Beer Engines with King Keg type barrels

[richard_senior]

Hello,

I've been brewing from grain for a long time now and been fairly happy with the usual 5 gallon king keg type barrels, but recently a friend of mine built built himself a bar after I drunkenly said I'd stock it.

For Christmas I've bought him a beer engine and I'm going to just jubilee clip the pipe to the existing tap, and try to keep some sort of low pressure CO2 Head with the standard CO2 bottle (just over the christmas period).

My real aim is to ultimately rig up some sort of cask breathing system because we aren't likely to do 5 gallons in a week or so, but the problem is that there doesn't really seem to be a solution with standard 'hambleton bard' style fittings. Has anyone done this already? Can anyone supply me with a components list and a place I can source them from?

Merry Christmas

--
Richard

[Aleman]

You have two alternatives, You can Hook up a Cask Breather, in some way but you would have to probably use a Midget widget type setup as the standard Hambleton Bard S30 cylinder is impossible to configure that way.

Another alternative is to use a Check Valve which goes between the Keg and the engine. This allows you to use the standard S30 valve to pressurise the keg to normal levels, but beer only flows when the engine is used. The pressure in the keg closes the valve, the suction created when the pump is used opens the valve, when the suction is reduced the keg pressure closes the valve. For a standard Homebrew setup this is the route I would recommend as it doesn't rely on anything fancy. Colin Farrar Brewery Services (bottom of the page) is one source. A few people on the forum have started to play with this kit so try a search on Check Valve and you will find a few threads

[richard_senior]

Aleman,

Thank you very much!
I have been googling for weeks to find a simple solution to this, and I only discovered this site a few days ago, then I had trouble setting up my account.
I browsed the forums but couldn't really find what I was looking for in the limited space of time I get to surf these days.
I rang colin farrar and found him (or whoever answered) to be one of the most helpful people I've spoken to for ages.

In keeping with the public domain spirit of forums I'll try to give something back by way of recipes and photos of my kit at some point in the future.
In fact I'm blogging my move from plastic 5 gallon home brew to stainless 9 1/2 gallon kit next year so I'll post a link to my blog later.

Thanks!

--
Richard Senior

[Aleman]

I rang colin farrar and found him (or whoever answered) to be one of the most helpful people I've spoken to for ages.

I will second that, they are a company that really knows the meaning of customer service. I needed a new tail for my beer engine, after calling and explaining what I wanted, one was in the post to me and it arrived before I had sent the cheque off.

A couple of people have had delays in email responses from them but I would recommending phoning and speaking to a real person.

[bluebuzzard]

Having posted elsewhere for help identifying parts it turns out that I have this very setup myself. Two king kegs with the modifications made to accept an elbow joint through the top. A length of pipe down into the barrel from one end of the joint and a small length of hose terminating in a JG Speedfit connector which plugs into the Homark Check Valve.

I've only used one of the engines (I managed to get two) so far as I'm in the process of acquiring some more tube to hose connectors (Thanks everyone for the help there) but once I have those I'll be able to put two ales on tap for special occasions.

Next time they'll be used will be at my Uncle's in February when I take them across to his as there'll be about ten of us stopping over for the weekend. I'll get some photos then as it'll be the first time both pumps will be on.