Show Us Your Beer Engines

[winkle]

I'm now the proud owner of a 4.5 Gal pin (cask). Can't wait till I can hook it up to my beer engine.

View attachment 53672

Does anyone know where I can purchase shives, spiles and keystones for it? I've found a few places in the UK and US but none will ship internationally.

Ring up Ross at Craftbrewer, or contact Big Fridge (NNL).

 

[Jez]

I've got stuff from Barley Bottom before as well. They were very good to deal with.

 

[winkle]

Reassembled my one today after stripping it back to clean, paint and polish it a bit earlier during the week.
before

after..


can't wait for the seal kit etc to arrive

 

[DKS]

Ready for July swap Winkle? Tried a beer or seven at Batz's for the first time some time back. Thought it was the ducks guts. I want one!
We need a local manufacturer. They'd sell like hot cakes I reckon.
Daz

 

[Bribie G]

Hey Winkle would you like me to bring a cube of finished, fined and as carbed as the cube will allow TTL style for your case swap?

When I was in Welly I noted that they serve most of their hand pumped ales out of polypins which are just collapsible cubes.

 

[winkle]

Hey Winkle would you like me to bring a cube of finished, fined and as carbed as the cube will allow TTL style for your case swap?

When I was in Welly I noted that they serve most of their hand pumped ales out of polypins which are just collapsible cubes.

Hmmm, I think Nick is bring a mild as well, and I'll have a strong bitter on, but if think we can go through 3 kegs then whynot

 

[white.grant]

Nice job on the refurb there Winkle. That's an interesting looking spout there too, quite short and flat. I have a homark which has a similar spout and I've been wondering why.

 

[winkle]

Nice job on the refurb there Winkle. That's an interesting looking spout there too, quite short and flat. I have a homark which has a similar spout and I've been wondering why.

Its cause, like me, they are bloody old

 

[bigfridge]

That's an interesting looking spout there too, quite short and flat. I have a homark which has a similar spout and I've been wondering why.

'Tis a Norf and Sowth ting 'guvnor I beleive ...

 

[white.grant]

'Tis a Norf and Sowth ting 'guvnor I beleive ...

And there I was thinking it was just sparklers .

I did a bit o googling and the difference can be explained as

"The effect of a swan neck isn't due to the extra distance the beer travels, it is due to the outlet being submerged. This causes the beer to exit at a higher speed (the Bernoulli principle apparently) thus causing a drop in pressure at the exit from the swan neck which in turn causes CO2 to break out of solution - these small bubbles rise up through the beer to form the tight head and draw aroma out. Details paraphrased from "Cellarmanship" by Patrick O'Neill."

The shorter spout will give you a looser head (ie southern style)

alternatively some are more passionate like the craft brewing association

It can't be emphasised enough that you should use the correct beer engine for the style of beer. Beer engines have two styles of neck, the swan neck and standard neck. Swan necks do untold damage to beers with a flowery hoppy aroma knocking the aroma out of the beer. The second feature which affects the beer is the sparkler. Sparklers force the beer through many small orifices producing a tight frothy head on the beer. Northern style beers (eg Tetley) should be dispensed through beer engines with a swan neck using a sparkler and produce an excellent pint that way. Southern style beers (eg Fuller's London Pride) should NOT be dispensed via a swan neck and certainly not through a sparkler. The result of this is of course, that Southern beers are not served with a head. Southern beers served in the northern manner are lifeless travesties of beers, whilst served in the proper manner they are a revelation, a wholly different beer. So the moral is get the beer engine appropriate to the style of beer you have brewed.

So its spouts for courses. Luckily you can get spout extensions!

 

[winkle]

After due consideration, I'll be running this with a check valve and a breather valve/aspirator from the gas bottle for normal home use and straight pull from the cask for parties. What is that noise outside?????......


Ok, just the check valve?

 

[Batz]

Reassembled my one today after stripping it back to clean, paint and polish it a bit earlier during the week.
before
View attachment 53905
after..
View attachment 53906
View attachment 53907
can't wait for the seal kit etc to arrive

That looks great Perry.

If you want sparklers and stuff Marks Homebrew stock them.

batz

 

[winkle]

Friggin thing won't mount on the bar without major surgery, so work has started on the mobile handpump bar.
Step one.

Step two - re-tile, stain, balance and strengthen.......
Once that is done I should be able to drag it along to the odd brewday.

 

[Batz]

Friggin thing won't mount on the bar without major surgery, so work has started on the mobile handpump bar.
Step one.
View attachment 54481
Step two - re-tile, stain, balance and strengthen.......
Once that is done I should be able to drag it along to the odd brewday.

Its got wheels !

Take in on the next pub crawl.

 

[winkle]

Its got wheels !

Take in on the next pub crawl.

It'd make the walk from Bitter Suite to Vroom easier

 

[NickB]

+3

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Hi Gent's/ladies,

I had a pretty good read of this thread as I have a nice beer engine on it's way. I like doing things nice and easy so I was wondering how people are going with the aspirators and check valves? I fully understand how the aspirators work and see them being great if you don't want to drink a keg in one hit but wouldn't you have to clean the pump after a session anyway? Maybe it would be easier just to have it on the go and polish off a keg in one night?
The check valve I don't really understand? What I thought is do you need one if the pump has not got one installed already for the back stroke?

Another idea I was thinking of is instead of having an aspirator would you get away with a pin cask (or a camping water cask 20L) full off C02 attached to the gas in on the keg instead of an aspirator?

Thanks for the help.
Gav

 

[sean83]

Hi Gent's/ladies,

I had a pretty good read of this thread as I have a nice beer engine on it's way. I like doing things nice and easy so I was wondering how people are going with the aspirators and check valves? I fully understand how the aspirators work and see them being great if you don't want to drink a keg in one hit but wouldn't you have to clean the pump after a session anyway? Maybe it would be easier just to have it on the go and polish off a keg in one night?
The check valve I don't really understand? What I thought is do you need one if the pump has not got one installed already for the back stroke?

Another idea I was thinking of is instead of having an aspirator would you get away with a pin cask (or a camping water cask 20L) full off C02 attached to the gas in on the keg instead of an aspirator?

Thanks for the help.
Gav

Hey Gav, just a quick query, where did you purchase your beer engine / pump from? Very keen to get one but am finding it a little harder to source them.

Cheers Sean

 

[Malted]

Another idea I was thinking of is instead of having an aspirator would you get away with a pin cask (or a camping water cask 20L) full off C02 attached to the gas in on the keg instead of an aspirator?

Do you need to add C02 to a goon bag as you empty it? Same deal with a polypin I am led to believe. I am a few weeks away from trying it myself.

If you have a polypin or a collapsible water container, why add CO2 to it? Do a secondary ferment in it if you want, or go straight from the fermenter to the polypin and serve at low carb. As you pump out the bag will shrink, no C02 addition needed.

 

[Malted]

Hey Gav, just a quick query, where did you purchase your beer engine / pump from? Very keen to get one but am finding it a little harder to source them.

Cheers Sean

Reasonably easy to purchase, it just depends on how much you're willing to pay.

Postage from the UK should be about 75 quid plus whatever you pay for the beer engine. You can get a new EWLbeer engine for 99 quid or a second hand one off eBay for 40 quid if you're lucky. There is a source in Australia who is a distributer for an English mob who recondition them; IIRC NNL brewery services will do a recon unit for $450 AUD or so - best confirm this with them yourself. Plenty of options so price is the consideration. Heck if money was no object you could buy a brand new Angram beer engine from the UK.