Leaking pressure barrel. And length before drinkable.

[Mic92]

First off: A little bit of info.

I have a Woodfords Sundew kit on brew.
My fermentation in the bucket was compleate after 1 week.
I then transferred it to my pressure barrel and added the sugar to carbonate the beer. It's now been in the pressure barrel for 1 and a half weeks.

So, I have a couple questions!

1) When is the average beer of this kind normally ready to drink? I was told this beer should be ready after two weeks in the pressure barrel. I tired some yesterday, and beer had a good head on it, was as clear as it can be, and tasted good. I know they are ment to get better with age, but is it drinkable yet to not cause any upsets etc?

2) My tap on my pressure barrel is leaking. Over two days I probably have an inch of beer in the bottom of a cup. Not loads, but I don't want to waste it! Could the cause of this be too much pressure in the barrel? Or would it just be that there is a bad seal? It didn't drip at all until about a week into being in the barrel.
It's ment to be pressureised however is it possible I need to 'burp' the barrel just in case there is to much pressure in it?

Thank you!

 

[Mic92]

Any recommendations?

 

[Stealthcruiser]

"Tap on pressure barrel".........A "cobra" tap or a party tap?

"Pressure barrel".....A standard "corny" style keg, or are we talking a "cask" of sorts?

How much pressure?

 

[Mic92]

This is what I have. And the leak seems to be getting worse! :S
No idea on how much pressure is in it. Kinda concerned it's going to blow! Haha!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/52210/Beer-Makers-Deluxe-Equipment-Box

 

[dyqik]

It's almost certainly as ready to drink as it'll ever be as this is a hoppy pale real ale, so a week or two conditioning is plenty, and you want to get to the hop aroma while it's fresh.

Once you drink some amount of it, you'll have to let a little air into the pressure barrel to relieve the vacuum, unless you have a CO2 injection system. After this point it will start to spoil fairly quickly, so plan to drink it quite fast.

So, since it's ready, you should relieve the pressure by pouring and drinking a few pints. Hopefully that will fix the leak.

If spoilage because you can't drink it fast enough becomes a problem, look into using polypins instead of the pressure barrel, as they collapse as you serve and so you don't have to let any air in. You could get one now, and try to transfer from the barrel to the polypin while exposing the beer to as little air as possible (run a hose from barrel spigot to the bottom of the polypin) so the leak doesn't cost you too much beer.

 

[dyqik]

"Tap on pressure barrel".........A "cobra" tap or a party tap?

"Pressure barrel".....A standard "corny" style keg, or are we talking a "cask" of sorts?

How much pressure?

Pressure barrels are UK homebrewing casks - basically small plastic barrels stood on end with a spigot at the bottom (think Speidel Fermenter as an approximate image, I use my Speidel as a pressure barrel) - used for naturally carbonated real ale. Properly primed, the pressure is the weight of the beer plus maybe 3 psi when first tapped.

 

[Mic92]

Thanks ever so much for the help. It is definitely ready. Tastes great! Glad as its my first one too.
Yea I was just a bit concerned about the dripping. It's not loads though. I'm sure it'll calm down after we've had a few pints. I hope.