Bag-in-a-box/Beer Engine

[Fatty]

Hi friends. I was hoping some of you might have some helpful guidance. Has anyone else used bag-in-a-box for conditioning and serving homebrew? I love a good cask ale, though I live in Alaska, and before the pandemic there were only 2 places in the state that served beer through a handpull, and now there's currently none. So I purchased my own handpull along with a bag-in-the-box connector. I've been priming my beer and letting it condition in the bags, though when I pull the finished beer through my engine, it ends up being under carbonated. Quite a bit of pressure builds up in the bags, which causes the bags to expand. I'm thinking this may create too much head space for the beer to properly carbonate? If anyone has any thoughts or helpful suggestions, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks guys. I hope all is well, and hope everyone has been enjoying some good homebrew. Best.

 

[McKnuckle]

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm planning to. Look up "polypin" and "Cubitainer" and you'll find some threads with people's experiences both here and on some of the UK/AUS forums.

One thing I picked up is that you have to keep the CO2 in the beer, not in the headspace. That means dropping the temperature to serving levels ~52ºF after fermentation, or even conducting it there (over a few weeks). Keep the fermentation temp lower than normal to begin with. And the carbonation level is kept intentionally low, keep in mind, about 1.5 volumes of CO2. People in the discussions keep talking about releasing gas to avoid popping the container, which is a bit daunting.

 

[Fatty]

Thanks a bunch for the feedback, McKnuckle. Sounds like part of my problem is I’ve been conditioning at room temperature just as I bottle conditioning. I’ll lower the temp and see if that works. The venting shouldn’t be a problem either, though I had worried that if I let the Co2 escape, that would prevent the beer from carbonating. I’ll be eager to try again. Thanks for the help.

 

[McKnuckle]

Maybe you have seen the classic Brewing TV episodes on cask ale?

 

[Fatty]

Thanks, McKnuckle. I hadn’t seen these, but they’re cool. I appreciate the reply.