Racking to a brewer's Firkin - advice needed please!

[fivetide]

Hi there - I was hoping to get a little advice ahead of casking my latest brew.

I have brewed and fermented a 50L batch, most of which I now need to get into a brewer's Firkin, ultimately to be served at a beer festival.

It's a standard looking steel Firkin cask that has been cleaned and sanitized. It has a keystone already in place, and the larger bung hole is open and ready. I also have the bung, obviously.

The brew is fermented out according to my recipe at 1.014 from 1.047. There may be another point in there somewhere but it hasn't changed in over 24 hours and won't budge now. If I were racking to Cornies I would have no issues at all.

I plan to add priming sugar solution to the cask, siphon the beer until the cask is full to overflowing, then smack in the plastic bung with a rubber mallet. Leave in the warm here for a week then hand over to be cellared for three weeks.

Does that sound reasonable?

Here are my concerns
- the amount of priming sugar dark spray malt (it's a stout and I usually go for about 50g in 23 litres so was going for 89g in a 41 litre Firkin?)
- the lack of head space

Do I fill it right to the brim just like commercial brewers even though they cool and cask a couple of points before fully fermented rather than using priming sugars?

If so do I use the amount of spraymalt I've outlined? Less? More?

Obviously I don't want it to explode or throw the stone during conditioning or be unusually lively in the line-up of Firkins when tapped.

I will do this overnight, so I hope you don't mind at all if I post this enquiry elsewhere too, as I need to ensure I get some guidance at stupidly short notice.

Thanks so much for any help as always.

 

[jamesb]

That all sounds reasonable to me. It's the same as I do. I use 75g of sugar though.

 

[fivetide]

Ah James! Good to see you!

Right, so 75g sounds perfectly reasonable.

Is it okay that the beer is fermented out and at room temperature (24 degrees-ish). And is it okay to fill to the very brim?

I know it would probably have been more sensible to rack it with a couple of points of gravity left in it and no priming, ideally...

 

[jamesb]

Give it about 10mm headspace from the bottom of the shive hole. It should stop any blow outs. Unlikely to happen either way but it will stop the beer being too lively on the pour. This is just what i do when doing a home firkin, i haven't tried any other way. I can't remember what rationale i used when i devised the method but it works. Obviously at the brewery we do things differently.

I am assuming of course that you're filling from the shive hole. If it's the keystone end leave a lot less headspace.

Are you using isinglass?

 

[fivetide]

No finings at all, I had hoped? It's a stout so I can keep it veggie with no concerns about clarity.

I'm filling the shive hole on the rounded side of the cask - the keystone is already banged in.

I'll boil up 75g dark spraymalt with a quarter litre of water, throw that in, then siphon up to the shive hole then shall I?

Normally I would have just gone ahead but I don't get two goes at this and it's my first beer festival listing, so want to get it just right.

Thanks James.

 

[jamesb]

I'd personally use finings anyway. They're a picky lot at festivals and even though a stout is dark you can tell if it's not polished.

But yeah, just fill it to 10mm below the shive hole and you should be fine.

 

[fivetide]

Right, I'm now using two-part finings ahead of racking. Will crisp it up while avoiding putting the isinglass in the cask.

That 75g you mentioned, was that for a stout?

There are a lot of head grains in this recipe and my test brew came out great in a king keg with 50g sugars, but then that had head space and a pressure valve...

 

[bones]

What would be the optimum time to mature before serving?
and how long would a cask last unspoilt?

Please state for the following:

3.5% 4% 4.5% 5% 5%+

 

[fivetide]

Well craftbrewers often say a week priming at fermentation temperature then a further week cool conditioning for each 10 original gravity points, but I think after experience of brewing the same recipes you can tailor that for each brew (and for me, with little conditionign temperature control, the time of year, too).

 

[jamesb]

I might open a can of worms here, but the homebrewers's 10p/week is a load of old ballsacks.

It might well be right, and I think it is, but no-one goes by it. Commercially, no-one can afford to store beer that long. We're all used to drinking green beer, in fact I think some are better young, but some are better old. If it tastes good, get on with it.

 

[fivetide]

I've found some recipes drink well young, especially nice late-hopped pale ales, whereas for my palette more complex malty bests and specials are better after more conditioning. But it's just preference and experience I guess.

This particular beer tastes pretty good from the fermenter and I'm hoping it'll be good by first weekend in May.

 

[fivetide]

Thanks so much for all the help and guidance.

 

[fivetide]

Same problem, one year on - this just helped me again, thanks.

 

[pjbiker]

I'd like to do this kind of thing myself sometime. How did you get round the erm.... legal issues?

 

[jamesb]

There are no legal issues with racking beer into a firkin, unless you're planning on selling it. Plenty of info on the forum about that. Basically, DON'T DO IT WITHOUT PERMISSION'

 

[46.philh]

Well craftbrewers often say a week priming at fermentation temperature then a further week cool conditioning for each 10 original gravity points, but I think after experience of brewing the same recipes you can tailor that for each brew (and for me, with little conditionign temperature control, the time of year, too).

Went to York brewery on Saturday and they said 6 days to ferment out, 2 days cold storage then in the firkin and out the door.

So from brew day to in the pub 8 to 9 days. 2 days to settle in the pub before then being served.

:hmm: well I suppose they are brewing for money.

 

[Aleman]

Went to York brewery on Saturday and they said 6 days to ferment out, 2 days cold storage then in the firkin and out the door.

It's a running trade . . .Surprised they wait 6 days for it to ferment . . .most commercial breweries I know want the FV's emptied after 3 days :shock: But then they pitch a shed load of yeast. :grin:

 

[46.philh]

It might have be a day or two less in the FV, the speaker was hard to hear and the tour was the last call of the day after visiting a few pubs in york :drink: