Help with my newly commissioned Beer engine

[AndrewQLD]

Hi all,

I've finally managed to get my Beer Engine functioning, new seals, new spout, new sparkler.
I've made a pressure vessel from a new garden sprayer that will hold 11 lt.

What I can't seem to find is any information on kegging and priming the beer. I'm not sure if I should prime the beer with dextrose or force carb with Co2, and I'm confused as to what the volume of Co2 should actually be. I really want this to end up in the glass like a good English pint and since I can't get one here in Australia I want this to be as authentic as possible.

I will be making a Malton Pale Ale (unless someone has a better suggestion) from Marc Ollosson's book "Real Ales".

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew

[Whorst]

I naturally condition most of my beers, and serve on the engine. There are two methods you can try, both work well. First is to rack the beer, one or two days before target gravity. This will build up pressure in the corny. Second method is to let the fermentation finish out and add 56g of sugar.
I boil the sugar solution and cool with ice to pitch. I also add gelatin finings at the same time. I also attach a psi gauge to the gas inlet side of the corny.
They're available here: http://www.williamsbrewing.com/KEG_PRES ... 15C237.cfm

[stevezx7r]

Careful with that beer engine, Andrew, as the gas can damage your new seals.

If your serving from a pressure barrel you will need a way of dropping the pressure (unless, as whorst says, keep an eye on it with a regulator).

What I do is mature in a barrel then draw say 10 pints off into a plastic, collapsable container (polly pin) then fit a hose between the engine and polly pin and you can draw off a perfect pint. This negates the need to watch your pressure/back pressure but does mean you need to drink it all within two days if kept right.

[flytact]

Andrew,
First, there is a homebrewer in Australia that has been published in BYO magazine regarding his creative serving vessels. If you haven't used him as your basis for the garden sprayer keg then you may want to research it. (I've just tried and am coming up blanks, I'll check my old magazines when I get home.)

As for carbonating, adding sugar like Whorst is my technique. I'd love to keg prior to final gravity but I can't keep a hydrometer intact long enough.

[Waffty]

Careful with that beer engine, Andrew, as the gas can damage your new seals.

If your serving from a pressure barrel you will need a way of dropping the pressure (unless, as whorst says, keep an eye on it with a regulator)..

Get yourself a check valve & place it between the keg & the engine (around 12" from the engine).

It will not only reduce the pressure to the pump but also stop any beer syphoning back into the keg.

Think they're around £15 & come with a 1/2" barb (to the engine) & 3/8" input from the keg.

Darren.

[AndrewQLD]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I probably should have mentioned that I have a cask breather as well, and plan on putting it inline between my Co2 bottle and my pressure barrel.

The main concern I have is whether it is appropriate to carb the beer slightly in the pressure barrel and if so how much psi is required.
Or is it more correct not to carbonate the beer and serve from the barrel that way without any carbonation.

Thanks again for the replies.

Cheers
Andrew

[stevezx7r]

In that case it's down to personal taste or whether your going for a "traditional" ale. If you force carb the beer it will keep for longer but CAMRA won't like it

[Waffty]

I probably should have mentioned that I have a cask breather as well, and plan on putting it inline between my Co2 bottle and my pressure barrel.

Cask breather works at between 3 to 8 PSI line pressure & is designed to provide the cask with a 0.5 PSI 'blanket' of CO2, when liquid is drawn out of the cask itself. This 'blanket' of CO2 is designed to keep the air out & therefore reduce the risk of infection & thus keep the contents for longer. The low pressue is there to stop the contents from 'picking-up' any residual CO2 i.e force carbination. This is the argument that CAMRA put forward i.e they claim it's possible to tell a cask breather system by taste, so therefore it's not a proper cask conditioned ale.

So in a working Cask breather system, your keg, should only ever hold a 0.5 PSI pressure. Which negates the need of a check valve. There's nothing to stop you using both but from my experiances (I have both & 5 Angram beer engines (3x CO & 2x CQ), one or the other is best, with my favoured option being, 5 to 10PSI 'holding' pressure on the keg & a check valve 12" from the beer engine.

Darren.

[Jim]

Despite CAMRA's claim, when they actually put it to the blind taste test, they couldn't tell the difference. See here.

[AndrewQLD]

Thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated.

Here's what I think I need to do, if anyone sees any faults in my method please let me know.
Given I will be using an 11 lt pressure barrel and a cask breather I think I should:

Prime the barrel with 18 g dextrose in order to give me 1.5 volumes of Co2 @ serving temp of 12°c. After secondary fermentation, connect engine and cask breather and Co2 and enjoy my first authentic cask ale .

Can anyone see any problems with this?

Cheers
Andrew

[flytact]

I think that sounds great. You may want to vent the vessel before hooking up the engine. There's going to be some pressure in there from the secondary. You don't want your engine to turn into a faucet. Not that that's ever happened to me, just theory