Acquiring a cask

[mjohnston]

Before I start calling around, has anyone ever acquired a cask for personal consumption from a brewery? I'm getting married at the end of August and would love to be able to serve cask ale. Obviously, the pump is harder to come by so I'm happy with a gravity poured option. I guess I really should just start calling, but I'm interested to hear some success stories since I'm not going to start calling until tomorrow

[matt7215]

Congrats Mat!

cant help with cask info unless you want homebrew

[Queef]

I bet they wouldn't give you one to keep, but some of the local breweries might be willing to sell a cask privately. I see no reason not too. Is the wedding in kitchener? call Grand River, or Wellington, or F&M, they'd also probably have a line (with enough notice) on supplying a tap for it to pour gravity as well. Shouldn't be any difference than buying a retail keg for your wedding shouldn't it?

[Tapsucker]

I would suggest you contact your favorite brewer. They almost all offer hand pump kegs. I even remember pre-Molson Creemore giving us extra kegs for an event and telling us to bring back un-tapped ones for a refund, just so we wouldn't run out. It was a great strategy.

Do, however, remember that this will require a bartender or server who can keep pace with your guests. It's not the same as cracking bottles when you get slammed by thirsty people. They will probably need to pre-pour lots of jugs to keep up with demand. Sticky hands will also probably ensue. I think it's worth the compromise, but I don't know where your mate stands on the issue of the 'perfect wedding'.

BTW - I would also suggest another little detail I experienced at a beer lover's wedding a while back. They had a nice stash of bottled favorites, mostly stouts, on hand for the late night survivors. Instead of scotch or brandy the best man pulled out some nice beers for us to enjoy by the fire after the happy couple left. Nice touch. In this case it was the bride that was the beer geek and she knew it would be mostly guys who would enjoy the effort so she wrote little messages on the bottles. I can't really repeat them on this family website, but they were funny and it was funny how long it took us to notice them in our haze.

[Kel Varnsen]

Not sure where you could get a cask, but my understanding is that preping and caring for a cask is a lot more work than what a keg would be. Here are the recommendations from UK brewery Timothy Taylor for anyone interested.

http://www.timothytaylor.co.uk/Publican ... rCard.aspx

[cannondale]

Before I start calling around, has anyone ever acquired a cask for personal consumption from a brewery? I'm getting married at the end of August and would love to be able to serve cask ale. Obviously, the pump is harder to come by so I'm happy with a gravity poured option. I guess I really should just start calling, but I'm interested to hear some success stories since I'm not going to start calling until tomorrow

Are you intending to serve cask ale only, or cask + bottles? What volume of cask ale do you figure you will be serving?

[Peter Collins]

Grand River Brewing might be able to do something for you. I know they have a set up with a cradle for the cask and a tap for gravity serve. You may pay a premium for the cask which would look like more per unit than a keg but there is a lot more work in prep for a cask than a keg.

In addition, they may not have anything available that is cask-able. Depending on what's in their fermenters or in production they may just not have anything. But, you know when the wedding is and they may know their production schedule enough that you can order one in advance.

You may need to have somebody there to set it up for you or have a quick "lesson" on doing it yourself. It's not that big a deal but it's also not foolproof--things can go wrong.

Good luck.

[inertiaboy]

I remember that the Granite had information on their website about getting casks at one point but I don't see it there anymore.