Bronce sparkler real ale machine

[Seeker]

I've been searching for the best way to serve my real ale which is all I drink and the main reason for getting into home brew.

Every option seemed expensive, messy or both, and I realised that most options were designed for pubs in the UK, not garages in Queensland. My ghetto beer engine served warm beer that the fruit flies and mold loved.

I wasn't thrilled.

So I tried to come up with the simplest and cheapest option. All that's required is forcing beer through a sparkler at pressure to serve perfect ale.

So I just fitted a $10 bronco tap to 6 inch of 10mm hose, increased to 12mm at the end and shoved a sparkler on the end.

Served at around 8 psi you get a nice creamy pint with about 1inch head.

No moving parts.

just pissed off fruit flies.

I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

 

[lael]

Fantastic. Was contemplating something just like this. What are you using for the sparkler?

 

[S.E]

I've been searching for the best way to serve my real ale which is all I drink and the main reason for getting into home brew.

Every option seemed expensive, messy or both, and I realised that most options were designed for pubs in the UK, not garages in Queensland. My ghetto beer engine served warm beer that the fruit flies and mold loved.

I wasn't thrilled.

So I tried to come up with the simplest and cheapest option. All that's required is forcing beer through a sparkler at pressure to serve perfect ale.

So I just fitted a $10 bronco tap to 6 inch of 10mm hose, increased to 12mm at the end and shoved a sparkler on the end.

Served at around 8 psi you get a nice creamy pint with about 1inch head.

No moving parts.

just pissed off fruit flies.

I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

Hi mate

If as you say you are looking for the simplest and cheapest option, that would be gravity dispense straight from the cask (also arguably the best). You do not need a beer engine or anything else to serve real ale.

Some malt driven ales do benefit from being served via a beer engine fitted with a sparkler but the main reason for using an engine in UK pubs is simply to pump the beer from the cellar up to the bar.

It is certainly not required to force beer through a sparkler at pressure to serve perfect ale. Real ale is never pumped through an engine at UK pubs or beer fests when the casks are at the bar and easily accessible to the barman. I would be happy and interested if anyone can prove me wrong and find pictures of real ale being served other than gravity when the cask is in plain view.

What are you using as casks for your real ale? I find cubes easiest to use at home, fit easily in a temp controlled fridge away from fruit flies.

Cheers Sean

 

[Bribie G]

There were four methods of serving real ale in British pubs.

Gravity
Beer engine

Water engine in Scotland. The beer is raised to a tall fount on the bar using air pressure generated by an engine running on mains pressure. Still used in a few bars.

Electric pump. Mostly used until the 1980s to serve bright tank beers but I've seen it used for real ales such as John Smiths casks.
They were lovely. The bar fitting usually consisted of a horizontal glass beer filled cylinder set in brass or Chrome with a piston that moved from end to end. Barmaid presses button, piston moves left and serves half a pint. Press again, piston moves right....

Use of sparklers depended on region.
In the North East we had big frothy heads, London had virtually flat pints. Nowadays the hipsters seem to have won and heads seem universal.

 

[nala]

The reason that you see small casks on view is simply the fact that they are small compared to the large barrels in the cellar and are usually for what are called guest beers,guest beers are brewed by other breweries than the main brewer.
To connect all these small barrels to a beer engine would not be practical,there are still a few pubs who are independent and have all small barrels on display and no beer engine this is for practical purposes...nothing else.

 

[S.E]

The reason that you see small casks on view is simply the fact that they are small compared to the large barrels in the cellar and are usually for what are called guest beers,guest beers are brewed by other breweries than the main brewer.
To connect all these small barrels to a beer engine would not be practical,there are still a few pubs who are independent and have all small barrels on display and no beer engine this is for practical purposes...nothing else.

Where have you seen large barrels in pub Cellars?

The largest casks I have ever seen are Firkins and they are used these days almost exclusively (with the exception of the occasional pin) both in the cellar and on display behind the bar.

Bribie G has pointed out the four methods of serving real ale in British pubs but gravity is simplest for serving real ale at home. Also as pointed out northerners and hipsters insist on big frothy heads on everything, but go to a real ale fest and everything is gravity dispensed with little or no head.

 

[Bribie G]

I've been to pubs on the waterfront in Cornwall that were too low to have cellars and casks were sitting on timber hurdles behind the bar. One of them was using brass galley pumps like you would find on a boat. The pump went in through the spile hole.

 

[Blind Dog]

Use of sparklers depended on region.
In the North East we had big frothy heads, London had virtually flat pints. Nowadays the hipsters seem to have won and heads seem universal.

Agree it was region specific. But the hipsters certainly haven't won. Cask ale sans head was still very much the norm when I revisted my old stomping grounds last time i returned to the UK

 

[Seeker]

I've been to many beer festivals and pubs all over the UK and as SE says it's all gravity feed straight from the pin/firkin. I'm from Yorkshire originally, and lived last six years of my sentence in Nottingham a mile or so from Hardy Hansons brewery.

Pubs from the Midland north all without exception (as far as I know) use sparklers. Soft southern shandy drinkers seems not to do so though :huh:

My sparkler was off Ebay and looks like this one (not sure it;s the same seller though) http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Cask-ale-Angram-sparkler-nozzle-beer-pump-medium-holes-/291024729654?hash=item43c26cf636

It's definitely for an Angram and it fits a 12mm hose quite tight.

Difference between sparkler and gravity feed is that you get a large head and much creamier mouth feel. It's not real ale without a sparkler to me.

 

[Seeker]

I think the festival thing is maybe for judging - sparklers do change the taste a bit.

 

[Blind Dog]

Pubs from the Midland north all without exception (as far as I know) use sparklers. Soft southern shandy drinkers Southerners are far more discerning and do without the abomination that is a sparkler

FTFY

 

[nala]

I happen to be 77 years old,lived in England for 68 years,you ask me where I've seen large barrels in cellars.
The barrel size I am talking about took two draymen to offload the barrel and lower it into the pub cellar,I can also recall the brewery using horses to deliver beer to pubs...does that answer your question ?

 

[S.E]

Where have you seen large barrels in pub Cellars?

The largest casks I have ever seen are Kilderkin and Firkins and they are used these days almost exclusively (with the exception of the occasional pin) both in the cellar and on display behind the bar.

Bribie G has pointed out the four methods of serving real ale in British pubs but gravity is simplest for serving real ale at home. Also as pointed out northerners and hipsters insist on big frothy heads on everything, but go to a real ale fest and everything is gravity dispensed with little or

Oops, too late to edit and forgot to write Kilderkin. :huh:

 

[S.E]

I happen to be 77 years old,lived in England for 68 years,you ask me where I've seen large barrels in cellars.
The barrel size I am talking about took two draymen to offload the barrel and lower it into the pub cellar,I can also recall the brewery using horses to deliver beer to pubs...does that answer your question ?

Yes certainly answers my question “where have you seen Barrels. However the rest of your OP is incorrect.

 

[Seeker]

This shows Bronco tap with 10mm tube, 12mm up convert, and Angram Sparkler.

 

[S.E]

This shows Bronco tap with 10mm tube, 12mm up convert, and Angram Sparkler.

Hang on, isn’t that just a keg ale that you’ve fitted a sparkler to? :huh:

 

[Seeker]

It is yes.

At the moment I'm emptying a fermenter into a jerry can and leaving it for a few weeks, and then serving from a keg.

Wouldn't be any different using the jerry can though, I've just not rigged it up to the gas yet.

Partly as it'll blow my house up, and the street along with it as it's not pressure regulated :lol:

 

[S.E]

It is yes.

At the moment I'm emptying a fermenter into a jerry can and leaving it for a few weeks, and then serving from a keg.

Wouldn't be any different using the jerry can though, I've just not rigged it up to the gas yet.

Partly as it'll blow my house up, and the street along with it as it's not pressure regulated :lol:

You could just give a squirt of co2 and keep your jerry can topped up like plastic UK homebrew barrels (not leave it connected).

I use cubes and they take a surprising pressure. I’ve pumped one up to over 20psi.

Have you read this thread? http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/70056-carbingconditioning-in-a-cube-before-keg/

 

[Seeker]

yes I have - I intend to do that, I'm just getting round to modding the jerry cans.

I had a keg sat around doing nothing in the mean time and thought I'd experiment - came out great.

 

[S.E]

yes I have - I intend to do that, I'm just getting round to modding the jerry cans.

I had a keg sat around doing nothing in the mean time and thought I'd experiment - came out great.

Fair enough. You do realise you’ll be in serious trouble with CAMRA if they catch you serving beer like that and calling it real ale though don’t you?