Home Made Hand Pump/beer Engine

[Muscovy_333]

Has anybody recently had a go at building their own hand pump/beer engine?

I had a quick look through the archives and could not see any recent attempts or discussions on the topic.

I'd love to hear if anyone has a prototype that works.

 

[Rowy]

Has anybody recently had a go at building their own hand pump/beer engine?

I had a quick look through the archives and could not see any recent attempts or discussions on the topic.

I'd love to hear if anyone has a prototype that works.

Porkspin was the closest I've seen on this site...............

 

[Fat Bastard]

Someone here posted a link to a beer engine made out of a hand pump designed for pumping drinking water on a boat. Didn't look very "beer engine-y" but worked in exactly the same fashion. A quick search doesn't bring it up for me, although there is a bunch of other stuff under "home made beer engine"

 

[fcmcg]

so....
In google i typed AHB and beer engine.....
look what i got....
beer engine
I've made one too...
works a treat....

 

[Muscovy_333]

so....
In google i typed AHB and beer engine.....
look what i got....
beer engine
I've made one too...
works a treat....

Yep had read that thread, but no-one had made the pump so it was just a heap of instructions.
Did you use those plans?

 

[fcmcg]

Yep had read that thread, but no-one had made the pump so it was just a heap of instructions.
Did you use those plans?

yes mate...
whitworths in melbourne had the pump for $35....
had a box....
Some silicon hose...some disconnects....
some lube....
Hand pumped beer....
oh...and i acquired a sparkler for the end.....makes all the differences...
F

 

[Muscovy_333]

yes mate...
whitworths in melbourne had the pump for $35....
had a box....
Some silicon hose...some disconnects....
some lube....
Hand pumped beer....
oh...and i acquired a sparkler for the end.....makes all the differences...
F

Thanks heaps, will look into it deeper. Appreciate your feedback.

 

[Wolfy]

Just a few posts down from this one Thirsty Boy has posted this/picture: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=935754
... so he's obviously made one.

I have the RV pump ($25-ish Ebay from an RV Mob in FerntreeGully), polypin-water-bag (Ebay) and an esky and and beer line/silicon hose.
I'm going to make it all into a portable beer-engine so I can serve English Ale at my sister's wedding in October (her fiance is English), but I've not put it together yet, will post details/pictures when I do.

 

[Muscovy_333]

Just a few posts down from this one Thirsty Boy has posted this/picture: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=935754
... so he's obviously made one.

I have the RV pump ($25-ish Ebay from an RV Mob in FerntreeGully), polypin-water-bag (Ebay) and an esky and and beer line/silicon hose.
I'm going to make it all into a portable beer-engine so I can serve English Ale at my sister's wedding in October (her fiance is English), but I've not put it together yet, will post details/pictures when I do.

Thanks Wolfy, I was just about to PM Thirsty Boy as i did see that he had acquired and RV pump from Canada in the other thread that he was going to use for this build.
I'm thinking you could ghetto the running gear in one of these RV pumps, probably rig up a simple aspirator and come up with something a bit funky and functional. I'm not too concerned about the old school look and nostalgia (although I wouldn't turn one down)

Pics would be great if you get yours up and running. Will do likewise.
Musc

 

[Wolfy]

I'm thinking you could ghetto the running gear in one of these RV pumps, probably rig up a simple aspirator and come up with something a bit funky and functional. I'm not too concerned about the old school look and nostalgia (although I wouldn't turn one down)

Even if I did manage to get a real-beer engine it would not be very portable, so the caravan pump seems to be the best option.
I got this pump: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/180904664742?ss...#ht_1200wt_1164
And this water-container: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/160822850240?ss...#ht_2745wt_1397
(It smells a bit like plastic/vinyl just now so I hope that will wash/soak away).
So there should not be any need for anything else special like an aspirator etc.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

i have not done, but have thought about the "aspirator" issue. I figure....

take one plastic bag, if possible a silver oxygen proof bag.... fill it with C02 from either your bottle or a handy fermenting beer. Not pressurised pr anything, just blow it up so its full of gas.

Now, when you want to dispense your beer, put it in a cornie, gas it to your desired level either naturally or not, fudge a line from the bag of co2 to the gas in dissconnect and run your pump from the liquid disconnect.

As you pull beer, the keg will pull in gas from the bag, but because its not under pressure or anything, all that it does is stop the headspace filling with anything but Co2.

You could manage it in a dispense fridge, a 20L bag is only the size of a pillow really, but probably its a bit clunky for anything more than a "party" type fix.

Mine is mainly for dispensing chilled water... but its been pressed into service for beer too. Its "adequate" for the task, but you've really gotta want handpumped beer to go through all the pallaver involved.


edit - just checked wolfy's links and that water container would be the trick for holding the co2!!

 

[Wolfy]

edit - just checked wolfy's links and that water container would be the trick for holding the co2!!

If it seals air/water-tight, which I'm not totally sure about.

If the beer is in a corny-keg, why go to all the bag-bother?
Couldn't you just set the CO2 pressure to virtually-atmospheric and have it back-fill the keg headspace without adding pressure?

 

[fraser_john]

If it seals air/water-tight, which I'm not totally sure about.

<Snip>

Should be water tight, I had one years ago and it worked great.

 

[Rurik]

http://www.byo.com/stories/projects-and-eq...engine-projects


Hope this helps

 

[Muscovy_333]

http://www.byo.com/stories/projects-and-eq...engine-projects


Hope this helps

Ace, thankyou.
i am going to have a crack.

I am quickly learning that I really enjoy making and drinking English style beers in this manner.

I just need to figure out how it will look to suit my portable bar build.

 

[OneEye]

Something like this could work also, if you can get your hands on one. It collapses under pressure so no headspace at all!

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing...egs/cubitainers

 

[tiprya]

With those collapsable containers, would you naturally carbonate the beer, or leave it dead flat?

 

[Wolfy]

With those collapsable containers, would you naturally carbonate the beer, or leave it dead flat?

For the first attempts, I plan to carbonate in a corny-keg, then transfer it to the poly-pin for serving via the hand-pump.
Maybe later I'll naturally carbonate it as some of the guys on the JBK forums do.

 

[NickB]

Really shouldn't need much carbing at all, if any. When I build mine, I'm going to only add enough sugar to the polypin to just created a small amount of CO2.