have developed that use very low pressure CO2 on the air intake to preserve freshness. This allows a corny keg system to be used with a beer engine. I guess I will add this to my upgrade list.

Yes, we can get C02 breathers that layer gas on top of the beer. I wouldn't put a cask on at home, all my beer at home is bottle or keg. I'm really enjoying bottling at the moment, just ordered a Blichmann bottling gun which should help there.

Those two casks have been promised to a club locally to me and I have a small social club myself as well so I never have too much beer

 

[FrostyBeach]

Steve SPF, we are going to visit republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland in March 2020, do you have some places we should not miss?

 

[Mark Farrall]

Yes, we need a hand pump for dispense at the bar. The beer is at its best for three days and then it's downhill from there. We can often go a week with one tapped but that's pushing it.

This is what CAMRA was born for, to campaign for the retention of cask when the brewers were trying to get us to drink keg beer. It's tough for a commercial brewer with such a fickle product.

Not just the commercial brewers. There's not many late teen, early 20s shift managers in busy pubs that have the skills and/or patience to treat a cask properly. This would have to be a big reason for the shift to kegs in the 70s/80s.