Welcome to Inn Doctor the UK’s no1 Pub Cellar Service and Beer Dispense Guide. Compiled by Brewery trained Technicians, our mission is to provide you with information that can help you troubleshoot your beer dispense problem quickly and easily. Or how to look after cask ales. Inn Doctor covers all aspects of beer care and good pub cellar management and is a ‘must have tool’ for the modern Licensee

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Therefore if you are in any doubt whatsoever in relation to any area covered by this website YOU MUST contact your Brewery Technical Services. It is most important that you read our Disclaimer before using the site. It only remains to thank you all for visiting and keep those questions coming!

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Mackeson

One of the most underrated British beers there is, Mackeson.

I bet readers of a certain age will well remember the very old TV advertisement extolling the virtues of a very special beer. It went something like this “Mackeson, looks good tastes good, and by golly it does you good.” For those younger than Bruce Forsyth’s hair piece this advert aimed to promote a dark, rich , old southern English style of sweet stout once known as milk stout, so-called because it contained lactose, a sugar derived from milk, which added character and calories to the finished beer. Marketed by Whitbread, it was a major brand for many years, even being offered as a draught product back in the sixties.

Since the only Stout beer generally available in pubs these days is Guinness, bottled or draught, it is unlikely that most dark beer fans will have tasted this wonderful brew. At just 3% ABV it is an incredible beer and part of our brewing heritage. Not as bitter as Guinness, some people might say even sweet, it has a complex set of flavours, ranging from dark chocolate, through coffee and perhaps vanilla. It is a very creamy beer that looks great in the glass with it’s cappichino type head and distinct aroma.

As I mentioned earlier, Mackeson was once sold in draught form with some success. Given the enormous innovations the beer dispense industry has made I wonder how Mackeson would fair in the present extra cold, nitrogen filled brewing world. Cask ales continue to be the only growth area in the on trade indicating drinkers may be willing to try new darker brews. Another different type of keg Stout may give Guinness something to compete with and give us drinkers a better choice. In recent years Beamish Stout and Kilkennywere both pitched against Guinness but in my opinion where  not sufficiently different to impact on the brand leader. I think Beamish is still out there if you can find it.

Asda and Tesco sell small cans of Makeson. It is a unique beer that you should try if only once. I think you may get a really nice surprise. And remember this “Mackeson, looks good tastes good, and by golly it does you good.”

Boz

Related posts:

1. Mild, an old mans drink?
2. Cask beer aspirators, my opinion!
3. CAMRA has heard “the call of the Mild”

Ale extractor and body

Ale extractor body venting

We haven’t really covered vertical extraction on here in any great detail yet. Perhaps if we go through a few pointers please feel free to add anything or if I have missed anything please add your comments below.

Basically you use the same process to stillage vertically as you would with a container lying on its side. How to look after Cask Ales You would try and vent the container within 8 hrs of delivery. This all depends on the brew you are selling; some brews are more volatile than others.

To vent a cask vertically you would get two wedges or scotches, though you can only see one in the picture and place them securely under the keystone side of the container. So they position the keystone and gas pocket at the highest point, making the cask stable. Please always use two, the amount of times I have seen them balanced with just one.

When working with cask ales, hygiene is of the up-most importance to prevent infection, so the recess in the Keystone plug must be wiped with a clean cloth and the ale extractor and body should be clean and sterile.

Ale extractor body diagram

Looking at the diagram of the ale extractor body remove the tube and the compression nut from the body and replace with the blanking plug, making sure the O ring is intact as this supplies the seal.

Using the rubber mallet the body should be knocked firmly into the keystone with one powerful blow (easier said than done). It is also a good idea that the shut off valve should be left partly open, to prevent air being driven into the cask blowing out the shive or keystone though this used to happen more frequently when they were made of wood. Venting can now be controlled by opening and closing the shut off valve.

When you are satisfied that secondary fermentation has taken place.  You can now change the blank plug for the compression nut and very carefully slide the ale extractor tube through the body down to the bottom of the container, then retract about an inch. Tighten up the compression nut this will squeeze down on the rubber seal locking the tube and creating a gas tight seal. Turn off the venting shut off valve.

Vertical stillaged ale ready for sale

So you can get the most out of the container, very carefully so as not to disturb the sediment at the bottom, remove the wedges. Then slowly tilt the container in the opposite direction as shown in the picture positioning the keystone at the lowest point and now replace the wedges on the opposite side.

Now you can connect your cask line to the top of the ale extractor not forgetting to check the rubber seal or the hop strainer is in place otherwise you could suck air into the system causing erratic dispense problems. When your beer is ready for sale open up the venting shut off valve on the ale extractor body and draw through the beer engine and check the smell, taste and clarity of the ale.

You have to know your brews using vertical stillaging, unlike stillaging horizontally where you can turn on the cask tap, to see if it has cleared down and check the quality of the beer. Sometimes installers will have put a bleed valve just after the gas pump, otherwise you will have to draw it straight to the beer engine to check, but 48hrs is usually ok for the secondary fermentation to complete,unless you are unlucky. But this is something you learn to live with, if you use a local brew, the microbrewery, or your service provider will be able to give you a rough idea how long it will take.

To help prolong the life of the ale and improve the quality, the venting shut off valve should be turned off at the end of every session.

I still think the best way to stillage is horizontally, but if you haven’t the room then you haven’t any choice. A lot of people swear by stillaging vertically they say they empty the container every time and they don’t have to remember to tilt the container two thirds of the way down.

Like all good equipment the ale extractor comes apart for cleaning

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Related posts:

1. Tilting – Real Ales
2. Porous Pegs – Real Ales
3. Spiling (Pegging, Venting) Real Ales

It will only take a minute to register and then using this message board, list the Brand of glasses, the quantity and whether you want to swap or sell your glasses, the area you live, then PM (personal message) each other to set up the deal. Job Done. Or if you are already a member you can start a new thread by clicking this link Exchange your glasses.

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1. Glass Care

Why do we dispense beer so cold?….. To hide the bland taste. So it comes as a welcome relief when you see a local brew on the bar; one you know has been brewed just up the road adding to the local economy…by your local Micro Brewery.

I have sat up and taken notice because over the last few years two have sprung up in my immediate area and the other day I installed my first real ale bag in box set up, for one of them (I have to use the term real ale because it is not in a cask).

So how does it work?  Apparently it is filtered bright in the brewery, bagged ready for use straight away. A bit of yeast is left in the bag so this keeps fermenting away, but you must start using it within a certain period otherwise the bag will expand and split. Because the beer is enclosed in a bag and not subjected to the dank cellar climate, it will last a lot longer, well over a week I am told. Can this brings the fun back into looking after beer? I can remember trying to change a split keystone (when they were wooden) in a barrel (36 gallon), without moving it or spilling any beer.

But is it Traditional? Are micro breweries pushing out the boundaries or are they bending the rules? Perhaps CAMRA will have an answer for this one, after all you can now get real ale in bottles, does that count?  But the possibilities are endless Pubs that do not sell enough to warrant a 9 gallon. Guest houses, Restaurants,  Beer festivals and outside bars using ice jackets.

Do you have a Hand-pull not doing anything? Why not give the line a good clean, attach a bag in box connector and with a 10 or 20Litre B in Box, and you are away. While they still only have 2% of the market. I do hope local brews (Micro Breweries) do make a significant comeback unlike Germany who never lost theirs.

What is you view? Leave a comment below or on the forum.

Related posts:

1. Tapping – Real Ales
2. Porous Pegs – Real Ales
3. Spiling (Pegging, Venting) Real Ales

Seen as a legitimate way of maximizing the yield from a cask and helping the profitability of the landlord’s business, most if not all cask ale pubs used to do this. I say used, because for sometime now most of the big brewers have not encouraged landlords to continue this traditional practice.

Having spent the best part of 40 years working as a cellar man, now known as technician by the way, I have seen plenty of reasons why I think filtering back is not a good idea.

It used to go like this…Old Fred at the Dog and Spanner used to have a bucket. The bucket used to live behind the bar. Now into this bucket Old Fred used to put all sorts of beer from all sorts of places. Beer from his drip trays was one, another was beer people had left behind in glasses and not drunk, “Nowt up with that lad.” Sometimes the bucket used to live in the cellar and once again it used to attract all sorts of beer…beer from the bottom of casks, known as cask bottoms, full of spent hops. Sometimes if a cask of mild say was beginning to get a little light in colour due to all the bitter that had been added, Old Fred would add a couple of bottles of Guinness to darken things up a little. Yes this bucket certainly got around. At the end of a typical day the bucket would be quite full and put in a safe place in the cellar, uncovered, and left until time permitted filtering back or a suitable cask became available. I remember the very traditional dirty crust that used to form on these buckets and the wildlife that was attracted to this feast of free beer. The good old days eh!

Apart from contaminating the rest of the cask that beer is being filtered back into, there is a possibility of altering the ABV of the cask. If different products have been returned into the cask or too much beer returned the alcoholic content of the beer may be raised or lowered. If a weights and measures check is done and beer found not to be at the indicated ABV then there might be a risk of prosecution.

All in all despite the tradition behind the practice of filtering back I feel it should not be apart of modern cellar management. With cask beers being the only real growth area in today’s beer market, it is hoped that people will realise that filtering back may well jeopardize this. Consistency and quality are the key market drivers of cask ale sales. Any practice that affects these factors in a negative way should not be continued.

Related posts:

1. The things you find in beer cellars
2. Cask Beer back on the bar
3. Cask beer…I wish I had the space (Vertical Stillage)

In 23 of those pubs the glasswashers were not ‘fit for purpose’.

Only 2 pubs used machines that had a ‘renovate mode’ that actually worked.

Only 2 pubs used machines that used fresh clean water for every wash cycle.

Only 2 machines could heat and supply the water needed in 3 minutes flat.

To say that this situation is appalling is an understatement.

The breweries spend millions on Quality Control each year, to ensure the beer leaving the brewery is perfect.

The licensees running the pubs and clubs clean their lines, keep their cellar clean and wash their glass washer every day.

After all that hard work and money spent, we pull that carefully produced and nurtured pint into a warm, wet glass, that has come out of a stinking glasswasher that has been using the same wash water, for the last 5 sets of glasses – or in most cases since 11am that morning…

…and then we wonder why the punters prefer a pint at home

In any other line of business the glasswasher issue would be classed as commercial suicide– how we manage to persuade punters to pay upwards of £2.50p  for a pint served in a glass that has come out of a stinking glasswasher that has been using the same wash water since 11am that morning simply amazes me?

As an engineer I now recommend only one glasswasher machine manufacturer and that is Clenaware.

If there are any other manufacturers out there that build glasswashers with a renovate cycle that actually works, a fresh water wash every time and an easy to clean liner system I will also recommend your machines, but after 23 failed machines I’m not holding my breath…

The Clenaware Sovereign 45 and the Clenaware Sovereign 50.

These machines are not cheap, however I have found a supplier with a leasing option, this gives you the opportunity to see the difference in wash quality without a large down payment.

http://www.clenaglass.com/collections/frontpage/products/glasswasher-clenaware

Sure they are not the cheapest machines out there by a long chalk, but if a pub or club can’t spend the money on getting the beer right, then what’s the point of the pub or club?

60″ plasma TV’s are everywhere but try persuading anybody to invest in a glasswasher and they look at you as if you are asking them for their life?

Hope this helps

Regards

Tech Tom

More in-depth info on this subject can be found on his website flat beer.co.uk

Related posts:

1. Glass Care
2. Test your beer glasses
3. Glasswasher – keep it clean

There are probably a lot more different ways of dispensing beer being used all around the world than we at Inn Doctor are aware of. It might be very interesting for us to have some contributors from around the globe telling us how they serve the best beer in the world. So if you are an Antipodean ale buff, an American bar owner or one of our European Bierkeller Braumeisters let us know how you do things in your back yard. We would like to know. Have you thought you must be a beer geek otherwise you wouldn’t be on your computer, you would be down the pub! Now what does a bloke in Alaska drink ?

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With the World Cup about to kick off there is great potential to make some good profit for our pub businesses. Despite Tesco and Asda bashing out canned beer at below – cost prices there still might be money to be made by us lesser souls who run pubs for a living.

Ensuring your beer dispense system is in tip top condition is therefor a must. We have prepared a small list of To Do checks that might help you keep your beer flowing and your pub making money.

• Check condition of all keg couplers. Make sure rubber washers are in good condition and not damaged or split. If they are damaged replace them, if you have been shown, otherwise give Tech Services a call.
• Check condition of beer gas connections. Mixed gas connectors have rubber washers, CO2 have a metal or fibre washer. Once again replace any damaged items, if you have been shown, otherwise give Tech Services a call.
• Check condition of the beer lines. Yeast in beer lines will cause fobbing and poor flavour. You can do a simple check by shinning a torch through the beer line. If you see any dark brownish patches then you may have a yeast infection and a thorough beer line clean might be required. Remember fobbing frothy beer costs you money.
• Check the remote cooler for operation. Using the inspection hatch or hole, look inside the remote cooler. There should be a visible ice formation inside. If you have extra cold products such as Carling, Stella or Fosters then a good indication of remote cooler performance is the constant condensation of these taps. Should at any time these extra cold fonts stop condensating then you may have a problem and Tech services need a call.
• Check cellar cooling. Cellar temperature should be between 52 and 54 Fahrenheit.

This is only a brief guide, but you get the idea. Check your cellar and the dispense equipment regularly and report any faults right away. Doing this will ensure you are selling great draught beer and will make sure your World Cup supporters keep coming back for more. After all draught beer beats canned any day.

Related posts:

1. Do I have a Gas Leak on my keg beer system?
2. My Keg Cream Flow Bitter is serving flat
3. Credit Crunch Cost Cutting for Pubs

Mansfield Dark Keg Mild

I personally think mild is a great session drink and I have the scars to prove it. Bearing this in mind I hope our artisan brewers don’t make any new brews too strong. That is the whole point of mild as a drink, mild in flavour and in strength. I remember years ago when I was a brewery technician fitting a Draught Guinness diffuser to a Tetleys Mild tap just as an experiment and watching it serve just like Guinness. Working for a brewer was a pretty good job back then. Anyway as far as I’m concerned keg or cask I hope mild doesn’t disappear off our bars.

Come on people lets get behind CAMRA and have a pint of good old mild, it’ll do yer a power of good!

Related posts:

1. Cask beer aspirators, my opinion!
2. Mild, an old mans drink?
3. Mackeson