For the record, Chorlton Beer and Music Festival took place last weekend
and was blessed with glorious weather and (thankfully) a well insulated
roof over the beer. Keeping the stuff cool was still tricky stuff
though. We experimented with a sort of ice blanket over one of the
casks, in addition to the usual wet tea towels, stockinette and the
like, and we were rather pleased with the results.

This ice blanket was surplus packaging from something like a consignment
of frozen meat or fish. It's a sort of bubble pack, but with giant
bubbles - well, couple of inches across at any rate. They're filled with
water, you freeze them and you put them over the cask. Because they're a
series of bubbles, you can bend the pack to the shape of the cask and
drape it over the top, which is where the cooling effect is most needed.
Previous experiments with ice packs have involved bin liners full of ice
cubes (from friendly pubs or fishmongers). The problem with these is
that, as the ice melts, you just get two large pockets of icy water, one
on either side of the cask, but with no ice or water on the top of the
cask (imagine a pair of saddlebags over a cask).

Anyway, I commend these "bubble" ice packs to you. The only problem is
that, clearly, you need to refreeze them overnight. My freezer certainly
wouldn't have coped with all the ice necessary to chill some 60 casks,
but I daresay other people could have helped with that. Or we could
perhaps have brought a freezer unit to the venue.

I don't know how easy it is to buy these things commercially, without
buying a lot of frozen meat or fish in the process, but Google found me
these sites: <http://www.chillerz.com/>,
<http://www.techniice.com/english/index.htm>.

Meanwhile, we tried a couple of other innovations. One was plastic
glasses. I've always shied well away from these in the past, mainly
because the only plastic glasses on the market seemed to be too flimsy
and not Crown stamped. This time we used a fairly rigid, quite
substantial clear plastic tumbler, 10 ounce brim measure and Crown
stamped. They seemed to go down very well - no complaints at any rate. A
few cracked slightly in use, but not enough to lose beer, and anyway we
were using hundreds. I believe that 12 ounce, line measure tumblers are
also available, but the purchasing was out of our hands.

And also plastic: scaffolding boards. Instead of the usual quick-fit
scaffolding, we had to use something less bulky, to fit the venue. We
ended up with metal trestles topped with heavy duty black plastic
boards. These worked very well, they were light to handle and they
didn't soak up split beer. The only drawback was that the casks were
resting on traditional wooden chocks, and these didn't seem to grip the
plastic boards too well. As long as the casks were full and heavy,
things were fine, but once we got down to the last 3 gallons or so,
there was a tendency for chocks and casks to start shifting slightly.
Perhaps we need plastic chocks next.

Anyone else had experience of such things?
-- 
Neil Worthington, Urmston, UK
=============================

In article ,
   Neil Worthington  wrote:

> The only drawback was that the casks were
> resting on traditional wooden chocks, and these didn't seem to grip the
> plastic boards too well. As long as the casks were full and heavy,
> things were fine, but once we got down to the last 3 gallons or so,
> there was a tendency for chocks and casks to start shifting slightly.
> Perhaps we need plastic chocks next.

> Anyone else had experience of such things?


Plastic chocks of various types have been tried by CAMRA technical and
found wanting.

Your problem with chocks sliding on the smooth surface is simple to
remedy:-
One strip of plywood per chock pair and a couple of nails. You can go more
expensive and use better fastenings, you can go cheaper an simply use
string between the chocks.

BTW. Of the (all non-CAMRA) staff I work with only one has never offered an
unprompted dismissal of rigid plastic glasses. They all seem to say the
same things I think when some tries to offer me a beer in on of those
things - it just doesn't feel right at your lips. Beer is better out of a
tea mug than a plastic "glass".

-- 
Steve Pampling

In message , Steven Pampling 
 writes

>BTW. Of the (all non-CAMRA) staff I work with only one has never offered an
>unprompted dismissal of rigid plastic glasses. They all seem to say the
>same things I think when some tries to offer me a beer in on of those
>things - it just doesn't feel right at your lips. Beer is better out of a
>tea mug than a plastic "glass".


SIBA tried plastic glasses at the Newton Abbot SIBA SW festival a few 
years ago. The glasses themselves weren't too bad, very high quality 
heavy plastic, with less detrimental effect on the beer than anything 
I've tried before or since.

Unfortunately the (mostly non-CAMRA) drinkers threw them out the train 
windows every night. The general public clearly won't accept them as a 
souvenir and I have to question how durable they are as hire glasses.

-- 
Paul Shirley: email unwelcome, reply by news

In article ,
   Paul Shirley <paul.shirley@totally.invalid> wrote:

>  The glasses themselves weren't too bad, very high quality 
> heavy plastic, with less detrimental effect on the beer than anything 
> I've tried before or since.


I think that about sums things up - "...weren't too bad.." for a product
produced with "very high quality, heavy plastic"

i.e. not as good as glass or pottery.

If you consider that the items either have to be disposed of as souvenirs
or stored then it becomes a question of how good a logo you can put on a
real glass to have them taken away as souvenirs.
In pubs the plastics scuff up too fast to be of real economic value so
unless the pub has a problem with disorderly customers the glass versions
are better.

-- 
Steve Pampling