Hand Pull/Beer Engine Setup

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... As close to a pub real ale as you get unless you go down the cask and cask breather route. ...

... You need to drink within 2 weeks.

Exactly. It's what I did all that work for. I wasn't going to accept those limitations.

I covered both "breathers" and the limited life of many "cask-conditioned" techniques at home (including polypins).

I've just finished one hand-pumped brew made last October. I've still got a hand-pumped brew on made last December; that pump was flushed once in that time when the keg was changed over (I make 40L batches split into two 20L kegs). The problem with both beers wasn't that they'd deteriorated, weren't ever like "pub real ale", or had gone totally flat, but that the styles (British "running" bitters) were never meant to be drunk as matured as that.

A lot of home-brewers treat their hand-pumps as, somewhat inconvenient, novelties. It doesn't have to be like that.
 
That is a great in depth write up peebee but I must disagree with polypins are difficult to maintain. To me they are the most simple way and the only limitation is the time scale but the fact they are available in different sizes means unless you drink very rarely most people would be able to use them. At this years home brew festival one of the lectures is keeping cask beers at home, looking forward to that.
 
That is a great in depth write up peebee ...

Thanks very much... :)

... but I must disagree with polypins are difficult to maintain. To me they are the most simple way and the only limitation is the time scale but the fact they are available in different sizes means unless you drink very rarely most people would be able to use them. At this years home brew festival one of the lectures is keeping cask beers at home, looking forward to that.

I know polypins can be good. But if I was to write about them there isn't much new to say (I was using them back in the 1970-80s!). And I can't use them now because the "shelf life" is somewhat shorter than how long it takes me to see off 40L (my brewery's smallest brew length).

If polypins didn't have an aura of mystery about them they'd be much more commonplace than they are now. So I chose to champion a method that can have very defined methods and procedures and works because of easily explained reasonings. And I learnt a heck of a lot about beer serving along the way.



Something in my last post that perhaps should be explained more: I get very long no-trouble periods of use from my hand-pumps, whereas many folk recommend flushing them out once a week; or even after every session. Or else beer left in the pump goes off. My article suggests working in a check-valve (plumbing one-way valve, not a beer-engine demand valve) if you are handy doing such things. I go one step further and seal off the hand-pump nozzle with a solenoid valve. I could do this to my Angram CQs because they are roomy - the CO design is a bit cramped for space.
 
@Peebee , how does this concept sound.
During fermentation, run the vent hose into a 20l polypin. Once kegged, connect the polypin to Cornie so that when a pint is pulled CO2 is taken from the polypin.
Not sure if fermantation would produce the 20l CO2 required.
What are your thoughts?
Brian
 
If you are brewing about 20L, there will be close on 20L of CO2 dissolved in that beer that never made it out of the airlock (or whatever). So yes, collecting 20L of "free" CO2 from an active fermentation shouldn't be a problem.

But my "treatise" was all about the reason for keeping on a very small and concise pressure of CO2, I don't think you could do that with the CO2 collected in the manner you suggest. So I won't be trying it, but don't let me stop you. Perhaps you can pressure the CO2 in the polypin (stick a weight on it!) and perhaps feed the output through a variable LPG regulator?
 
That is exactly what I do, I collect the CO2 from my fermenting vessel into a collapsible camping water container, I use a heavy duty cube as a cask, connect the collected gas to the cask and that will keep the headspace above the beer oxygen free.
 
That is exactly what I do, I collect the CO2 from my fermenting vessel into a collapsible camping water container, I use a heavy duty cube as a cask, connect the collected gas to the cask and that will keep the headspace above the beer oxygen free.
I take it this is working well with a beer engine?
Brian
 
Here are better pics of the set up.

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