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Enjoying a few pints at the George and Dragon in Wales. Notice the hand pump between me and the barmaid, under the window. This is not our home bar, even though they also have the same Boddington's drip tray and Angram pump. This is where the ale meets the glass.

A cask of Mild on dispense, note the tap and line coming from the front of the keg and the hard spile sitting on top of the keg, not inserted into the bung. This cask is open to the atmosphere to allow air in when the beer is pumped out. Because this cask will be gone in less than 3 days, the oxygen in the air does not have time to destroy the beer, but, it will develop other flavors as it is dispensed over that period.

We use an Angram 1/4 pint pull pump for dispensing. Here is our pump and some of our glassware. Note that there is a swan neck on the pump and that it is completed with a sparkler. We'll get into this later when a proper pour is described but let us state here that we feel a sparkler is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

Standard keg fittings are used in the usual manner. Nothing special here but where those fittings lead to are special indeed. The "liquid-out" goes to a Beer Engine and the "Gas-In" goes to a Cask Breather.

This is a Cask Breather, allowed by CAMRA only at low volume pubs or special events. Unless the local Brew Club is meeting at our house, we can be classified as "low volume". This valve takes high pressure CO2 on the braided hose side and allows atmospheric pressure CO2 out the other (clear pvc hose) side. This is connected to the "gas-in" fitting on the corney "cask". As beer is pulled from the cask, the breather allows "blanket pressure" or "atmospheric pressure" CO2 to be laid on top of the beer. This greatly extends the dispensing life of the ale out to 4 to 6 weeks instead of 3 days. Unfortunately the beer does not develop character unless some air is allowed in, this is why CAMRA does not like these devices but will allow them when there is no other economically feasable way to keep Real Ale.