Who knows how to do this?

[imacoming]

I want to cask condition an American Wheat. Firstly, how do I cask condition and what would be the best way to do this? The cask is needed for the end of this month…..and I still have to brew it.

[brewinhard]

When cask conditioning in a keg you simply boil up about 1/2 of the amount of priming sugar (I believe) you would normally do for your bottling techniques. Add it to the beer after racking into keg and seal the lid with just enough CO2 to seat it. Let it sit warm for 10-14 days, then pour your first glass. You will probably need to add a tiny bit of gas to get the beer to continually pour. Please someone correct me if I am wrong.

[Mylo]

Cask conditioning just refers to using priming sugar in the keg. As far as what amount - that is up to you. Generally it's not as much - because if you push it through a sparkler, it's all going to come out anyway.

Dispensing is another set of decisions. I have heard of people taking out their liquid dip tubes, putting the keg on its side, and putting an empty gas disconnect on to let air in - gravity down to a authentic or RV hand pump. You have to drink that sucker in one 4-6 hour session to avoid nasty oxygenation. Otherwise, I have heard of people repurposing (new) propane regulators as homemade "cask breathers" that you hook up to your CO2 line. It puts just enough pressure on their to refill the headspace when you draw off a pint - and not enough to push it through the handpump. Good luck.


Mylo

[imacoming]

I am not doing this in a regular cornie keg. It will be served in a 40L keg...like this


I was hoping to serve an American Wheat but someone has suggested that this would not be a good style to serve as cask condition

[Phil]

I was hoping to serve an American Wheat but someone has suggested that this would not be a good style to serve as cask condition

i'd agree. i'd say go english, a mild or a brown ale would be nice.

[imacoming]

Ok, I have the styl
e down. Now how do you cask conidtion? I have never done this before and am having trouble finding how-to instructions

[mRandolph]

Howdy!

The advice you've gotten here is good, I'm hoping I can add a bit more. Cask conditioning is letting a second fermentation happen in the cask, just like with the bottle. However, you usually vent most of that pressure off serve it with a bit over a volume of pressure. For details, check out the CARMA website. The purpose is to use a non-CO2 dispense method, both for tradition and to accentuate beers that go well with a 'controlled rot.' This has traditionally been British beers, but at the UK festivals this summer, CAMRA was very proud of some cask conditioned lagers around.

As Mylo said, your beer will spoil as it ages with the air, but usually it takes about 5 days to spoil if you keep it at cellar temps (around 50F) and you get a neat range of flavors over those 5 days. You have a firkin (or a pin if it is closer to 5 gallons). In the picture you have the hard spile, which you leave in during the secondary fermentation. If I recall correctly, you then replace that with a soft spile about 2 days before serving, which is when the cask 'vents'. It is imperative to let the beer sit 'in stillage' for a day or 2 before serving to let the yeast fall out and the beer run clear-- think bottle conditioned home brew on a massive scale, a shaken bottle is a bit milkshakey. You'll probably gravity feed through a spigot, which is great fun, and draws air through the soft spile to replace the gravity fed beer.

I'm jealous of your firkin/pin there. I'm thinking about doing some small-scale cask conditioning in 2 Gallon Mr. Beer casks ($10 from their website). These guys, have a fantastic how-to. And this company has all the fixin's for your cask beer experience.