The Goals in producing beers for the Yard City Cask Festival were:

Low alcohol, quaffable, sessionble beers

Young beers

Priming them in the keg to produce appropriate carbonation

When I made the Mild & first Bitter I could then set the date for the event.  I set it for 3 1/2 weeks out.  Brad had already made his bitter the previous Saturday, making his beer four weeks old before tapped.  Worried about not having enough festival beer, I made yet another bitter only 2 weeks before the event!  (Crazy, I know.)  I'm very happy to report that all the beers were ready with all of the goals achieved.

I used information on priming beer for low carbonation in the keg from multiple sources: Sutula's Mild Ale book, Foster's Pale Ale, and the Tastybrew priming calculator.  I decided to go with priming the kegs at different rates.  Some were 7/8 oz of sucrose, some 1 1/8 ounce, and Brad primed his at 1 ounce.  All were refermented in the keg warm (68-72F), then chilled to celler temperature a few days before dispense.  All primings worked fine.  What I really learned was that, just like a cask coming into a pub celler in London, one needs to actively manage the refermenting beer during this time of conditioning.  I monitered the pressure in the keg with this, bleeding off excess as needed, and comparing with common pressure/temperature/volume charts.

Side spiel about the two stuck mashes I had on the 10th, right here.

W Feb 10, 10

Major Tom Mild

• 12.5#  Baird's Maris Otter
• 1.5#    Castle Kiln Coffee  (180L)
• .25#    Briess C-120
• 1.75 oz.   UK Styrians 5.2% aa  (18 ibus)
• Wyeast 1968 London ESB & 1028 London Ale
• Irish Moss & Wyeast Brewers Choice Yeast Nutrient & 3g CaCl (kettle)

5 gallons H2O @ 152F: 30 minutes, no mashout (ala English Brewers).  Vorlauf & run off.  Such great extraction in the mash that I had to liquor down in the kettle to achieve desired OG.

OG:  1.037

Captain Hastings Bitter

• 13#     Baird's Maris Otter
• 1.25#  Briess C-120
• 3 oz.    UK Styrians 5.2% aa, 75 minutes (31 ibus)
• 1.5 oz. UK Styrians 5.2% aa, K.O.
• Wyeast 1028 London Ale & 1882 Thames Valley II
• Moss, Yeast Nutrient, & 2g CaSO4 (kettle)

5 gallons @ 149F: 30+ minutes, no mashout.  Vorlauf & run off.

OG:   1.039

F Feb 19, 10

Grampa Wigan Bitter

• 13#   Gambrinus Pale Malt
• .75#  Briess C-20
• .25#  Thomas Fawcett & Sons Amber Malt  (50L)
• 1.5 oz.  Weyermann Chocolate Rye  (188-300L)
• 3.25 oz.  Cascade Pellets 5.4% aa, 90 minutes (35 ibus)
• .5 oz.    Cascades, 5 minutes
• 1 oz.     Cascades, K.O.
• Wyeast 1968 & 1098 British Ale
• Moss & Nutrient, no salts (I think) and unfiltered water

5.5+ gallons @ 154: 30 minutes, no mashout.  Vorlauf unt run off.  A speedy 4 hour beer!

OG:  1.039