1. Barry A Jones Rankin Brothers & Sons
Brewery Resource Roadshow Bristol 16th February Cask Beer Containers & Closure Selection
Barry A Jones
Rankin Brothers & Sons

2. Cask Conditioned Beer (Real Ale)
“beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed and served without the use of extraneous gas”
Statement from CAMRA

3. Container Sizes 4½ Gallon Pin – w, a, s/s & plastic
9 Gallon Firkin – w, a, s/s & plastic
10 Gallon (Whitbread/InBev) – s/s
11 Gallon (½ hectolitre) – a & s/s
18 Gallon Kilderkin – w, a & s/s
22 Gallon (hectolitre) – a & s/s
36 Gallon Barrel – w, a & s/s
54 Gallon Hogshead – w & a

6. Stainless Steel - advantages
Easy to maintain
No need for a liner
Unlimited choice of cleaners/sterilizers
Easy automatic handling
Either fabricated or deep drawn
Availability – 1 UK, 1 French, 1 Spanish & 2 Chinese suppliers.

7. Stainless Steel - disadvantages
Weight for large containers
Denting & chime damage
Repair costs – need for outside specialist
Theft

8. Plastic - advantages Price BP stackable Light weight No scrap value
Colour coding

9. Plastic - disadvantages
Supply – only BP & Emmerald
Quality – splits/breakages/distortion
Specification – volume/hole sizes
Sealability – variation in shive bush size
Weight – too light for large volume brewery washers/auto tilt devices
Strength – squashed by large volume brewery rackers & fork trucks

10. Closure Selection? Wood – shive, keystone, tut & spile (peg)
Plastic – shive, keystone, tut, spile & tap hole bung
Cork – tut & tap hole bung

11. Wood - advantages Natural product Swells when wet
Spile – porous to allow CO2 to escape, hard to seal but when loose to allow O2 ingress

12. Wood - disadvantages
Pieces in cask often not removed by washing therefore needing to be removed by hand
Keystone breakage on tapping
Shive breakage on removal
Potential infection of beer from debris or contaminated spiles
Microbiological issues (mould/flies)
Price

13. Plastic - advantages Price Sterility
Only small pieces fall into the cask easliy removed by washing process
Can use colour to denote quality/brand
Can print/mould for branding

14. Plastic - disadvantages
Leaking – do not swell to take neck discrepancies therefore a need for various sizes
Leaking – highly conditioned beers in high ambient temperatures (normally keystones)

15. Cork Used as tap hole bung Used as tut hole bung
Alternatives are a plastic tap hole bung (UB) & either the spile or plastic tut to seal shive

16. Stainless Steel - Suppliers
Kammac – C/D band shive, No2 keystone
Portinox – supply Kammac (Spanish)
Hereford – C/D band shive, No.2 keystone
Maison Neuve – C/D band shive, No.3 keystone (French)
Sovereign – C/D band shive, No.2 keystone (Chinese)
Crusader – C band shive, No.2 keystone (Chinese)

17. Kammac The No.4 shive bush takes a C band shive
Kammac have a choice of 9 bush sizes
No.2 keystone

18. Hereford Casks
C band, D band
No. 2 keystone

19. Maison Neuve
C band for most including E Casks but D band for some such as GK
No.3 keystone housing –
use No.2 thermoplastic

20. Sovereign Beverage Co
C band shive for most including E-Casks but also produce for D band
No.2 keystone

21. Crusader Kegs & Casks
C band shive although they claim to manufacture to customers’ requirements
No.2 keystone

24. Emmerald Polymers (GPS)
Own threaded shive, No.2 keystones (K2)

25. Emmerald - Disadvantages
Weeping issues around shive, need to retighten
Threaded shive – non percussive so tool required – one supplier & expensive
Price v Brewery Plastics
Height/weight

26. Brewery Plastics (CypherCo)
Own shive (T&EP), A or B band.
No.2 thermoplastic keystone

27. Brewery Plastics - Disadvantages
Shive hole variation & ovality
Shive hole ridges
3 piece construction
Keystone housing at both ends
Weight
Lack of Customer Service

32. Leakers – Weld Problems

33. Leakers –Weld Problems