Brewing in a Firkin

[Scooby]

Barley Bottom for small quantities of cellar equipment, but there are many others

Hot caustic for cleaning but care must be taken when using it, but I guess any other brewery cleaner would do the job.

Hops are easy to rinse out of the shive hole. I prefer not to dry hop as a firkin lasts me 4-6 weeks and I don't like the flavour
when they're in there for an extended period. I chuck hops in the fermenter instead but you need to experiment to find what you prefer.

You can vent and open the cask after a period of conditioning, adding hops and fining if they are needed. I like to use a yeast that drops
out and avoid finings.

[greenxpaddy]

Yes, I would imagine Fullers is a favourite!

[Totem]

I dont see how a steel firkin would differ from a cornie if using a breather/check valve? If you kept the cornie at min pressure (1-2 psi) for serving and sent it through a hand pump via check valve?

[Scooby]

firkins were designed to condition beer by slow secondary fermentation either by racking beer a point or two above fg or by
priming.

A cornie is designed to carbonate liquids and as such is great for bright keg beer where the carbonation is achieved by applying pressure.
Not many people naturally condition in a cornie. If you try to condition in a cornie you may fail to get a seal on the lid and hence no condition.
You will also get a much bigger build up of yeast that the dip tube can pick up.

I've used a cornie, demand valve plus engine to dispensed beer that has been carbonated by applying pressure, it's close but not really
the same as naturally conditioned beer from a cask or even a polypin.

I enjoy beer from my keg but hanker after a 'pub' pint as well, so they live happily together.

[JABB]

Slight up.
I have a cask coming and am looking at either vertical extractors or cask widges.
I have a breather valve and CO2.
Now, If I had, say, a cask filled by a brewery, how would I go about preparing it for my engine?
Would I leave it to settle 24hours, hammer in the widge, connect the breather and the engine and away I go? You guys getting good lengths of time from your beer, please tell me how to do it.

[dcq1974]

Looks great - must spend some time and money getting some pins sorted

Do you have a link to the original mod of the Cask Widge system?