Originally posted by wheresthepath
Out of interest, what on earth is an Aitken font and why is it so superior?
In short, it’s what’s used for dispensing cask beer by air pressure. I know nothing about the mechanics of it. |
Strewth! I love cask beer in good nick but reading this, well small wonder some craft brewers opt for keg. |
Originally posted by madmitch76
Strewth! I love cask beer in good nick but reading this, well small wonder some craft brewers opt for keg.
Why, because dealing with cask beer would mean having to learn things? |
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Originally posted by DJMonarch
Information from the Bo’ness Real Ale Appreciation Society on the Aitken Tall Font:
"Obviously there are many differences between [Aitken] tall fonts and handpulls but the main difference is in the cellar.
When a cask ale is tapped and ready for use with a handpull the cask must be open in order that the handpull may draw i.e., a pint of air drawn in to replace the beer dispensed. This means that in many cases the beer is continuously venting to the atmosphere thus losing much of its natural condition (this may be partially alleviated by the use of a non-return air valve). As the beer flattens the sparkler on the handpull will be tightened in order to create the foaming head required by the customer.
It could be argued therefore that you could be drinking a soft beer with a good head as all the condition has been taken from the beer in order to produce the head.
With the tall font system the beer in the cellar must be perfect and hold just the right amount of condition, too much natural gas and we would not be able to pour the beer it would just come out as foam. Too little condition and it would be like cold tea.
When the ale or beer is considered to have vented down or quietened the top pressure is introduced to the cask the downward force on the beer helps hold the natural gas in solution in the beer and helps maintain that condition throughout the cask."
Basically it involves a sparker and if you have to use a sparkler you are accepting that the beer is in too shit condition to serve without one and needs aggregation to give it a head. Or else of course the cellarman knows fuck all about beer. |
Originally posted by DJMonarch
Information from the Bo’ness Real Ale Appreciation Society on the Aitken Tall Font:
"Obviously there are many differences between [Aitken] tall fonts and handpulls but the main difference is in the cellar.
When a cask ale is tapped and ready for use with a handpull the cask must be open in order that the handpull may draw i.e., a pint of air drawn in to replace the beer dispensed. This means that in many cases the beer is continuously venting to the atmosphere thus losing much of its natural condition (this may be partially alleviated by the use of a non-return air valve). As the beer flattens the sparkler on the handpull will be tightened in order to create the foaming head required by the customer.
It could be argued therefore that you could be drinking a soft beer with a good head as all the condition has been taken from the beer in order to produce the head.
With the tall font system the beer in the cellar must be perfect and hold just the right amount of condition, too much natural gas and we would not be able to pour the beer it would just come out as foam. Too little condition and it would be like cold tea.
When the ale or beer is considered to have vented down or quietened the top pressure is introduced to the cask the downward force on the beer helps hold the natural gas in solution in the beer and helps maintain that condition throughout the cask."
Basically it involves a sparker and if you have to use a sparkler you are accepting that the beer is in too shit condition to serve without one and needs aggregation to give it a head. Or else of course the cellarman knows fuck all about beer. |
Originally posted by MagicDave6
Basically it involves a sparker and if you have to use a sparkler you are accepting that the beer is in too shit condition to serve without one and needs aggregation to give it a head. Or else of course the cellarman knows fuck all about beer.
im not convinced the tall font use sparklers or not the same type as hand pulls. But its definitly my favorite dispense.
Never had a bad beer in the Bow bar, and some of my TOP casks have defintly been from the tall fonts |
Originally posted by InvalidStout
Originally posted by madmitch76
Strewth! I love cask beer in good nick but reading this, well small wonder some craft brewers opt for keg.
Why, because dealing with cask beer would mean having to learn things?
Because I can see it’s a risk based decision. Send your hard work out in casks and hole allthe requisite processes required to serve it good condition take place and join up and the people who operate those processes do so.with skill and care. |
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Originally posted by madmitch76
Originally posted by InvalidStout
Originally posted by madmitch76
Strewth! I love cask beer in good nick but reading this, well small wonder some craft brewers opt for keg.
Why, because dealing with cask beer would mean having to learn things?
Because I can see it’s a risk based decision. Send your hard work out in casks and hole allthe requisite processes required to serve it good condition take place and join up and the people who operate those processes do so.with skill and care.
By George I think he’s got it! Welcome to my world. So when it’s good it’s had to go through all that and it only makes me appreciate it more. |
Thanks for the info everyone - so if the Aitken fonts are so much better (and, it sounds, give th ebeer a slightly longer life) why is everyone not using them instead of cask? Are they not CAMRA approved? |
They were the dominant way of serving beer in Scotland, so most were removed and presumably scrapped when the the brewers did their best to eliminate real ale – a goal they came very, very close to achieving – in the 1960s. When the revival came, pubs didn’t have much choice but to adopt the handpump. |
