Wednesday 17 September 2014

Going in for the Kil.




Kilderkin

The kilderkin (from the Dutch for "small cask") is equal to half a barrel or two firkins.


Beer kilderkin

Until the adoption of the imperial system the beer kilderkin was defined as 18 ale or beer gallons.

Imperial kilderkin

With the adoption of the imperial system the kilderkin was redefined to be 18 imperial gallons, which is exactly 81.82962 litres or approximately 2.890 cubic feet.
 

On Saturday last week, we had an organising meeting for the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival. (Get it in your diaries Folks - Bigger and better than last year's sell-out, 50% of beers on main floor, 50% on concourse to avoid the stairs - and back at the magnificent Velodrome - advert ends.) One discussion was how to liven up the beer selection to get many more up and coming breweries in and to provide as wide a selection as possible.

I won't bore you with all the details of the discussion, but the Beer Orderer (a thankless task if ever there was one) pointed out that we had just discussed how tight space was at the bars and that we need where possible, in as many cases as we can, to get beer in eighteens. A major stumbling block is that very few small, up and coming, cutting edge breweries supply beer in eighteens (kilderkins) thus limiting our ability to order them, as we really need to maximise the utilisation of available space. Now this isn't the end of the matter, but I know this is a common problem with beer festivals. It might therefore be an idea for some breweries that find themselves excluded from certain festivals, would do well to point out that they can supply in kils. It would also be a good idea, where funds permit, to buy a few.

I also suggested that we should try and ensure that no sexist T Shirts are being sold at our event. We use the same guy as GBBF and while we can't be sure what the situation will be, enquiries will be made.  I'll keep you informed as to how that goes.

Just a small quote from our website:  "Once again we’ll be featuring some of the very best cask conditioned craft beers available selected from the very best brewers from around the country. From traditional bitters to hop front IPAs, through to the most cutting edge sours & saisons"  

21 comments:

StringersBeer said...

We got a few refurb 18s from Morrow bros. Reasonably priced as I remember. They are b*st*rds to move though.

Unknown said...

We supply in kils. However, we only have a total population of 6. They sit idle most of the time as most of the bars we supply don't want kils.

However, this summer we had 4 kils out at GBBF. Two also went to other festivals. Our local CAMRA festival, Ulverston, wanted a kil of Azimuth. We didn't have the empties back in time from GBBF to fill them with one of the best batches we had ever produced. You can understand that I was as disappointed as the festival organisers were when we failed to deliver what they, and I wanted to see on at the festival.

It's a problem, as I understand the space issue, but equally, we simply can't justify spending more money on containers that sit for 9 months of the year completely empty and doing nothing.

They will probably all be empty for the Manchester Beer Festival however. (Pitch ends)

Tandleman said...

Jon: A bugger to move? Indeed. We aren't asking for the fun of it.

Dave: Fair point. That's why I caveated what I said.

Phil said...

Just wanted to say that last year's festival was an absolute stonker, with a superb range of great beer - and I speak as someone who turned up on the last day and watched the bars run dry. Glad to hear it won't all be on the island next time, too. Can't wait!

Paul Bailey said...

Hope you've got the appropriate lifting gear? Kils are damned heavy!

Tandleman said...

Paul: We have the gear. Couldn't do it otherwise. We have a very strict Health and Safety Officer. Me!

Unknown said...

About a third of our trade is still in Kils, locally on the IoM that is and it is just for our bitter all our seasonal beers and one offs are in Firkins

Cooking Lager said...

Sexist t shirts are hard to come by these days. I rely on beardie piss ups to get them. Please don't drop these.

Stono said...

fwiw Chappel use that same t-shirt seller (actually who doesnt theres only really the one isnt there) and there were none of the ladies tshirts I saw from GBBF on sale there. Worth noting at least, even if it hasnt been blogged about in as much detail.

py said...

What is the appropriate serving temperature for sours and saisons and how will you ensure that this is achieved?

Tandleman said...

If they are cask conditioned, between 11 and 13C.

By cooling.

py said...

serving sours and saisons warm? and to think that people say camra aren't doing their level best to put the British public off beer for life.

Tandleman said...

You find 11C warm? Lie in a bath at that temp for ten minutes and see how you feel.

py said...

11c is shorts weather in this country. Certainly far too warm for a crisp saison

Tandleman said...

Where do you live then? Saisons should be crisp. Are you sure?

Erlangernick said...

Yeah, whenever I have a Saison or a "sour" (whatever that might be) in Belgium, it's served cold as Stella.

py said...

A saison is specifically meant to be a refreshing summer drink. Its probably most similar in flavour to a weizen. Would you accept a weizen at 13 degrees in a Munich beer hall? I certainly hope not.

Its all very well camra ambitiously claiming to sell "cutting edge" beers, but if they don't make the effort to serve them correctly, they're just going to put people off them and further damage the cause of beer in the uk, and undo all the good work people like brewdog do in democratising and modernising beer and making it attractive to a new younger audience.

Ron Pattinson said...

An Ale kilderkin was 16 gallons. I know. I should get out more.

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