Cask and Hand-pump

[wide eyed and legless]

As black_labb pointed out cask ale is a cheaper way to serve your beer, but it goes beyond the economics, its all about taste, mouth feel and satisfaction. I would encourage anyone to give it a go, there would be no going back from it.
It isn't difficult or expensive to set up, I have a hand pump I shipped in from England and the Valterra pump, which pours just as good as its English counterpart.

 

[gap]

Hello Lael,

Will have to show you my 2 beer engines and how I connect them to kegs.

I have also 2 polypins but have not sorted how I will connect them.

Regards

Graeme

 

[black_labb]

Thanks, will do. Black lab, can make you post some pica of how the poly pins hook up to the beer pump? Did you order them off the website you linked?

I simply push the hose onto the tap nozzle as shown. It is the same size as a "bottling wand" or whatever you want to call it and the usual home brewing racking tubes fit over it perfectly. I did order it through that link. Americans don't know how to ship things here at a reasonable price but I got 18 for the price of a corny shipped here though I got the wrong size tap spigot (fixed with a few from supercheap auto).

As black_labb pointed out cask ale is a cheaper way to serve your beer, but it goes beyond the economics, its all about taste, mouth feel and satisfaction. I would encourage anyone to give it a go, there would be no going back from it.
It isn't difficult or expensive to set up, I have a hand pump I shipped in from England and the Valterra pump, which pours just as good as its English counterpart.

I went into this a bit but deleted the post and omitted it from the retype.

Kegged beer is very much the same as bottled beer but casked beer really is unique and brings out the flavours differently to keg/bottled beers.
With a handpump I usually everyday beers (bitters, milds, pales and other ales are everyday beers for me) on the handpump and bottle beers that I won't drink as regularly (stronger ones, belgians, beers that age or something I just want occasionally).

It's a great system and works out well for me.

 

[lael]

- I got the wrong size tap spigot (fixed with a few from supercheap auto).

Sounds awesome. Do you know which size is the correct one to buy?

 

[black_labb]

your looking for the smaller diameter spigot in the photo here. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=24469

Not sure where to get them aside from supercheap, but I didn't see them on the website.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

People in Plastic in Melbourne and I think Sydney or Perth have the caps with the tap fitted in them, ideal for releasing any excess pressure from the cube or squirting in a bit of co 2 .

 

[catcher]

Keen as mustard to make real ales

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Just use a cube as a cask.

 

[catcher]

So have spent plenty of time considering options and I think Cask Ale and Beer Engines is the road my brewery will follow

 

[S.E]

So have spent plenty of time considering options and I think Cask Ale and Beer Engines is the road my brewery will follow

As wide eyed and legless suggested cubes are great as real ale casks. They can be used without modification or fitted with a valve to top up co2. A bit of vaseline or keg lube in the tap is all it takes to seal it and stop it dripping under pressure.

Some info and pictures in this thread. http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/70056-carbingconditioning-in-a-cube-before-keg/

 

[catcher]

Yeah sweet thanks for the tips. The ball is in motion I am chasing the gear to build beer engines then I'll get my keezer setup to maintain cellar temp. Getting pumped

 

[Rambo]

Finally got everything together and the hand pump is working. Gotta say I'm impressed with how well it works.

Because of low stocks at the bunnings I went to I ended up putting it together slightly differently to the method Wide Eyed and Legless helped me out with (thanks again, I raised a glass to you on my first pint).

From the end of spout I added a bit of this. I used this aerator which slipped inside a 13mm vinly connector with a bit of help with hot water which then went over the silicon tube. 10mm vinyl tube goes from the bottom of the pump to a keg via a MFL disconnect without the JG female adapter.

Thanks everyone for their help and sharing this great idea.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Looks good Rambo, I hope a lot more AHB members follow suit in enjoying cask ale.

 

[aaronpetersen]

I currently have a couple of polypins that I picked up the last time I was in the UK and have been using them for gravity pouring of my real ales. I'm seriously considering taking the next step and connecting them to one of the Valtera pumps. The only thing stopping me is this comment from here: http://byo.com/stories/item/594-enjoy-the-real-thing-cask-conditioned-ale "Hand pulling beer is inconvenient for one or two glasses of beer. It’s best to use a beer engine when you have a decent number of beer lovers around, to make the effort worthwhile."
Do those of you that use pumps consider that statement to be true?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

You can use a hand pump whenever you like, if you don't drink so much when you transfer into a cask get a small cask and leave the rest of the beer in a primary or secondary, if you have a CO2 bottle you can always blanket the air space with CO2.
Always give anything a try, and adapt to suit your needs, I am sure you would be happy with the end result.

Cask-conditioned ale is unique. Particularly when hand pulled by a beer engine, it is smooth, creamy, and often more complex than its contemporary, fully carbonated counterparts. Because the beer is alive with yeast and is fermenting, many unique flavor and aroma compounds are produced in cask ale that are absent in anything pasteurized or filtered.

The above paragraph would be enough to convince me.

 

[aaronpetersen]

Thanks Wide eyed, but I don't think you completely understand my set-up. My beer is already in casks (polypins). The polypins collapse as beer is drawn from them so there is no air entering the cask and therefore no need to worry about oxidation. I just want to change from gravity poured to hand-pumped, so I can get that nice smooth and creamy mouthfeel.
What is the reason that hand-pumping isn't worthwhile for only a couple of glasses?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

You have answered your own question there Aaron it is the oxidisation that some people would worry about if not emptying the cask within a week to 10 days, you will not have a problem with your polypins, air will not be venting into them they will just be collapsing, same if you used a collapsible water container.
It would be no different if you felt like just a couple of glasses of beer from the pump or from a gravity feed, it doesn't cost a lot to set something up with the Valtera give it a go.

 

[aaronpetersen]

Awesome! Thanks wide eyed. I'm gonna give this a crack.

 

[catcher]

Where did you buy your hand pump and how much? Just the pump itself

Also the poly pins?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Hi catcher, the cheapest place I found for the Valtera pump is from Amazon in the USA, I was going there for a holiday this year but had to cancel, I had in mind to bring a few back with me to sell to members of AHB (at cost) as shipping adds a fair bit to it but it should come in under $50.
The polypins can be substituted with a decent collapsible plastic water container from eBay, a camping store or just on line but best to go for quality, they are still cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/Valterra-RP800-Chrome-Rocket-Hand/dp/B000BGM2XG

The free delivery they advertise is US only.