Beer Engine

The whole point of brewing the bitter and building the beer engine was in support of the Yard City Cask Fest. That's how it turned out anyway. I told Matt I'd keg-condition one of the kegs of bitter, and decided just over a week before the event that I'd go ahead and assemble a beer engine for dispensing. I ended up keg-conditioning both kegs of bitter and offered them both up for the fest. Thankfully only one was needed and the other is currently on tap in my basement.

Both halves of the bitter finished at 1.012, making it ~4% ABV. The 1098 half dropped bright much sooner than the 1028 half, which is opposite of what Matt expected. Shows how much Matt knows. I primed each keg for about 1.25 volumes of CO₂. Since they were to be dispensed by beer engine, the goal was that they would be saturated, but not oversaturated, with CO₂ at dispensing temp, which in this case was supposed to be 50-54°F. It really only needed about 1 volume, but I figured if I overshot a little bit it would be easier to adjust carbonation downward than upward (didn't want to have to cheat and force carb if too low).

Anyway, the Fest was a huge success, the beer was excellent and well received, and the beer engines worked like a charm. Next year we're going to have to make it a bigger shindig, with multiple brewers providing beer and a larger venue. Plus we can't count on the beautiful weather we lucked out with in March, so we may need to move it indoors somewhere or change the date to a more reliable month weather-wise. Nice thing about outdoors in March, though, is that we didn't need to figure out any refrigeration to keep the beer at just the right temp.

Oh, and thanks to Chris Devlin (yes, that Chris Devlin) for the pic, used entirely w/out his permission.

Here's what I spent most of my day making, in preparation for Yard City Cask Fest: a Beer Engine.  No comments about my messy kitchen.

A Beer Engine is simply a self priming positive displacement pump that pulls beer out of a cask (or keg), while air is allowed into the cask to fill the space left behind by the beer you just pumped out. This is the traditional English method of dispensing "cask ale" or "real ale." The typical kegged beer dispensing system at every bar, pub, and tavern pushes beer out of the keg, through the beer lines, and out the faucet using CO₂ pressure. Cask ale is less carbonated than kegged beer, and often times served a little warmer (around 50­°-54°F).

Commercial beer engines cost upwards of $350, but you can build your own for right around $60. I followed the basic instructions found in Brew Your Own magazine, both the May 1997 and Jan/Feb 2005 issues. Essentially, you just build a box to house a hand pumped water faucet, like you might find in an RV or a boat.

I used the Valterra Rocket Hand Pump, which you can find online for $25-$40. I didn't want to wait around for it to be shipped, so I found it at the local RV parts store for about $40. I had some scrap oak-veneer plywood lying around and bought a few feet of beer line and a corny beer-out fitting at my LHBS. That, some screws and glue, and a few hours in the garage w/ my table saw and drill are about all it took. It was so simple that I won't bother to describe the construction. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

Click on any of the pics for a larger view. The dimensions of the box are 12" high, about 5 1/2" wide and 6" deep.  I definitely could have gone with a shorter box, as short at 5" or so.  I may actually cut it down at some point, but it will probably be clamped to a table at YCCF, so it may be just the right height.

I notched both the back of the tower and the base, so I can run the beer line out the back or the bottom.