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"Andrew":wq0og41d wrote: Thomas, just out of interest, did the bar staff get any training; Or were they just thrown in at it?[/quote:wq0og41d]

Most of them arrived when it was busy and didn't really have time for training. There wasn't really anyone there to train them either (they should hire me for the next event!)

As far as I could tell, few of them had proper experience of pouring pints as well (or simply didn't care). I'd also suspect that most of them don't actually work in pubs currently as I can't imagine they could easily get the time off work during St.Patrick's weekend (and why would they bother?).

The emerald cask beer was really nice,and one of my favorites at the fest. It has a delicate balance of hop and malt profile that is really only possible because it is served as cask and not keg. This beer would be ruined if it was kegged as the high amount of co2 added would become too dominant giving the wrong kind of bitter taste.

I haven't tried it (I'm on call all weekend so won't be attending anything alcohol-related) but OtherHalbe had it last night and thought it was awful. I said it may just have been poor cask management (as by all reports the bar staff were pretty inexperienced, to be nice about it) but he really didn't like it. Said it was bland and mucky, tasting faintly of generic beer and nowt else.

Of course, it could also be that it just wasn't what he was expecting (and wanted) from a pale ale, especially since his following pint (8°HG) hit the spot bang on <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) -->

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&amp;quot;microgirl&amp;quot;:300bmn0h wrote: I said it may just have been poor cask management.....

mucky[/quote:300bmn0h]
Could be a description of Perfect Storm. I thought it was a porter as it was so creamy. Turns out it was yeast. We were all drinking starters. Monumentally amateur cask handling. It was the cock up of the show for me.

&amp;quot;DEMPSEY&amp;quot;:w68bk3sa wrote: The emerald cask beer was really nice,and one of my favorites at the fest. It has a delicate balance of hop and malt profile that is really only possible because it is served as cask and not keg. This beer would be ruined if it was kegged as the high amount of co2 added would become too dominant giving the wrong kind of bitter taste.[/quote:w68bk3sa]

Just to be a bit techno-nerdy about this:

If too much CO2 is perceived to be a problem for keg dispense then why not a LOW pressure CO2/N2 blanket - maybe 10% CO2 / 90% N2 at say 0.5 bar??

Will

I had a great time on Friday. My report is here.[/url:2r8f06h0]

Today looks like a good day for it.