Everything about Spile totally explained
A
spile is a small
wooden peg used to control the flow of
carbon dioxide out of a
cask of
ale.
Cask ale is served without externally-supplied carbon dioxide or nitrogen. The idea that it's served "flat" with no bubbles at all, though, is a misconception; properly conditioned cask ale contains bubbles of carbon dioxide generated by the natural action of the
yeast living in the beer while it's transported and stored. In fact, the yeast will actually produce more carbon dioxide than is required, and it's for this reason that the cask is vented through the spile hole in the
shive.
Two kinds of spile are available. Initially, "soft" or porous spiles are used, made of open-grained
softwood,
bamboo, or harder wood with cuts in. These allow the excess gas to escape. Once the cellarman judges this process to be complete, a hard spile is inserted which doesn't allow any more gas out of the cask. These are made of harder wood (usually still technically "softwood", but denser and more solid than soft spiles). Plastic pegs intended for sealing shives are occasionally used as hard spiles.
During service, the spile must be removed to allow air in to replace the beer drawn off. Once the spile is reinserted enough gas will come out of solution to replace what was lost, but the amount of carbon dioxide available in the system - free or dissolved - is limited, so it's important that the spile is kept in as much as possible. This is one of several reasons for real ale's short shelf-life once a cask is opened - if too much carbon dioxide is lost, the beer will be flat. Typically, the beer will be good only for two to four days; this short life is why it's important that a
pub serving real ale have sufficient turnover for casks to be emptied while still at their best.
Footnotes
Other Uses
Like many such older terms, the word spile has other local meanings. For example:
- The iron spigot driven into a sugar maple to produce maple syrup.
At Indian Harbor in Nova Scotia, the shores that hold up fish processing "stores" were once called spiles.Further Information
Get more info on 'Spile'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://spile.totallyexplained.com">Spile Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
