Corny/Beer engine setup-breather or check valve??

[yeasty]

I recently invested in a couple of beer engines to use with my cornies. I bought a cask breather from Barley Bottom to use with them. I am now on my third corny and every keg so far has had a slow leak of gas/air getting into the pipe between the keg and the pump. This means every pint I pull has way too much head as on the 2nd pull I get a blast of air into the glass. I have tried replacing the disconnect and the pipe and am starting to think that the problem is due to not having any pressure in the keg. I'm thinking that as the pump is pulling the beer out of the keg instead of being pushed out by pressure it is pulling air in through the disconnect.

I'm also worried that as there is no pressure in the keg the lid is probably not sealed well and therefore air is being pulled in through the lid instead of through the breather.

Has anybody else ever had any issues using cornies and a cask breather? Should I go out and buy a check valve?

Just wondered what everybody else uses..

[yeasty]

I'm surprised nobody else uses a beer engine with a corny...

[trucker5774]

Yeasty, have a look at this............it may lead you to where you need to be viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28554

[yeasty]

Thanks trucker. Its looking like I wasted my money on the breather.. I think I will try a check valve and see if that gives me better results. Ony problem is I will need 2 check valves instead of 1 breather.

I'm still interested in hearing if anybody else has success using a breather with a corny.

[dcq1974]

Excellent post - I'm just about to set up a beer engine to cornie!

[myke2008]

Hey,

I use beer engines with cornis and other types of barrels/casks. Been using them for a couple of years and have tried just about every combination of setup you can think of.

I can say a cask breather is a bit of a waste of money personally (although I don't know your setup/consumption).

You should though at the very least have a check valve to stop the pressure of the cask pushing the beer out through the beer engine (This will happen if the pressure is about 8PSI + ). The cask breather (as I am sure you know) applies a constant pressure to the cask at the set PSI. You can achieve this yourself by leaving the c02 hooked up via a regulator and set at a low PSI (up to you what the PSI is, depending on your preference of drink).

One thing you mentioned about the beer being 'pulled' out rather than 'pushed' out. Just to clarify the beer engine does 'pull' the beer out, it does not need any top pressure to 'push' the beer out. (This is where the check valve mentioned above stops the 'pushing' out).

I have found I have had big head problems when pouring a pint because the the pressure is to high in the cask. I would suggest purging out the pressure from your corni and setting it up with your regulator at about 2-3 PSI to serve (one thing with cornis some don't seal well at low pressure so you might need to see what works best).

Another common cause for large heads is yout pipe setup and temperature. First try and store the keg at about 14c temperature, or at the very least try and 'serve' the beer at that temperature (or as close as you can). This will keep the C02 in the beer and not break out in the pipes and engine as much.

Pipe wise, make sure the 1/2" pipe at the back of the beer engine is as short as possible and is stepped down to 3/8" or even smaller. I would also try and get the overal pipe length from corni to beer engine at a minimumn of 6 feet.

Sorry the above is not the clearest read, in a bit of a rush this afternoon

All the best!

Any more q's fire them over!

[mysterio]

I really like my check valve, gives a really smooth pour. Don't have time to sort out pictures sorry but I will one day.

[flytact]

I've been using a breather/engine setup for several years now (at least when the engine is working). It takes me anywhere from 2-5 weeks to finish a keg. Since I've got three other kegs in a converted freezer all connected to teh same gas I can't set my pressure to 2-3 as suggested. Prior to getting the breather I was covering the beer in the corny with CO@, then bleeding before using the engine, then refilling the keg. What a waste. Now I set it and forget it. As for sealing the corny lid I put 10+ PSI on the corny after filling it, then bleed off the pressure before hooking up the engine. The lid will stay seated.
Cheers