Cask Ale at home

[sdether]

Over the summer I've paid several visits to a local brew pub when they had local cask ales on tap. It's always been IPAs and simply the best IPAs I've had. Now I have no proof that it was because it was cask conditioned or because it was handpumped and not simply because the beer was just better than others, but I'm suddenly obsessed with trying to reproduce this at home.

So here are my questions:

Any recommendation on sources for proper beer engine handpumps? UkBrewing.com is the only one i found and even refurbished those units are pricey.

I usually keg in corny's and use my kegerator. For the cask ale (and yeah, it's not CAMRA pure) my current plan is as follows:

1. Brew as usual
2. After secondary, add priming sugar, rack in keg and purge oxygen with a little CO2, but don't force carbonate.
3. Let age for a couple of weeks
4. Hook up to kegerator with minimal CO2 pressure (until a beer engine can be acquired) and enjoy.

Disregarding the obvious flaws of step 4, does the rest sound reasonable or am I bastardizing the process enough to void any benefit of heading down the cask conditioned process?

thanks for any advice,
arne

 

[Brewpastor]

Search around for real ale, cellarmanship and CAMRA posts. There have been a few lately.

 

[bikebryan]

Over the summer I've paid several visits to a local brew pub when they had local cask ales on tap. It's always been IPAs and simply the best IPAs I've had. Now I have no proof that it was because it was cask conditioned or because it was handpumped and not simply because the beer was just better than others, but I'm suddenly obsessed with trying to reproduce this at home.

So here are my questions:

Any recommendation on sources for proper beer engine handpumps? UkBrewing.com is the only one i found and even refurbished those units are pricey.

I usually keg in corny's and use my kegerator. For the cask ale (and yeah, it's not CAMRA pure) my current plan is as follows:

1. Brew as usual
2. After secondary, add priming sugar, rack in keg and purge oxygen with a little CO2, but don't force carbonate.
3. Let age for a couple of weeks
4. Hook up to kegerator with minimal CO2 pressure (until a beer engine can be acquired) and enjoy.

Disregarding the obvious flaws of step 4, does the rest sound reasonable or am I bastardizing the process enough to void any benefit of heading down the cask conditioned process?

thanks for any advice,
arne

You stand a good chance of losing carbonation doing this. Once you hook it up to your CO2 source to push it, the CO2 developed during your natural carbing will begin to outgas until the pressure in the keg equals the pressure you are using to push it.

If you truly want to do this right, you NEED a beer engine.

 

[sdether]

If you truly want to do this right, you NEED a beer engine.

Fair enough. Any suggestions on sources for those would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Exo]

I'm trying to find the post from a gent who made his own beer machine / beer engine and did it real cheap. Kind find the post though. Had photos in the post as well. A hand-pump attached to a board which sat on top of a keg/cornie...

EDIT:

Here it is:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10529&highlight=meet+engine

 

[RagimundVonWallat]

gravity was used as beer engine for millenias....

 

[Kingbogart]

There is also this article from a ways back. Comes with directions and a parts list as well.

 

[beetlbumjl]

A Polypin is a fairly cheap way to try it out. Expect fairly low carbonation levels and a nervous wife when the thing blows up like a soccer ball