I live in a tiny apartment but wanted the cask ale/beer engine experience at home. I don't' have room for a keg, nitro setup or a $500 beer engine so I decided to A-Team together a micro beer engine. This one cost me about 45 bucks.
This engine holds 2.7 liters of beer and serves it up with a Valterra hand pump with a sparkler. I brewed a classic English bitters recipe with very low carbonation and bottled it into 1 liter flip top bottles. I pour the bottles into the glass canister before pump serving. I can't stress the low carbonation enough. A medium carbonated ale will serve a half pint of head with the sparkler. 1/4 or less normal carbonation works well.
Parts
Valterra RP800 Chrome Rocket Hand Pump ($28.39 at Amazon).
Snapware 2.72 L/2.8qt FlipTop glass canister ($12.99 at Container Store).
Anderson Metal 3/8 by 3/8 Inch Hose Barb ($2.09 at hardware store).
Extra Small Stainless Steel Hose Clamp ($1.00 at hardware store).
2 ft. 1/2" x 3/8" Clear Vinyl Tubing ($5.00 at hardware store).
Sparkler ($2.99 at Northern Brewer)
I used a Dremel to sand/cut out a hole in the Snapware flip top lid and screwed the Valterra hand pump on. Attached about 8 inches of Vinyl tube to the pump source for sucking the beer out. Cut a diagonal into the hose end so It can pull more beer from the bottom. This hose fortunately fits both the entrance and exit of the hand pump. Attached another 2 inches of hose to the faucet end with the hose clamp. Attached the sparkler to the exit hose with a metal hose barb. The plastic sparkler threading does not match the hose barb threading. This does not matter however as the metal hose barb will easily re-thread into the soft plastic sparkler with some force. You may want to use a small amount of waterproof epoxy adhesive when screwing the sparkler onto the barb to get a perfect seal.
Takes about 8-10 pumps to pull a full pint. The head looks amazing and it's very satisfying pulling beer through this thing. Took about 1 hour total to assemble the micro beer engine.
This engine holds 2.7 liters of beer and serves it up with a Valterra hand pump with a sparkler. I brewed a classic English bitters recipe with very low carbonation and bottled it into 1 liter flip top bottles. I pour the bottles into the glass canister before pump serving. I can't stress the low carbonation enough. A medium carbonated ale will serve a half pint of head with the sparkler. 1/4 or less normal carbonation works well.
Parts
Valterra RP800 Chrome Rocket Hand Pump ($28.39 at Amazon).
Snapware 2.72 L/2.8qt FlipTop glass canister ($12.99 at Container Store).
Anderson Metal 3/8 by 3/8 Inch Hose Barb ($2.09 at hardware store).
Extra Small Stainless Steel Hose Clamp ($1.00 at hardware store).
2 ft. 1/2" x 3/8" Clear Vinyl Tubing ($5.00 at hardware store).
Sparkler ($2.99 at Northern Brewer)
I used a Dremel to sand/cut out a hole in the Snapware flip top lid and screwed the Valterra hand pump on. Attached about 8 inches of Vinyl tube to the pump source for sucking the beer out. Cut a diagonal into the hose end so It can pull more beer from the bottom. This hose fortunately fits both the entrance and exit of the hand pump. Attached another 2 inches of hose to the faucet end with the hose clamp. Attached the sparkler to the exit hose with a metal hose barb. The plastic sparkler threading does not match the hose barb threading. This does not matter however as the metal hose barb will easily re-thread into the soft plastic sparkler with some force. You may want to use a small amount of waterproof epoxy adhesive when screwing the sparkler onto the barb to get a perfect seal.
Takes about 8-10 pumps to pull a full pint. The head looks amazing and it's very satisfying pulling beer through this thing. Took about 1 hour total to assemble the micro beer engine.