Home Brew vs Hand Pulled Pint

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Ramsbottom_Brewer

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My 1st batch is not finished yet but I am interested in knowing how the ale gets out of the keg at my local pub. They pull it out with the pump and it is as smooth as a babies bum. Through all my reading here it seems we need CO2 to push out our ale.

What's going on?
 
That's what you call real ale. Are you in England?

Real ale comes from a cask, which is naturally carbonated. It doesn't stay fresh very long like that, but a good cask is a treat.
 
Sounds like a cask-conditioned ale. Basically, they carbonate using priming sugar right in the keg/cask. Same principal as bottle conditioning. The cask-conditioned ales I've tried all seem to have a bit less carbonation than a force carbed keg. Not sure why, but I would agree that the cask ales come out super smooth!
 
My 1st batch is not finished yet but I am interested in knowing how the ale gets out of the keg at my local pub. They pull it out with the pump and it is as smooth as a babies bum. Through all my reading here it seems we need CO2 to push out our ale.


You want cask-conditioned real ale. Thread on building beer engines:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/fellow-homebrewers-meet-my-new-beer-engine-10529/

Some people successfully use gravity-fed minikegs for real ale, too.
 
Can one get the same effect with ales with a nitrogen or Guinness tap?
A hand pump might not be practical for a homebrewer who doesn't drink 5 gallons in a week, but you're essentially mixing the beer with air on the way out, right?

Seems like this would produce the same effect one gets with a can of Boddington's Ale.
 
You certainly get a similar effect with the Guinness approach. That method of serving was developed as a cheaper/simpler alternative to real ale.
 
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