Beer engine cleaning

[bwible]

I recently got a used beer engine on eBay that I’m really excited to use! It’s in working order (tested with water) but it’s a little...gunky and gross. I’ve been searching all over for good resources as to how to take the pump apart for a good deep cleaning but I am having a hard time finding any diagrams or how-to’s. Does anyone have experience disassembling and cleaning a beer engine or know of a good resource to read?

Cheers!

https://www.ukbrewing.com/Angram_beer_engines_and_handpumps_s/51.htm
This site has schematic diagrams and exploded drawings if one of these is your model. Might be a CO (clamp on) like mine.

 

[rmr9]

Sometimes these things have a plastic sparkler on the end of the nozzle, which is just a cap with a whole bunch of little holes in it to force more gas out of solution and create a little more head. In the UK, I hear that’s a north/south love/hate thing.

With my last cask I found that using a sparkler can “make or break” your pint. My best bitter tasted muted and bland when I had the sparkler on, but really was much more characterful hoppy without using one. My cask before this was a brown porter which was fantastic with the sparkler. You have to build your recipe around the sparkler if you want to use one.

 

[DuncB]

@rmr9
You'll see from my thread above that I had four different sparklers with my beer engine. Using the demand valve does allow me to have some pressure in the keg and no need to vent to the air so the beer does last longer. I usually decant from the big keg into a small keg and run that thru the beer engine open to the air not with a low pressure CO2. I'm from the south of england so beers like Harveys are without a sparkler.
I've got a creamer head as well and thinking of trying a 2 barrel real ale stout mixed as it might have been pre nitro, difficult to find much info about the mixing of young and old possibly oxidised stout at the pouring.

 

[cire]

@rmr9
You'll see from my thread above that I had four different sparklers with my beer engine. Using the demand valve does allow me to have some pressure in the keg and no need to vent to the air so the beer does last longer. I usually decant from the big keg into a small keg and run that thru the beer engine open to the air not with a low pressure CO2. I'm from the south of england so beers like Harveys are without a sparkler.
I've got a creamer head as well and thinking of trying a 2 barrel real ale stout mixed as it might have been pre nitro, difficult to find much info about the mixing of young and old possibly oxidised stout at the pouring.

This might be of some help. Guinness ceased production of their original world famous porter/stout in 1973 to replace it with a pasteurized version served under pressure with mixed gasses. So came the end the mixing stale and fresh/young and old cask Guinness.

 

[Gozie Boy]

This might be of some help. Guinness ceased production of their original world famous porter/stout in 1973 to replace it with a pasteurized version served under pressure with mixed gasses. So came the end the mixing stale and fresh/young and old cask Guinness.

Wonderful little video. It seem that in today's society, technology and practices are ever advancing, while language is ever regressing.

 

[DuncB]

@cire
That was a great video, looked like it was basically served from a pressure barrel the lively stuff and then the old was flat from another one. I wonder whether it was a mix of running porter and keeping porter or just that the first lively barrel oxidised and went flat and then became the second barrel?
Trouble with that one barrel oxidising theory is that you would rely on the first barrel "going off" to become a second barrel and I think that so much was drunk you couldn't build a system around it.
There are definite ideas that they add some sour to Guinness now, so perhaps they made sour barrels and lively barrels that were sent out to the pubs they certainly had the storage capacity for that. Interesting to see that it was definitely not on a hand pull as well.
Maybe I'll try and let some of the stout oxidise and go flat in the fridge and then add it to the lively stuff from the barrel and see what happens.

 

[DuncB]

@Metrinity
We never got any pictures of your beer engine or any other questions, how is it going?

 

[Chorgey]

I never knew what a beer engine was until reading this thread. Definitely seen them in action though

 

[DuncB]

@Chorgey
It's a great way to drink beer, really it is beer as it was meant to be.

 

[Chorgey]

@DuncB
Yep, had cask conditioned beers this way. Always enjoyed them, just didn't know it was called a beer engine.
You learn something new everyday