Hi - I am originally from England and have been working on perfecting an English Bitter recipe. I tend to carbonate on the low side, but the beer doesn't quite taste the same as a typical pub ale.
Today I kegged ten gallons of the latest batch of bitter from my Spike CF10 fermenter. I use a spunding valve so it was naturally carbonated at around 10psi and then cold crashed. I ended up with an extra gallon or so, so I poured a galss direct from the fermenter. It had the same aroma and mouthfeel as an English Ale and was the best I have tasted from my set-up. Short of installing a hand pump to pull the beer up from the keg, what have you brewers of English Ales found to be the best carbonation startegy? I typically have the CO2 set to 12psi which gives a decent pour on my 13' chilled draft lines. I feel that for the English Ale I should run the pressure lower so there is less dissolved CO2 - maybe around two volumes which is 7psi according to the charts. At this pressure though the pour is likely to be slow, but I can live with that for the one beer.
I have heard about secondary regulators. Can these be used to step the CO2 pressure down from the 12psi all the other kegs run at, to say 7psi for the English ale?
What have you found works for these styles of ales?
Paul
Today I kegged ten gallons of the latest batch of bitter from my Spike CF10 fermenter. I use a spunding valve so it was naturally carbonated at around 10psi and then cold crashed. I ended up with an extra gallon or so, so I poured a galss direct from the fermenter. It had the same aroma and mouthfeel as an English Ale and was the best I have tasted from my set-up. Short of installing a hand pump to pull the beer up from the keg, what have you brewers of English Ales found to be the best carbonation startegy? I typically have the CO2 set to 12psi which gives a decent pour on my 13' chilled draft lines. I feel that for the English Ale I should run the pressure lower so there is less dissolved CO2 - maybe around two volumes which is 7psi according to the charts. At this pressure though the pour is likely to be slow, but I can live with that for the one beer.
I have heard about secondary regulators. Can these be used to step the CO2 pressure down from the 12psi all the other kegs run at, to say 7psi for the English ale?
What have you found works for these styles of ales?
Paul