Cheapo pressure barrel advice

[Jamie Mullen]

I bought a job lot of second hand brew kit when I first started brewing cider which included a basic pressure barrel. I've brewed my last beer kit before going to all grain next year and hoped to use the barrel for dispensing over Christmas. It's the type that takes the small CO2 cartridges screwed onto the top and has a basic tap on the front. I brewed the kit as per the instructions and syphoned the beer into the barrell then primed it with the priming sugar in the kit. I didn't pressurise it with CO2 as I knew the priming sugar would do that but I did inject a CO2 cartridge with the lid unfastened to drop a layer of CO2 over the beer before secondary ferentation took place in the hope of protecting the beer. It has since been sat in my fermentation fridge at 20-20.5 degrees. I went into the garage tonight and could see there had been a small leak which I put down to the new tap being a bit crappy (it drips very slowly usually) so I drew off a bit into a glass. The beer tastes nice and has a low level of carbonation (bonus!) but it comes out as all froth and takes an age to settle into anything remotely drinkable. I've tried turning the tap further open but this results in a huge rush of beer and wet feet. I was hoping to be able to share this with guests over Christmas but I don't like handing out anything that looks shabby or needs an explanation/apology with it!! Any ideas how to minimise the frothing please?

[Nosferatu]

It's just a case of pouring really slowly unfortunately , crack the tap open a gnats hair to start with then as the pour calms down a bit then you can open it a bit more . It'll get less lively the more beer that is drunk from it so if you've got a few people pouring pints during a session the later pints will be much tamer .

[Addled Jim]

if its at 20 degrees that will affect the pour too, the gas will be more active at that level, once at seving temp and and with the careful pour advised above you should be ok?

[Pinto]

Drum taps are a pain, simply down to how they work. If you want to spend a few pounds then you can remove the tap, fit a reducing insert into the barrel and install a dalex tap like I did to mine - really does help but at around £25 for the parts you need to be committed to using the keg long term.

Either that or make the jump to a full setup with polykegs/cornys.....go, you know you wanted a bar....

[IPA]

if its at 20 degrees that will affect the pour too, the gas will be more active at that level, once at seving temp and and with the careful pour advised above you should be ok?

Cool it down to 10-12 degrees.

[Hairybiker]

You can also try putting a short length of hose on the tap (about 6"), down into the glass, this sometimes helps.

[steambrew]

Yes to the hose we used to do this before going to Cornys

[Jamie Mullen]

Thanks for all the replies folks, much appreciated. I've managed to successfully pour a pint using the super slow pour method and after chilling the keg to clear it in time to the 25th.

Re. Corny kegs, I'd love to but space in the garage doesn't allow it and a kegerator indoors would cause domestic issues on a whole extra level! I've settled on the idea of bottles for now but used the keg as a Christmas one-off as I know it will get used up in a short space of time.

[Buckie Brewer]

As mentioned above by Hairybiker see this post for a picture of what he is suggesting.

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