Cask faux Pas?

[Joeyriles]

Hello,

I just wanted to see if I've made a huge error with my casking of my beer.
With the cask almost entirely full, I went to hammer in the shive and it just wouldn't go in fully. Bubbles kept fizzing near the sides of the hole and I felt like it just wasn't secure. I siphoned out about a litre of beer to see if that would make a difference and it did, to a small extent. The shive still never really felt like it was all the way down, which caused me some consternation.
I have just popped the shive (rather too easily in my opinion) and replaced it with a different type which appears to be much more snug. My question is: will this brief introduction of oxygen have harmed all 72 pints of beer or is there still time for the secondary fermentation to save the day? I'm not serving the beer until the 24th march.


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[MyQul]

I would suggest, any into of O2 will get scavenged by the yeast during secondary fermentation. A bit like the O2 getting scavenged by the yeast in a bottle, with the air gap between the beer and the cap

 

[Joeyriles]

Many thanks.

I've now discovered a far weightier problem: I've overprimed. I stupidly had my parameters wrong on the brewer's friend priming calculator and I put 400grams of sugar into the firkin...
Now, damage limitation: it's outside in the snow where I know it won't blow up due to the temperature. I can't really see a solution except for hope it doesn't blow it's top before the party I'm taking this firkin along to. As the weather thaws it will naturally carbonate but could I yet avoid awfully fizzy beer by venting it ahead of the party?
I swear I have a brain...

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[steveshep8676]

Hi Joey, there’s no need to prime your cask beer at all. If you left it as it was it would come out just fine believe me I have done it many many times. I take it your using a hand pull beer engine to draw out the beer? That alone should give you a really good quality head on your beer. Some breweries cask their beers when it just short of completing fermentation by a couple of points but I’ve never done that. I have also run my ale through a six plate filter to make a bright beer in a firkin filled to the brim. That beer had a fantastic head and was crystal clear. The reason pubs let their beer stand after tapping them is to let the finings settle back down whilst in the spring loaded racking cradle so there’s little or no active yeast in the cask. The casks are also stored at around 10/14c which is most cellar temperatures and yeast wouldn’t be active at those temperatures anyway. I’ll attach an image to show you what I mean, the beer in the image has been stripped and polished through a 4 micron six plate filter unit so nothing in there regards yeast. It was a nine gallon firkin with nothing added being pulled from a hand pull beer engine. I hope this has been of some help to you, oh shives do come in many sizes so make sure you have the correct size. Just to let you know a bit on my knowledge and background, I have done a professional brewing course at Brewlabs in Sunderland and have a small brewery set up which has given me some fantastic results. Happy brewing [emoji2][emoji106]

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[Joeyriles]

Hi Joey, there’s no need to prime your cask beer at all. If you left it as it was it would come out just fine believe me I have done it many many times. I take it your using a hand pull beer engine to draw out the beer? That alone should give you a really good quality head on your beer. Some breweries cask their beers when it just short of completing fermentation by a couple of points but I’ve never done that. I have also run my ale through a six plate filter to make a bright beer in a firkin filled to the brim. That beer had a fantastic head and was crystal clear. The reason pubs let their beer stand after tapping them is to let the finings settle back down whilst in the spring loaded racking cradle so there’s little or no active yeast in the cask. The casks are also stored at around 10/14c which is most cellar temperatures and yeast wouldn’t be active at those temperatures anyway. I’ll attach an image to show you what I mean, the beer in the image has been stripped and polished through a 4 micron six plate filter unit so nothing in there regards yeast. It was a nine gallon firkin with nothing added being pulled from a hand pull beer engine. I hope this has been of some help to you, oh shives do come in many sizes so make sure you have the correct size. Just to let you know a bit on my knowledge and background, I have done a professional brewing course at Brewlabs in Sunderland and have a small brewery set up which has given me some fantastic results. Happy brewing [emoji2][emoji106]
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Thank you for the advice for next time, Steve. Any advice for handling this current predicament?

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[Mrobson]

I’ve casked two brews now, fermented in primary for two weeks then transferred onto 40g (plastic pin) for both. First one was perfect but the second attempt popped a keystone but I’ve put that down to cold crashing before hand. Managed to salvage 4 gallon and siphoned that back into the pin with a sprinkle of sugar to re-prime again, due to be tapped this weekend so fingers crossed it’s still drinkable.

400g of sugar is a hell of a lot tho, I’m no expert but I think I’d bring it up to serving temperature and vent it a couple of days before your serving. That way it won’t explode and you should get to enjoy it.

 

[Joeyriles]

I’ve casked two brews now, fermented in primary for two weeks then transferred onto 40g (plastic pin) for both. First one was perfect but the second attempt popped a keystone but I’ve put that down to cold crashing before hand. Managed to salvage 4 gallon and siphoned that back into the pin with a sprinkle of sugar to re-prime again, due to be tapped this weekend so fingers crossed it’s still drinkable.

400g of sugar is a hell of a lot tho, I’m no expert but I think I’d bring it up to serving temperature and vent it a couple of days before your serving. That way it won’t explode and you should get to enjoy it.

Thank you. Pretty embarrassing I know...
It's so far staying intact but I'm worried about putting it in the car to move it to this venue!

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[Mrobson]

Should be ok if it doesn’t roll around and is still cold enough so the yeast is dormant.

 

[Joeyriles]

That's my plan. I assume there will be some carbonation, even if it's been kept relatively cold?

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[Mrobson]

Could always use a couple of ratchet straps around the shive and keystone whilst moving it to the venue?

 

[Joeyriles]

Could always use a couple of ratchet straps around the shive and keystone whilst moving it to the venue?

Set it up today and it didn't blow its top!
Surprisingly good considering the overpriming but I've kept it out in the cold for a month. First couple of pints pretty cloudy but am now leaving it for 48 hours before the main event where it should hopefully clear.

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