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In the wooden cask in the foreground you can see a small "spile" of wood coming from the cask's bung hole. This is a soft spile that allows CO2 to exit the cask during its secondary fermentation. The Cask has previously been vented by knocking out the plug in the bung hole and venting the pressure to the atmosphere. The soft spile is then inserted to allow additional gas to be vented if secondary fermentation continues. A hard spile is then inserted to maintain the carbonation until serving time when the hard spile is then removed and the cask contents opened to room air. The room is at 54 deg. F. so the beer ends up with one atmosphere carbonation at 54 deg. F. Feel like a Sam Smith's on Pull?

Our first step is to cool the keg to dispensing temperature. Here an inexpensive wine refrigerator (about $120.00 from Home Depot) fits a single corney "cask" in "vertical dispense" perfectly. Two holes are drilled into the refrigerator to allow gas in (more on this later) and liquid out (more on this later).

Done while in the refrigerator but simulated here in the room...is the venting of the excess pressure. The keg must be at 54 deg. F., (after stillage in the wine fridge for a few days) for this step to have allowed the beer to absorbe the proper level of carbonation. We vent the keg to room pressure prior to putting on the gas-in and liquid-out fittings. This will leave the beer slightly over carbonated but it will quickly lose the excess carbonation in the next few steps. Not true CAMRA procedure but good enough to fool the locals at a pub in England.