9 gallon XXXX cask. My Precioussssssssssss

[S.E]

I'm thinking of dropping the beer bright in a couple of cornies in my spare kegerator then gently transfer them to the CO2 flushed cask. However I need something robust to put in the spile hole, especially when transporting to a case swap day whatever.

Ah I see, well if you only intend to use it as a show piece at club meetings then your rubber bung plan will be fine. I would carve a wooden one for aesthetics though.

No need to flush the cask or keep it topped up with co2 either if it’s being consumed within a day or two. I occasionally take a pin to club meets and just fill it from a cube the night before. That’s what they do for pop up real ale fests in the UK also if transporting the casks same day they are being consumed. They transfer it off the yeast to a clean cask so it is bright and ready to serve on arrival.

The UK Shives I have are 2”. I only have a few red plastic ones that came with the casks when I bought them and a few clear plastic ones that were given to me as a sample though. When I made enquires a few years ago I could only find them sold in bulk about 1000 or so I think.

I have two 4.5 gallon pins and a 9 gallon firkin but they don’t get a lot of use as they are too big for home use. I only use no chill cubes as casks at home as even the pins won’t fit in my fridge horizontal once they are tapped. I have a chest freezer with STC and engine setup now so I guess I could use them but really the cubes are just easier and better for home use.

The firkin was only ever used once, it made an appearance at a club beer fest but due to its size 9 gallons is a lot to consume quickly or keep at serving temp in our warm climate. Our club events are held outdoors so unless you guys have a cool room I think this may be the case with your cask, the novelty will soon wear off and it will just be taking up space in the garage and rarely if ever used.

You could keep the beer in cubes or corny kegs in the fridge and just fill the cask with a smaller quantity of beer as needed and depending on how many drinkers there are.

Here is a picture of the Shives I have. Also a plastic hard spile two soft spiles and a Race cask ventilator.

 

[Bribie G]

Great info. The other thing is that a full firkin is a bit firkin heavy to lift
A 30L brew might be the go, there's usually about 30 people at Winkle's dos so that's a couple of pints each along with all the other beers no doubt there.

 

[Bribie G]

Still sorta on topic, if I need to keep the beer blanketed for a week or so at home, or Xmas or whatever I'm going to try drilling out a silicone bung to take this:



A Whitelabs vial with a carb cap attached. Obviously cut the vial short and only light pressure as I realise it would pop if too much. And clean up the Sriracha sauce stains - Last year I was going to take a vial of it to Stu last Grafton meet, but never got round to it, so he misses out

That way I can keep it lightly carbed (I have an extra long gas line with an inline tap from when I used to have a CPBF) or even buy a party keg charger if that situation ever arose and just leak in a bit of CO2 at a time.

 

[S.E]

Great info. The other thing is that a full firkin is a bit firkin heavy to lift
A 30L brew might be the go, there's usually about 30 people at Winkle's dos so that's a couple of pints each along with all the other beers no doubt there.

We also usually have about 30 at our fests. Cubes and cornys can be kept cool easily in ice buckets and esky’s but the 9 gal is too big for that so everyone would need to drink their first two pints from that so it’s not left hanging around at ambient. You could build a cool box for it but that would defeat the purpose of having it on display.

Another way you could use it is run an insulated beer line from your kegerator down through the shive and connect it directly to the tap. Tell everyone the beer line is a co2 line and they’ll never know the difference.

 

[Bribie G]

That's a great idea. I could redecorate the cask to make it really authentic looking.

 

[Batz]

You see my PM about the Shives Bribie?

 

[S.E]

You see my PM about the Shives Bribie?

[SIZE=11pt]Can you share your pm about the shives Batz? I’ll need to get some when my last few are used up.[/SIZE]

 

[Batz]

This is the same shive I got with the Queensland barrel BB. I have no idea where you might buy them but as you can see they fit well.
Also easy to drill if you want to fit a C02 inlet. Perhaps not what your looking for but suits me.