Oak pins / casks from Theakstons

[barneey]

Just been reading through this post, so thought I would email Theakstons about their casks, heres the rather nice reply I got:-

Good morning

Thank you for your enquiry. We have retired pins for sale which are suitable as garden ornaments but cannot be used for liquids- they cost £20.00. However at Christmas we sell pins which are filled with Old Peculier . The refundable deposit on the pin is £60.00 but if you want to keep your pin you can forfeit the deposit . If you would like to recieve the information later in the year please let me know and I will add you to our database

So guess what my Xmas pressy is likely to be this year

[seymour]

Out of curiosity, what would make the "retired" ones unfit for liquids? They're just leaky and not worth their cooper's time to repair perhaps?

[barney]

Thats good that, to have the garden ones rebushed is £40.

[gnutz2]

Just been reading through this post, so thought I would email Theakstons about their casks, heres the rather nice reply I got:-

Good morning

Thank you for your enquiry. We have retired pins for sale which are suitable as garden ornaments but cannot be used for liquids- they cost £20.00. However at Christmas we sell pins which are filled with Old Peculier . The refundable deposit on the pin is £60.00 but if you want to keep your pin you can forfeit the deposit . If you would like to recieve the information later in the year please let me know and I will add you to our database

So guess what my Xmas pressy is likely to be this year

Did they say how much the beer inside costs?

[barneey]

Nope no mention of price but the pins are only 4.5 gallons so wouldnt imagine it would be that much. My idea would be to open it for xmas and drink your way through it over the feastive period.

Seymour i think the answer to that question is a couple of pages ago regarding a bits missing of them? but thats my best guess.

Cheers

[barneey]

Just had another reply back regarding the cost of the contents...

The contents would cost approx £75, so that works out approx £2 per pint!

Let me know if I can help further.

Kindest regards

[EoinMag]

You can use Sulphur wicks to sanitise the barrels too. The Germans burn them in the barrels to lay down a protective coating on the inside of the dry barrel, this has an antibacterial action on them.

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/sulphur-wick ... 1756-p.asp

Gordon Strong talks about doing this in his new book, put him and a mate in hospital, use with care, if like them you are using an old barrel that may still have volatile vapours in it, in their case an old Bourbon barrel.

Ah so you mean that they used an explosive substance in an explosive environment? There were still whiskey vapours in the barrel, surely they'd qualify for some sort of Darwin award?

[orlando]

Ah so you mean that they used an explosive substance in an explosive environment? There were still whiskey vapours in the barrel, surely they'd qualify for some sort of Darwin award?

Nope, you have to die to get one of those as this means you have removed yourself from the gene pool so your stupidity is not passed on. Technically of course you should be without issue, but that sort of spoils the "fun".

[EoinMag]

Ah so you mean that they used an explosive substance in an explosive environment? There were still whiskey vapours in the barrel, surely they'd qualify for some sort of Darwin award?

Nope, you have to die to get one of those as this means you have removed yourself from the gene pool so your stupidity is not passed on. Technically of course you should be without issue, but that sort of spoils the "fun".

They tried at least.

[orlando]

Ah so you mean that they used an explosive substance in an explosive environment? There were still whiskey vapours in the barrel, surely they'd qualify for some sort of Darwin award?

Nope, you have to die to get one of those as this means you have removed yourself from the gene pool so your stupidity is not passed on. Technically of course you should be without issue, but that sort of spoils the "fun".

They tried at least.

I've seen some set ups on here that suggest they are not alone

[seymour]

Fuggledog,

This is awesome how you dispense live beer from wooden casks. I'm curious, do you ever use them for barrel-aging, long before they're ready to serve? Something along the lines of Samuel Smith's Yorkshire Stingo, or historically-accurate Old Ales, etc?

[Fuggledog]

Hey Seymour,

sorry for the very long overdue reply - only just saw your post. i haven't tried long storage yet as i've been too busy using the casks for running beers, but i intend to make some old style porter and trying ageing for a year to see what happens. will let you know how it goes! regarding serving the beer - you can use gravity or beer engines as per any cask. if i'm opening a pin and having a party i just remove the spile and let air in. if the cask is at the right temperature and the beer properly conditioned it will have just the right degree of sparkle for real ale. for longer-term consumption i use a cask breather. this replaces the drawn off beer with C02 but doesn't put pressure on the beer, so it doesn't go fizzy, flat or go off. cheers, b.