Idea for cooling beer to beer engine...

[Jim]

Looking forward to warmer weather, I've been setting up a system to cool beer in a polypin by stuffing it inside a picnic cooler with ice packs. It's not exactly rocket science, but the pics might inspire someone!

First thing was to provide an outlet for the beer line: -




Testing with water showed that constrained in the box, the polypin still holds just under 4 gallons. Tricky to fit in the ice packs when it's full, though : -


In position to dispense with the lid closed: -


And a shot showing the whole set-up:


The beauty of this set up is that you can fill the pin while it's inside the cooler in an upright position, and it can be carried around easily. Once the beer line's connected the cooler is put onto its side for dispensing.

[Frothy]

Pretty Ideal

Frothy

[Vossy1]

Very tidy

[Jim]

Nice one Jim, I take it you will be sampling the fruits of you labours tonight ..........

I won't get p*issed very quickly if I do - it's only got water in it at the moment.

I'm waiting for my batch of Jim's Old Pumpy to clear a bit more first (I've already had about a gallon out of the keg though - lovely!).

[Vossy1]

(I've already had about a gallon out of the keg though - lovely!)

[Garth]

good work Jim, hurrah for beer engines

[AT]

That sure looks like a great idea jim and not as complicated as some of the inventions i've seen on the forum

[sparky Paul]

Looks spiffing Jim, and very neat!

[bettyswallocks]

Hey Jim
Do you find that you have to put stronger brews through the beer engine. If i put a standard bitter through it tastes a bit weak as some of gas is knocked out by the pump.

[RabMaxwell]

Hey Jim
Do you find that you have to put stronger brews through the beer engine. If i put a standard bitter through it tastes a bit weak as some of gas is knocked out by the pump.

I add a little calcium chloride to the mash for increased malt flavour & also increase my hopping rate for my beers through my beer engines. It helps compensate for the losses i get by using tight sparklers to. Also dry hopping has made a big difference with my beers through my beer engines

[bettyswallocks]

Have found dry hopping helps, cheers mate.

[eskimobob]

Good idea Jim

[oblivious]

Hi Jim

When do you prime the beer and how much?

[Jim]

Hi Jim

When do you prime the beer and how much?

I prime with the normal amount of sugar (2oz) in a plastic pressure barrel.

Once the beer is quite clear, I rack into the polypin via the barrel tap and some siphon tubing (taking care to cause the minimum disturbance to the beer to avoid foaming).

[mshergold]

Did you find the polypin-in-a-coolbox connected to a hand pump good in the long term Jim? Also, am I right in thinking the set-up is polypin, beer line, pump with nothing else? How often do you have to change the ice blocks? I was thinking of doing the same, but maybe buying one of the electric coolers and setting a timer to switch it on periodically.