Step by step guide on polypins?

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ryanshelton

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Probably a question for Dennisking as i understand he is the polypin king but if anyone else can help it would be appreciated.


Is there a guide to using polypins? if so can you link me to it? I cant be the only person who wants to use them but aside from where to buy them i have no clue on what else to do with them. Do you prime them? how do u store them? How do they transport?how long does the beer last in them unopened and once opened?
and probably a million other questions i cant think of at the minute :D
 
I have thought of writing a how to but over the years I have changed some aspects myself which shows there are several ways of going about it. After filling, via syphon tube, make sure you expel any air via tap. If you are drinking straight from the pin I would try to leave for 3 weeks before drinking. I would Prime a week before I intended to drink leaving somewhere slightly warm until it starts to expand, normally about 2 days, then move to my cool garage. 80gms of white sugar. Now I use a hand pump and don't bother priming. Transporting is no problem just let it settle for a day or so. Once opened I normally drink in about 2 weeks but have know to have kept the odd one for 3-4 weeks. Sometimes the last couple of pints can be a bit flat but that has never been a problem for me.
 
How do you prime a week before drinking? Do you just take the tap off, add sugar (solution?), put tap back and shake? Why not prime when you fill?

I plan to fill my polypins from my bottling bucket by using tube from tap to tap. Just tried this tonight with water. Will do it with my mild ale tomorrow. It's the same tube that will go from hand pump to poly pin.
 
rpt said:
How do you prime a week before drinking? Do you just take the tap off, add sugar (solution?), put tap back and shake? Why not prime when you fill?

I as I said I have tried several ways over the years. I used to fill a few gravity points over FV and not prime, that also worked well. I did take the tap off, the sugar was in solution, quickly add the sugar expel air then gently shake. I preferred this way because if I primed to early it would expand to early so I had to keep letting out gas.
 
One tip I have is when attaching a tube between the tap of a little bottler on a bottling bucket and connecting that to the polypin, (As per RPT's post) I place the polypin upside down so the tap is on the floor which means it fills from below, that significantly reduces the amount of foaming while filling.
 
Jeltz said:
One tip I have is attaching a tube between the tap of a little bottler on a bottling bucket and connecting that to the polypin, however place the polypin upside down so the tap is on the floor so it fills from below, that significantly reduces the amount of foaming while filling.
That's a good tip. My practice with water didn't have that problem! I shall use two 5L polypins (one unprimed and one slightly primed) and bottle the rest.
 
I've tried not priming and I wasn't keep so I primed with 3g/l most recently and it was too high I have had to plenty of gas out I shall go with 2g/l next time and see how that is.
 
Thanks for all the replies.
The main reason im thinking about using the polypins is to take the beer to TST14 but seeing as we only brew a max of 18L at a time I would only get the 10L ones. Is it worth it seeing as we will only get around 17 pints out of each pin and if they need to be left to settle for a day they wouldn't be drinkable until the Saturday night.

I don't really like the mini kegs i used last year, too much faffing about and they are a nightmare to reuse.
 
If you get the beer bright and keep it really cold, you can transfer into the polypin and keep enough condition that works well in a beer pump (or pocket beer engine as I use a lot.

I also have co2 for my cornies so I can gas my polypins if I need to quite easily up the tap! :?
 
At last years spring thing I took a polypin. I racked off leaving most of the yeast behind. It was still slightly cloudy so I left it on one of the tables to settle a bit more with a view to get it on the hand pump Saturday, as it had not been primed the hand pump gives it some life. A few people started to sample it on the Friday and by Saturday morning it was 3/4 gone. Think I will just brew a darker beer this year.
 
One of beers is going to be a stout and the other will be a sweet newky Brown so clarity really won't be a issue I don't think. We will be taking the old speckled hen but will leave that to sit in the tent until the Saturday night I reckon. Might leave priming them, try them through the beer engines. We will be taking some bottles aswell so we can compare them to the uncarbed ones. Dennis can I ask where would you suggest getting the polypins from? Murphy's are localish to me so was thinking there?
 
I filled two polypins yesterday (actually just under 5L in each). One was unprimed, the other I primed with 10g of white sugar. They are both in the utility room under the boiler. Already the primed one has stiffened and I've released some pressure. Both have quite a lot of sediment.

One problem I had was with the taps on the polypin and the little bottler. They are almost identical plastic taps and have a little hole on the side. When the tap is in the off position this hole connects to the tube. When the tap is just used for dispensing it doesn't matter, but when there is a tube connected with a head of beer, it sprays out of the hole across the kitchen! I think it may be possible to actually turn off the tap without this hole lining up. Or maybe I can tape over the hold but I guess it must be there for a reason.
 
I open the tap on the polypin 1st and control the filling from the little bottler tap, once full turn off the little bottler tap, if you turn the polypin the right way up the air in the polypin and beer in the line should now swap places. Once that is done close the tap on the polypin and disconnect and there will be minimal loss.
 
It's says the cheaper bag in a box can be used 5-6 times. The polypins are a lot stronger. Some of mine are several years old and still going.
 
Jeltz said:
I open the tap on the polypin 1st and control the filling from the little bottler tap, once full turn off the little bottler tap, if you turn the polypin the right way up the air in the polypin and beer in the line should now swap places. Once that is done close the tap on the polypin and disconnect and there will be minimal loss.
Just filled two polypins doing this and barely a drop spilt. Thanks! :hat:
 

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