Dispensing From Cubes

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The old steel bottles can only officialy be exchanged (for a new Al one) at Woolworths - Some have been lucky with Kmart, through probably through someone green serving them.

cheers Ross

I'm not sure about that, not in NSW anyway. I originally heard woollys were the people to go to. After about 20 visits to every woollys and coles in my area and none of them even knowing what a sodastream bottle was, I was fairly disheartened. Then I tried big W and was in luck. Since then every K-Mart or Big W that I've been stocks sodastream cylinders.

edit: took out a double neg that made it a bit confusing :)
 
Hi Guys,

I'm really interested in trying this deal out. As it's been a month now, have there been anymore overall good/bad impressions of the system?

Cheers,

Phil.
 
Hi Guys,

I'm really interested in trying this deal out. As it's been a month now, have there been anymore overall good/bad impressions of the system?

Cheers,

Phil.


I found this worked pretty well for a 'real ale' style. But overall I've gone over to the diy party keg made from a garden sprayer as a better option. They are designed to hold pressure without distorting, have a built-in relief valve, and are a piece of piss to fit with a line and tap. I'm enjoying a pint of bitter from my 8L sprayer keg as I type. Just a smidge undercarbonated, but I think I just need to tighten the relief valve a touch.

Check this thread for pix and details.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...?showtopic=3199

Either way, one thing I've found is that metal valves are the way to go. I found the rubber ones stank too much and I think contaminated the beer. (Most tyre places sell them for about $4 each.)
 
I've been meaning to post in this thread. My beer (a mild) has come out ok, but the carbonation is probably too low even for me. I have been meaning to ask how to connect a sodastream to the valve. It probably seems like a simple question, but it's something I have no idea about. :blink:
 
I've been meaning to post in this thread. My beer (a mild) has come out ok, but the carbonation is probably too low even for me. I have been meaning to ask how to connect a sodastream to the valve. It probably seems like a simple question, but it's something I have no idea about. :blink:

Hey Stuster,
I haven't actually tested mine yet but... I purchased a tyre inflation knuckle (to fit valve) with a 1/4" BSP thread then fitted a 1/4" barb to my gas line. Mine was $5 from a local hose and coupler supplier. If you are struggling to track one down I would be happy to pop one in the post :)
Cheers
Doug
 
I found this worked pretty well for a 'real ale' style. But overall I've gone over to the diy party keg made from a garden sprayer as a better option. They are designed to hold pressure without distorting, have a built-in relief valve, and are a piece of piss to fit with a line and tap. I'm enjoying a pint of bitter from my 8L sprayer keg as I type. Just a smidge undercarbonated, but I think I just need to tighten the relief valve a touch.

Check this thread for pix and details.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...?showtopic=3199

Either way, one thing I've found is that metal valves are the way to go. I found the rubber ones stank too much and I think contaminated the beer. (Most tyre places sell them for about $4 each.)

Hi Geoff,

I've looked into this one as well (5 or 8L is a pretty good size to fit in my fringe). Do you use the bicycle pump CO2 thing for this, or have you rigged up the soda stream system? I had considered the soda stream but then chickened out because a lot of people use regulators etc, which starts to add up ($$), and I really wanted a tight arse solution.

Cheers,

Phil.
 
Hi Geoff,

I've looked into this one as well (5 or 8L is a pretty good size to fit in my fringe). Do you use the bicycle pump CO2 thing for this, or have you rigged up the soda stream system? I had considered the soda stream but then chickened out because a lot of people use regulators etc, which starts to add up ($$), and I really wanted a tight arse solution.

Cheers,

Phil.


Check the link on my previous post. A few pages back into that thread you'll find pics and info on how I put these together. No regs. I just add CO2 straight from the Soda Stream unit when the pour gets weak.
 
Check the link on my previous post. A few pages back into that thread you'll find pics and info on how I put these together. No regs. I just add CO2 straight from the Soda Stream unit when the pour gets weak.

OK gotya,

That's another option I might need to explore. Have to go find a soda stream from somewhere ...

Phil.
 
I read this topic as I've been exploring options to do with what vessels could be used with a beer engine as an alternative to kegging and thought I would weigh in with the the idea of allowing 'cubes' to release excess pressure using oz tops. They are designed to vent pressure above a certain level using some sort of CO2 permeable material.
They come in 3 different pressure grades, 'low' which releases pressure above "spritz" level, 'medium' which releases pressure above beer carbonation, and 'high' which allows pressure to produce the carbonation level in champagne or softdrinks. The medium and high caps can only be used on bottles designed to hold carbonated beverages like cola & lemonade, whereas the low ones are suitable for any bottles and designed to fit juice bottles.

I've used these alot in my brewing, mostly for yeast cultures, starters and so forth.

oztops_for_a_cube.jpg
click the image for a larger version

I was hoping the male thread from a tap would be compatible with the thread of the soft drink bottle oztops, but alas it is not, and would require some modding.

If this could be adapted to this size lid (or if the company made them!) I imagine this would enable people to brew in cubes of various sizes, use them for real ale dispensing with a hand pump (with adition of a c02 injection valve thingo like a party keg), and it may also remove the anoying warping of the cubes which happens sometimes when beer is in secondary in a cube (additional fermentation, rise in temp etc) and they may even be suitable for serving beer straight from a cube's tap and not need a hand pump/ beer engine.

At some point I'll scrounge for bits and pieces that could be used to affix an oztop to a cube and see how it goes.

Just thought I'd throw this idea out there.
FYI for those people in Adelaide Grumpy's has these oztops 'kits' they are $25 and have 2 HIGH carbonation caps, 2 MED, 4 LOW of 2 differnet juice bottle types and 2 containers of dried yeast for making ciders and such (the actual use of these wonderful brew aids).

pS yada yada no affiliation just an appreciator of this product.
 
lets pull this one up.

anyone have any more to contribute. this seems like a pretty good idea and might be a goer for when i brew a batch for my mates and myself at parties.

has anyone tried bracing a cube with say 2 lengths of metal (20-25mm wide, maybe 2-3mm thick) and then folding them around so you can slide them over the cube (if you can weld, weld the ends up or use 2 holes in either end and some kind of pin) and when it starts to bloat up it holds the rings in place. they provide greater pressure and the cubes done deform too much. might mean you can get that extra bit of carbonation in allowing non real ales to be served?
 
http://beer-and-winecraft.co.uk/barrels.htm

At about $AUD 40 to 70 I wonder what it would cost to freight a couple over here? I owned two of them when I lived in the UK and for bitters and milds they were superb. Wouldn't really suit Australian lagers etc because, from memory, when you put your pint glass under the spigot and turn the tap it sort of sprays out and you get a nice creamy head, sort of like a Tetley's Ale or a Nitrokeg.
The advantage of a pressure barrel used with Pom ales is that you can rack from fermenter, add finings, prime and start drinking in about a week - similar to the real ales in the pubs, and if you have two or three of them you can keep a nice production line trundling along.

Not a good system if you need to mature for a month or so.
 
Love the look of those pressure barrels. So many goodies available in the brewing world that never seem to reach our shores. At least I've never seen them here. Anybody know any different?
 
OK, I think we may be onto something guys.

First, get yourself a standard car tyre valve - $2.99 for two from Autobarn. Then drill a 14mm hole in your cube lid. The packet says 11.5mm hole but they are dreaming.

View attachment 12551 View attachment 12552

Next drill a 3mm hole in the valve stem, just up from where it flares at the base, but not too far up - otherwise you'll hit the bottom of the valve inside. Make sure you drill through the brass inner as well so that you have a clear hole all the way through to the centre. Then pull the valve through the hole in the lid:

View attachment 12556 View attachment 12553

Next get a few inches of rubber gas tubing, like the stuff you had on your bunsen burners at school. It's about 7mm ID. I got mine from Gameco in Preston, but you should be able to find it (or something similar) elsewhere. You might be able to find something in an auto parts supplier. It just needs to be about the right size and have good stretchiness, there is room for fine adjustment later. Then cut yourself a small piece about 15mm long, and slide it over the valve stem (a spot of dish liquid will help). It should be a nice tight fit. Find a washer and a nut to fit the thread, to keep the rubber tubing in place. I'm not exactly sure where my nut came from originally but there's a good chance it is from a bicycle tube, so if you are having trouble finding one try your nearest cycle repairer.

View attachment 12554 View attachment 12555

...and basically you are all set.

You will need to tweak it to get the backpressure just right - adjustments are made by changing the length of the tubing slightly. A longer length will be tighter and hold more pressure, and a shorter length will be a bit looser obviously. You might even be able to use a diagonal cut on the bottom end of the tubing to get some kind of adjustment from simply rotating it - but you'll only be able to do this while the dish liquid is relatively fresh, after a few minutes all that tight rubber gets pretty grippy.

From my experiments, I reckon about 3-6psi results in a firm cube with gentle bulging of the flat sides but no serious distortion. It should still sit flat on a surface. Any more than about 10psi will begin to seriously distort the cube, which agrees with what Shunty found - but the objective here is only to maintain a small amount of positive pressure to keep a base level of condition in the beer.

Using one of these it should be easy to naturally prime in the cube, with any excess pressure buildup venting safely. Then you just need to use a bike tyre inflator to give it an occasional squirt of CO2 to maintain positive pressure as you empty the cube (or if you're feeling really minimalist, you could try just adding a bit more sugar from time to time). You'll probably learn to feel what the pressure is like with a gentle squeeze, but this release mechanism (or 'spunding valve') means you shouldn't get into too much trouble.

I have tested it under water to see if there are any leaks, and after a bit of trial and error getting the backpressure right it seems to work perfectly. You need to make sure that your lid and tap is tight, and you might need to file down any moulding burrs to help them seal properly. You might also need to add an extra rubber washer to your tap, so you can keep it tight and vertical at the same time.

I tried a couple of different types of taps, and both the common white tap (with the 'B' shaped handle) and the black one (with the teardop-shaped handle) seem to handle the pressure just fine. I have also tried a yellow spring-top tap but it has a tendency to drip very slowly - not sure whether this would be universal or just mine (edit: randyrob seems to have the same type of tap in red and it looks lke it's OK).

Haven't served a brew through it yet, as I haven't got a bike inflater (I was using compressed air) but hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to give it a trial run with real beer.

So we could be talking about a kegging (casking? cubing?) system for the cost of a cube, a gas dispenser, some parts and maybe an hour of farting around. By my reckoning it should be good for up to about 2 volumes of carbonation, but in reality it would probably be nearer 1.5 given that you wouldn't want to keep it permanently at its maximum pressure. I think that's still perfectly drinkable for day-to-day drinking (unless you like really fizzy lagers), and for the price I reckon it has to be worth a shot.

Beats bottling :beer:

There was a thread in January about home-made beer engines using RV pumps, and some of the posters were speculating about using them to dispense from a cube. As somebody who is very keen to try out a cube modification as per WortGames' original guide, I wonder whether these ideas can be brought together...

I suppose that even the low pressure within a cube might interfere with the pump action and cause drips though? Somebody else commented that the RV pumps typically dispense about 20-30ml of liquid per 'pump'. I wonder if that's too laborious for me... <_<
 
I looked into this myself as I mostly brew UK bitters. There is also a 'lotion pump' thingo that you can screw into the top of a cube and this is for applications like hand cleaners in workshops etc, you pump and a goop comes out into your hand. these are also about 30ml and it would take ten pumps, at least, to fill a middy.

World of pain :p
 
And another thing... I am not the sort of drinker who is likely to consume 15L of beer in a week. I don't have enough fridge space to keep it cold either. Providing I kept the cube topped up with CO2 from a tyre inflator, would it be fine to leave a cube out at ambient temps over winter. I'm thinking: filled with a lovely porter that I can sip upon a bit every evening. (If the cube stayed out in the shed it is very unlikely to rise above 15C until spring hits.)

If that sounds fine, I just need recommendations for a nice entry-level porter recipe. I am immensely fond of Holgate's Temptress Chocolate Porter, but this brew will be my first so don't want to get too ambitious!

Cheers.
 

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