Would like to use corny kegs with a beer engine

I was wondering if any body had any ideas or has tried this.

I would like to put a traditional beer engine on a kegerator or kezeer using corny kegs
So it is more like traditional cask beer no force carbonating.
The problem being
I really don’t want air in the kegs.
So I was wondering if I used co2 with a really low pressure, i.e. 1- 3 psi just to keep the keg toped up and not cause a vacuum in the keg
Do you think this may work or am I barking up the wrong tree?

It would work fine. Just set your second regulator (if you don't have one get one) for a low pressure...1 or 2 or 3 - 5 psi and you'll be fine.

The idea of a beer engine and real ale in general is that the air comes in contact with the beer and changes its profile as people in the bar drink it. It doesn't stay good as long as beer on CO2, if you are just going for the aesthetics of a beer engine, your plan will work, but in terms of it being a "real cask conditioned and served ale" not so much.

The reason the above is in quotes is that some of this is up for debate, but there are purists out there who will argue that you cant. The short answer is you can do whatever you want and what you are proposing will work.

Letting air in is ok for a bar where the cask is done in a few days, but not for your home. There are regulators that will hold 0.25 psi, called cask breathers. That works out to less than a foot of water pressure, so you don't have to worry about ale leakage.

Some people have reported using something like this instead of cask breathers with pretty good results. You don't need a secondary regulatory at a lower pressure this way, just a T in main line set to whatever pressure you'd be using for the other line(s).

Ace - Ace Tree: Heating & Cooling: Fans & Heaters: Heaters: Propane Heater Parts / Accessories: B&K® LP Gas Regulator (112-501)

I like DustinJ's idea. Also, rather than putting a T in your regular CO2 line, I wonder if you could use and emptied, but still full of presurized CO2 cornie, as the breather source. Just hook up a gas line with two gas in diconnects and the regulator in the middle. The breather supply keg could be inside or outside the kegerator

I haven't yet rigged it up, but I want to do something similar (w/o the regulator) for purging kegs prior to filling. Rather than just venting and wasting all of that CO2, why not use if for purging whatever it is you want purged.

If you want to do it, do it right - that is to say, if you don't care for the CAMRA definition and want to keep a blanket of carbon dioxide gas on the beer - and get a cask breather.

They're not cheap, but they're better than half-assing some screwy engineering. See UK Brewing Supplies, bringing the British Pub to America. and click "Sundries". It's at the top of the page. They're specifically designed to perform this function. All you need to do is cut the tubing and screw down two clamps.

I've used them. They work. Why reinvent the wheel?

Cheers,

Bob

That is a great solution NQ3X! I've been looking into this as well and it is not easy to find supplies for this sort of thing in the US market.

NQ3X said:

If you want to do it, do it right - that is to say, if you don't care for the CAMRA definition and want to keep a blanket of carbon dioxide gas on the beer - and get a cask breather.

They're not cheap, but they're better than half-assing some screwy engineering. See UK Brewing Supplies, bringing the British Pub to America. and click "Sundries". It's at the top of the page. They're specifically designed to perform this function. All you need to do is cut the tubing and screw down two clamps.

I've used them. They work. Why reinvent the wheel?

Cheers,

Bob

Click to expand...

Unless they have recently changed their rules CAMRA has no problems with using co2 as nothing that an oxygen barrier.

Didn't used to be that way, Mike. Used to be, once you vent the cask there was to be no extraneous carbonic acid gas at all. Suck the air in through the spile hole and damn the consequences.

As I recall, it had something to do with the interaction of air and beer changing the character thereof, which the blanket device is supposed to counteract.

Here is a good website. They use a LP low pressure regulator. Less than 2PSI. Its a lot cheaper than an $88 cask breather. ~$12-18 from Menards or Lowes.

Homebrewed Cask Ales


I plan to do this on my beer engine. Got this pump, plan to hook it up to a small jockey box and I also want to install a pass-thru shank in my keg fridge. Been thinkin' about this for awhile.

pjj2ba said:

I like DustinJ's idea. Also, rather than putting a T in your regular CO2 line, I wonder if you could use and emptied, but still full of presurized CO2 cornie, as the breather source. Just hook up a gas line with two gas in diconnects and the regulator in the middle. The breather supply keg could be inside or outside the kegerator.

I haven't yet rigged it up, but I want to do something similar (w/o the regulator) for purging kegs prior to filling. Rather than just venting and wasting all of that CO2, why not use if for purging whatever it is you want purged.

Click to expand...

This idea is very cool too. :rockin: