In the late winter and early spring, they are drilling holes into trees, inserting tap spiles and monitoring sap flow.
|
|
A dover sole of 3lb 10oz was landed by Dean Buck on ragworm and mussel cocktail from Seaham Spiles.
|
|
A spile is a small wooden or metal peg used to control the flow of air into, and carbon dioxide out of, a cask of ale. Spiles can also be used to broach water from trees.
|
|
This breaks the seal, and the tap can then be driven into the keystone – if it is hammered in when there is still a high internal pressure, it can be blown out again, with embarrassing consequences. To allow the loss of excess gas, soft spiles, made of open- grained softwood, bamboo, or harder wood with cuts in, are used. Once the cellarman judges this process to be complete, a hard spile is inserted which does not allow any more gas out. These are made of harder wood (usually still technically "softwood", but denser and more solid than soft spiles).
|
|
The flowers of Sambucus nigra are used to produce elderflower cordial. St-Germain, a French liqueur, is made from elderflowers. Hallands Fläder, a Swedish akvavit, is flavoured with elderflowers. Hollowed elderberry twigs have traditionally been used as spiles to tap maple trees for syrup.
|
|
When beer is being drawn from the cask this is removed and can be replaced by a soft spile, or left open. When no beer is being dispensed a hard spile is put back in. Plastic spiles are also available.. Once the spile is reinserted, enough gas will be generated by the yeast to replace the volume of gas that will have come out of solution. But the amount of carbon dioxide that can be produced is limited, so a hard spile is kept in as much as possible.
|
|
The handle of a handpump is often used as a symbol of cask ale. This style of beer has continued fermentation and uses porous and non-porous pegs, called spiles, to respectively release and retain the gases generated by fermentation and thus achieve the optimum level of carbonation in the beer. In the 1970s many breweries were keen to replace cask conditioned ale with keg versions for financial benefit, and started to disguise keg taps by adorning them with cosmetic hand pump handles. This practice was opposed as fraudulent by the Campaign for Real Ale and was discontinued.
|
|
The living willow posts are driven into the bank, to a depth of or more, at intervals and the thinner rods are woven in between, the rods are best woven at an angle slightly above horizontal to ensure good survival rates. A row of stones, gabions or wooden planks held by posts can be added to the bottom of each "spile" to prevent undercutting when the willow is establishing itself. All works should be done during the dormant period, winter in temperate zones. A layer of seeded coir matting can be pegged onto the soil on top of the spiles to prevent the soil being washed out during flood events.
|
|
The Edgartown Harbor Light was the first lighthouse constructed at the Edgartown Harbor entrance. The first light was built in 1828 when Congress appropriated $5,500 so the federal government could purchase a plot of land from Seth Vincent for $80, and build a light at the entrance of Edgartown Harbor. The necessity for a lighthouse at this location was precipitated by the large number of vessels frequenting the harbor during the whaling boom of the late 1700s and early 1800s. The original Edgartown Light was a wooden, Cape Cod Style, two-story Keeper's house built on wood spiles a short distance offshore in shallow water.
|
|