Pressure barrel question

[Stonch]

Following primary fermentation, we have put our batch of beer in a pressure barrel primed with a sugar solution for secondary. We plan to leave it at room temp, in the same place primary took place, for a week.

This is the barrel - http://www.homebrewuk.co.uk/keg.htm

When we dispensed, putting aside my unsanitary sucking of the syphon tube to get it going , we found our barrel is far from full. Our batch was only 36 pints to start with, and we lost quite a bit due to not wanting the sediment from primary to enter the barrel. Now the barrel is 5 gallons, hence the void at the top (about a fifth of the barrel space, I'd say), which of course is filled with air, sealed in with the beer. Is this OK?

[tubby_shaw]

It's fine, if you have co2 gas you can purge out the o2 by gassing the keg, allowing the co2 to settle out (20mins or so) and cracking the lid. This will remove a lot of o2.

Apart from the barrel that stonch has linked to does not seem to have provision for CO2 injection
What will happen stonch is that the sugar solution that you added to the barrel will be consumed by the yeast and produce CO2 that will pressurise the barrel. Unfortunately once this excess CO2 has been used you will only be able to dispense by opening the lid and allowing air in.

[Stonch]

If that happens, i.e. i need to open up top of barrel because of loss of pressure, should I thrown in some more sugar so more CO2 is created?

[Stonch]

Having read that, seems to me the easiest way to deal with the problems we face is to drink the stuff either very slowly, so carbonation will be restored between servings - or all at once, so that it doesn't matter!!

[Old Jake]

I've just read throught the link you provided and i'm not sure I understand the following!

"When serving beer from a bottom tap barrel, don’t allow a vacuum to form as the beer is delivered, this will cause a slug of air to be drawn in through the tap which will oxidize and spoil the beer. To avoid this either release the cap or better still keep a slight pressure in the barrel with co2 gas as per the instructions with your gas system"

If you released the cap, wouldn't that allow air into the barrel and spoil it?

cheers

OJ

[tubby_shaw]

I've just read throught the link you provided and i'm not sure I understand the following!

"When serving beer from a bottom tap barrel, don’t allow a vacuum to form as the beer is delivered, this will cause a slug of air to be drawn in through the tap which will oxidize and spoil the beer. To avoid this either release the cap or better still keep a slight pressure in the barrel with co2 gas as per the instructions with your gas system"

If you released the cap, wouldn't that allow air into the barrel and spoil it?

cheers

OJ

Yes it will still spoil the beer but not as quickly as allowing air (containing bacteria, wild yeasts etc) to rise through the beer.
Even though there is not sufficient pressure of CO2 in the barrel to dispense there will still be a layer of CO2 over the beer which will afford a small amount of protection.

[Hoppkins]

I have 2 barrells. One with a C02 injector and one without.

I found with my last 2 kits i didnt really ever take enough in one go to reduce the void to a point where there is no pressure.

If you consistently take 5 pints per session then eventually it will get to a point where the amount of C02 is smaller than the void created. In this instance you would either have to add more C02 or just wait for more C02 to be created by secondary fermentation.

Or just open the cap but this comes with it's own risks.

[Andy]

Or buy a cornie