"real" ale with CO2

[buffburgo]

Tomorrow I'm going to be kegging a fully fermented, nicely conditioned Alt. Initially, I was just going to keg, carb and it enjoy. But, I was thinking that maybe I should try it as a "real" ale and get it as close to simulating coming out of a beer-engine as I could.
If I simply keep the CO2 down to 5psi or less, and dispense as normal, would that sorta simulate a hand-drawn pint? The temp will be off, as I wouldn't want to keep the fridge warmer as I don't want the other keg to be like this one (JZ's Hazelnut porter).

Thoughts?

[Mylo]

Well, it will be flat and warmer - but that's it.

There was a thread a little while back that discussed cask conditioning and beer engine "simulation". Apparently you can get pretty close if you prime your keg with sugar (instead of force carbing), and buy yourself a hand pump faucet (like they use on RV's) for a pretty close faximile. To do the "hand-pump-pseudo-beer-engine" thing, you will have to pull out the pressure release valve on your keg and drink it all within a day or so.

I have a couple of 2.5 gal cornys that I want to try that with soon.


Mylo

[Brant]

if you have a perlick or ventmatic faucet you can get rid of most of the carbonation by pulling on the handle only half way. I usually do that for my premium bitter and it comes out with low carbonation and a thick creamy head (insert obligatory Doc comment). For a more real ale effect I would suggest if you can leaving the keg outside your fridge or whatever carbonated at about 3-5 psi and hook up your beer line when you want to get a beer if you cant keep it connected outside your cooling apparatus. Either that or go to ukbrewing.com and buy one of the awesome angram handpumps.

[buffburgo]

you know....I never really thought about just keeping it ouside the fridge with another tap. I could put 5-10psi on it, and use a picnic tap to pull off, then top up the CO2 when the flow gets too low. My basement stays about 65, which is a bit on the warm side, even for cask I believe, so maybe I'll just need to keep the keg in a water bath with some iced water bottles....I'll give it a shot...

[macgruffus]

To get a true cask experience you really need naturally carbonate and then serve the beer at atmospheric pressure (1-2 psi). The problem is that most regulators become VERY unreliable to low psi. The right answer is to buy a cask breather (which replaces beer with CO2 at atmospheric pressure) for about $80. And, hey, who doesn't need another gadget?

[Mylo]

Excellent tip, MacG. That way you can still use the hand pump, and not have to drink it all in one or two days.

What is this cask breather of which you speak? linky, linky?


Mylo

[Henning1966]

Mylo here is a uk site with a breather at the top of the page. http://www.ukbrewing.com/sundries.cfm
But I also ran across a guy on the green board using a new propane regulator with the right fittings for way less money. Here is the quote he made when asked about making one.
"The propane breather is pretty straightforward. Here's what I'm talking about:http://img.alibaba.com/



The HD site doesn't show exactly what I bought there, but it looks just like the pic above. The propane tank coupler can be taken off, albeit it takes the right size socket wrench and a whole lot of torque. The guy at the HD actually helped me do it once he heard what I wanted it for; he took me over to the tool rental center where the guy dug up the right size socket wrench, put it in a vice, and we took turns shoving the wrench until it popped. With the coupler detached, we went back to the plumbing section and found a part that mated with it, I think it was male 1/4" ID. The hose end takes 3/8" flare if I recall correctly. Basically I just spent some time in the plumbing section trying pieces and connecting pieces to other pieces until I had a 1/4" barb on either side of the regulator. Then I just hooked up my CO2 tank set to 10 psi (regulator should take a lot more than that, but why bother) on the inlet side. On the outlet side, I hooked it to a gas QD that I put on the keg. Easy as that. Spent an hour in the HD, but most of that was trying to get the damn propane tank coupling off. What a nice guy to have helped me so much with something so cheap!