Show Us Your Beer Engines

[kirem]

thanks

 

[kirem]

I purchased this on ebay ready for the inaugral pouring. I went a bit overboard and got a TT polo shirt and bar mat as well.

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[kirem]

New drip tray and one of the sparklers fitted and a modified keg lid for 1/2inch beer delivery.

Not sure how much work I'll get done today. I feel like ****, I haven't been drinking (weight loss). Last night I had a couple of glasses of wine and a glass of 8-year old bundy and ginger beer and I feel like death warmed up today. I also have a terrible cold with lovely flouro green snot!

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[Back Yard Brewer]

New drip tray and one of the sparklers fitted and a modified keg lid for 1/2inch beer delivery.

Not sure how much work I'll get done today. I feel like ****, I haven't been drinking (weight loss). Last night I had a couple of glasses of wine and a glass of 8-year old bundy and ginger beer and I feel like death warmed up today. I also have a terrible cold with lovely flouro green snot!

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Just found this thread. It will be a great reference point when my engine arrives. Kirem, did you butcher the lid to modify it, how far can a beer pump draw beer and because the beer is fauced carbed at pouring do you need some sought of gas cover in your keg after a session.

BYB

 

[gap]

You do not have to force carbonate. You can treat the keg as a large bottle and prime with sugar.

As far as replacing gas when you pull abeer it is usual to have a device called a cask aspirator which sits in the gas line between the gas and the keg.
It only allows gas to pass into the keg at very low pressure when a beer is pulled. Otherwise if you had gas at normal dispense pressure it would just
force beer out of the beer engine.

Regards

Graeme

 

[kirem]

I took the lid to the work and the guys in engineering cut a nice neat keyed hole in the lid for me. I don't really have the equipment or care to cut holes in stainless.

Not sure on maximum distance that an engine can pull beer, mine is about 1 meter, just inside the fridge that the engine is attached to.

The beer is not force carbonated, you will end up with foam if the keg is force carbonated. Like others I use an aspirator, basically, when you remove beer the aspirator replaces that volume with CO2. It doesn't put the beer under pressure.

 

[Bribie G]

I've never quite understood the whole sparklers thing. Havent really visited any real ale pubs further north, mostly only in london. And both of the pubs I worked for were Fullers pubs, and fullers are currently very anti-sparklers.

It'd be interesting to do a side-by-side with the same brew

I see this thread is live again. Brilliant, didn't know there were any beer engines in Australia. I lived in Cardiff, Wales for several years. The local brewery SA Brains pubs use sparklers for their real ale. Lovely tight creamy head and smooth malty bodied beer. When CAMRA (Campaign for real ale) became really huge in the 70s it became somewhat trendy in some of the 'middle class' pubs to have a cask or two on or behind the bar serving directly from the tap (like the Brekky Creek Hotel here in Brisbane)

I can still taste the Brains SA direct from the cask. As opposed to the creamy 'mothers milk' experience I was used to, it tasted almost fizzy with a sharp hoppiness very reminiscent of the beers from over the other side of the Bristol Channel in Somerset (where they don't use sparklers). It was really as different as a long black coffee vs a flat white, no exaggeration.

Whilst it was interesting and a bit of a 'jolt' to regular SA drinkers I didn't really go for it and went back to the sparkler served version. the modern nitro keg 'creamflow' - try Kilkenny - is fairly similar to sparkler beer but of course not identical as there's still a bit of CO2 remaining, but close. Had a pint of Wells Bombardier nitro after work today and was thinking along the same lines.

Edit: Love Youngs and London Beers but whenever I went 'up' to London it was weird to get an absolutely headless pint right up to the rim of the glass

 

[AndrewQLD]

Hi Kirem,
Great work, could you tell me what the fittings are that you used for your keg lid and where you got them from? I'm struggling to get my pump operational, and I still can't find a spout for it anywhere either.

Hope you feel better soon.

Andrew

 

[gap]

Andrew,

It is a CPC bulkhead fitting. It takes 1/2 inch hose.
The male fitting fits onto the line to the beer engine and the fmale section fits into the keg lid.
There is a barb end to the female fitting which takes a 1/2 inch hose to act as a dip tube.

The fittings are available from various sources including 2 of the sponsprs.

Regards

Graeme

 

[kirem]

Hi Kirem,
Great work, could you tell me what the fittings are that you used for your keg lid and where you got them from? I'm struggling to get my pump operational, and I still can't find a spout for it anywhere either.

Hope you feel better soon.

Andrew

Yep CPC fittings from Ross. One is the bulkhead fitting and the other is a barbed male fitting.

Try the manufacturer for the spout, I got my parts from Angram within a week of ordering. I know delboy or what ever his handle is now has some beer engine parts.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Not sure on maximum distance that an engine can pull beer, mine is about 1 meter, just inside the fridge that the engine is attached to.

I have a 2m lift on mine. The pump wont prime itself, I have to push beer from the keg with a soda stream bottle, but after that it draws fine.

The labelling on the aspirator didnt seem logical to me either, I initially connected it back to front which meant it was continually trying to vent my gas bottle down to atmospheric pressure.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Thanks for the help guys, I've shot a couple of emails off so I'll see what happens, here's a pic of the old spout that needs replacing in case anyone can help, it needn't be the same as the one pictured so long as it works.




Andrew

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Still a little confused on how these things really work. Basically I thought that flat finished beer was pulled through and somehow force carbed with air from the pump :unsure: I was at Grumpys quite a while back and had a beer through a pump. They had a fermenter under the bar at that time with the pump hose in it and drew the beer through the pump. Came out with a real creamy head and quite a flat soft taste on the pallet. The flavour also shone through. Yep I am confused :unsure: . When it arives and I take a good look at it my questions may be answered.


BYB

 

[gap]

The beer is conditioned in the corny, same as bottle conditionong.
The beer engine spout can have a sparkler attached if you wish.
The sparkler is a plastic end piece which is screwed to the end of the spout.
The sparkler has about 20 pin holes in the ensd and the beer is forced through these holes.
So you can use the beer engine with or without the sparkler.

Regards


Graeme

 

[kirem]

Still a little confused on how these things really work. Basically I thought that flat finished beer was pulled through and somehow force carbed with air from the pump :unsure: I was at Grumpys quite a while back and had a beer through a pump. They had a fermenter under the bar at that time with the pump hose in it and drew the beer through the pump. Came out with a real creamy head and quite a flat soft taste on the pallet. The flavour also shone through. Yep I am confused :unsure: . When it arives and I take a good look at it my questions may be answered.


BYB

The engine is basically a cylinder and piston. this draws the ale out of the keg/cask. There is no carbonation.

rather than

attaching CO2 to force the ale to the tap.

You don't need CO2 to draw ale using a keg/cask. the CO2 via the aspirator is there to place a gas cover over the ale so it doesn't go 'off'. Just like to use a sparkler or not using an aspirator is just as controversial. The ale changes character when exposed to air and this can be the beauty of cask ale. Unless you drink alot an average home brewer would be leaving the ale exposed to air for a long time.

hope this helps clear things up a little.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

The engine is basically a cylinder and piston. this draws the ale out of the keg/cask. There is no carbonation.

rather than

attaching CO2 to force the ale to the tap.

You don't need CO2 to draw ale using a keg/cask. the CO2 via the aspirator is there to place a gas cover over the ale so it doesn't go 'off'. Just like to use a sparkler or not using an aspirator is just as controversial. The ale changes character when exposed to air and this can be the beauty of cask ale. Unless you drink alot an average home brewer would be leaving the ale exposed to air for a long time.

hope this helps clear things up a little.

Ok here goes. I would still carbonate me keg as normal but where I would use head pressure in keg to pour, in the case of a Engine I would draw carbonated beer and not worry about the constant head pressure in the keg? I understand about needing gas cover to eliminate air but what is an apirator? I assume after a session I would need to manually put a cover back in the keg and most likely purge any air.

I think I am getting there. I think.

BYB

 

[mje1980]

Ok here goes. I would still carbonate me keg as normal but where I would use head pressure in keg to pour, in the case of a Engine I would draw carbonated beer and not worry about the constant head pressure in the keg? I understand about needing gas cover to eliminate air but what is an apirator? I assume after a session I would need to manually put a cover back in the keg and most likely purge any air.

I think I am getting there. I think.

BYB

On ya BYB, you're asking questions a lot of other people want to know. I just read this thread now, and its got me keen.

 

[gap]

The aspirator sits in the gas line between the gas cylinder and the keg.
When you pull a pint the aspirator senses the drop in pressure and opens a valve .
This allows Co2 , at very low pressure, to take up the space vacated by the beer you are now drinking.
It regulates the pressure so you can have gas supplied to your real ale at next to no pressure and gas
at normal pressure supplied to your other kegs. You just need a splitter to separate the gas lines.

Regards

Graeme

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

The aspirator sits in the gas line between the gas cylinder and the keg.
When you pull a pint the aspirator senses the drop in pressure and opens a valve .
This allows Co2 , at very low pressure, to take up the space vacated by the beer you are now drinking.
It regulates the pressure so you can have gas supplied to your real ale at next to no pressure and gas
at normal pressure supplied to your other kegs. You just need a splitter to separate the gas lines.

Regards

Graeme

The pump I have bought from the UK says it come with an "inline check valve" thats lets you use keg beer. I assume / hope that is the apirator that we have been discussing. Will only find out in October.

Great info here so far.

BYB

 

[kirem]

not quite.
The ale in the keg/cask is at approximately atmospheric pressure (flat to taste) and no forced carbonation. the CO2 that is in the ale, is there under atmospheric pressure. The same as it will be in your glass (until it changes temperature). There is no change or very little change in carbonation from keg/cask to glass.

Basically flat beer, any forced carbonation will result in your ale pushing itself up the line and through you beer engine and out the spout. A beer engine doesn't shut off the beer line like a modern beer tap does.

Carbonate your beer to 1 atmosphere or there abouts either by force or priming in the keg/cask, taking into account your serving/storing temperature and draw the beer through the engine and into your glass.

An aspirator is a device that takes high pressure CO2 like we put on our modern day kegging systems and regulates it down to 1 atmosphere. it is there to replace the beer that is drawn out. if the keg isn't open to the atmospher/air then drawing some beer out of keg/cask will result in a vaccum being created.

Hope that ads to a better understanding.