Should I cask my beer before bottling?

[mr_p_rice]

Hi all

I'd welcome a bit of advice please. I've been brewing for about 2 years, and up till now have always just put my beer into bottles straight from my fermenter (after syphoning it from my first fermenter to let it clear for a couple of days). I've recently read that really its better to cask the beer first for a couple of weeks, and then bottle it. My main question is, if I put it in a cask, and then open the cask later to syphon it into bottles, do I risk ruining the beer at this point?
Does casking the beer before bottling significantly improve the end product?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jim

[crafty john]

I personally don't think it makes any difference, I leave my beer in primary for two weeks, then transfer to a to a bottling bucket with the priming sugar and bottle straight away, or keg straight from the FV. I have done the casking thing in the past and it made no difference, in short if you are happy with your beer, don't fix what aint broken.

[Friary]

Hi Jim,

I've been wondering the same thing after reading Graham Wheeler's book. I've alway bottled (kits) straight from the primary FV after about 10 days, but GW says cask it first and only bottle once it has come into condition to allow any of the nasties to settle out in the cask. I've just done my first grain brew, which has some off flavours due to a slightly high fermentation temp, which I've put into a secondary FV (with air lock) to allow some of the off flavours to mellow. I was going to leave it here for a couple of weeks before bottling half and kegging half (2 gallon mini kegs). Whilst this doesn't keep the beer under pressure, I figure it might be doing approximately the same thing, although I won't leave it as long. Be interesting to see what other people do...

Whilst we're here, and sorry for slightly hijacking the thread, I've always primed my bottles, however GW says that there is no need to do this for a decent beer/yeast. Over the years I come across a couple of bottles that have been completely flat that I've always put down to forgetting to prime that bottle. I'm going to give it a go when I bottle my next batch with a couple of testers to see how it turns out, but I 'd be interested to see if anyone else here doesn't prime (either bulk or individual) bottles, or kegs come to that.

Cheers,

Matt

[oz11]

There is a similar thread here. My contribution was:

<<
I often do this (EDIT: Casking before bottling). It's the method proposed by Graham Wheeler and it's worked for me with good results. I prime the pressure keg and vent it over the first 24-36 hours, working on the principle that this will push the majority of oxygen out the keg. Depending on the OG I keep it kegged for anything from one week to a month or more. I then bottle from the keg, chilling it the day before and venting to release the pressure. First time I tried it I had concerns that the bottles might not carbonate but that has never been the case and I've always ended up with a decent amount of fizz, though I am happy with low levels of carbonation and have never tried to get the levels of carbonation that would suit a lager.

For me, it gets the beer out of my fermenter ready for the next brew.
>>

I wouldn't be happy to use a second FV instead of the barrel. Once you've taken it out the first FV you've lost the protective CO2 covering. Priming the barrel ensures a stronger fermentation than if you transfer to a second FV with no further priming and allows you to vent it after a day or so.

[alix101]

Probably not what your thinking of! But I bottle from a cornie it means I can force carb it and then use a beer gun to bottle, you have conditioned beer with no sediment so transporting etc is easy and you don't have mud when you pour. However it's an expensive way to do it with the cost of the beer gun keg co 2 etc.

[Matt12398]

Whilst we're here, and sorry for slightly hijacking the thread, I've always primed my bottles, however GW says that there is no need to do this for a decent beer/yeast. Over the years I come across a couple of bottles that have been completely flat that I've always put down to forgetting to prime that bottle. I'm going to give it a go when I bottle my next batch with a couple of testers to see how it turns out, but I 'd be interested to see if anyone else here doesn't prime (either bulk or individual) bottles, or kegs come to that.

I don't see how that makes sense. If the beer has finished fermenting and you don't add any more sugar when you prime there's nothing to generate CO2 and therefore it will be flat?

[oz11]

When I do it this way there is a bit of fizz in the beer coming out the barrel into the bottles, a bottling stick keeps foaming down and no beer is lost.

Also there's normally some residual sugars left for the yeast to slowly to work their through. I've never had a flat beer doing it this way, but I will say that you get a much gentler fizz, certainly nowhere near enough if you're doing a lager-style brew.

[mr_p_rice]

oz11 wrote:
> When I do it this way there is a bit of fizz in the beer coming out the barrel into
> the bottles, a bottling stick keeps foaming down and no beer is lost.
>
> Also there's normally some residual sugars left for the yeast to slowly to work their
> through. I've never had a flat beer doing it this way, but I will say that you get
> a much gentler fizz, certainly nowhere near enough if you're doing a lager-style
> brew.

Do you syphon the beer out of the top of the cask, or from the tap?

[oz11]

From the tap, a small length of Vossy's tubing (from the homebrew forum) connects that to the bottling stick nicely

[seymour]

I may not be adding much by saying so, but it seems to me we're actually having two simultaneous debates:
1. possible benefits of racking to a secondary fermentor, and
2. possible benefits of cask and/or barrel conditioning (which is one way to accomplish secondary fermentation, but so are plastic buckets or carboys...or even bottles to a certain extent)

I personally almost always rack to a secondary fermentor for lengthy conditioning before bottling, but that's because most of what I brew are high-gravity funky recipes that take a long time to finish fermenting, tone down, and clear. That said, I've seen plenty of convincing evidence that when brewing basic table-strength ales, it is likely just as good or better (and more sanitary) to go straight from primary fermentor to bottling/kegging step.
As to the cask/barrel part of the question: obviously they add complexity and I would certainly use 'em for certain batches if I had 'em.

[Martin G]

I like going from fermentor to pressure barrel, I don't like primingand it isa little safer in a cask with a pressure valve if you move a little too early. I can fine if I want to and I can wait till I'm happy with clarity and condition before bottling. I use the tap to monitor and so prefer to syphon in case there are bugs in the tap.

[mr_p_rice]

Many thanks for all the advice. I think I'm going to give casking a go and see if I notice any improvement.