How To Build a Beer Engine - Homebrew Setup

In this video we unbox one of the most classic ways to dispense beer! A Beer Engine, also known as a hand pump allows beer to be stored in a cask below the bar and the beer to be pulled or drawn up to the bar. This device is specifically appropriate for traditional cask-conditioned ales. The Beer Engine provides an unmatched drinking experience for those who enjoy a lighter body, lightly carbonated, and slightly warm beer!
Brewing Equipment: www.clawhammersupply.com/
How-To Article: www.clawhammersupply.com/blog...
Beer Engine: www.angram.com/
Check Valve: www.ukbrewing.com/Check_Valve...
Co2 gas line: amzn.to/3mgkG6B
1/2 inch tubing: amzn.to/3cKOWTU

[@BrewabitRick]

Been a traditional way for year's in the UK for serving real ales in pubs. Great to see it getting popular in the homebrewing community cheers 👍🍻ps I'm a massive fan of you guys keep up the good work 👍🍻

[@angram51]

As the former owner and original designer of Angram products (now retired) I think it's great that you are using beer engines at home and for home brew, well done. Just one small point, why have you fitted the handle upside down. ? Regards Steve Farrar

[@rafiki270]

Hahahahhahaha, upside down :D … i thought it was some fancy design I haven’t seen before lol :D

[@northeastcorals]

🤣 love it

[@notquitehim]

I was so fascinated by this when i went to visit england, it gave the ale so much character that it was hand pumped in many pubs

[@yonagwy5826]

Bought a used one from England. Can't wait for it to get here.

[@peccus7743]

Love it! And a classic english bitter on tap.

[@markbarber7839]

A great full explanation. Thanks!

[@gregglouis2969]

Exactly what I needed to know. Thanks guys

[@Hupana1]

That foeder tease excites me!

[@windex23]

Came here to write down this comment, happy to see I'm not the only one! We call them FOUDRE where I'm from!

[@arkazjusz]

I would love to see you brew Grodziskie style beer. this is a Polish style, made with oak-smoked wheat malt, it has really interresting aromas and it is the only beer style that trully was invented in Poland. People call it a champagne among beers. I love it and i think you guys would too. Pozdrowienia z Polski piwosze! :D

[@dwdrum11]

I have this setup along with a kegerator. Over here in the uk cask ale is still one of the most popular ways of serving beer. I think the flavour and mouthfeel is in a different league to keg, at the brewery I work for we kegged some citra ipa and tried it side by side to the cask and cask was far superior, other plus is you don’t feel too gassy yourself after a few pints! I use a bag in box connected to the beer engine, works well, also the sparkler nozzle helps, if you like a stout this is the ultimate way to drink it! Cheers

[@MartinDrew]

As an Englishman, seeing kegged beer through a hand pump is just weird and a bit wrong. In the UK, cask ale is still live, the carbonation comes from the final fermentation in the cask. The key to good cask ale is the that the brewery trusts the pub to deliver the finished product well as the conditioning happens in the pub cellar. A good pub keeps the beer fresh and served in good time to avoid oxidation.

[@MRW3455]

I agree with all the above as a fellow Englishman however homebrew consumption volumes (generally 😉) don't allow for this unless you use quite small kegs. Using CO2 in these circumstances seems a reasonable compromise and you can't beat a hand pulled pint.

[@MartinDrew]

@@MRW3455 I think in the last year, with everything that has happened, while the pubs have been closed, I've genuinely missed decent cask ale. Hopefully, we can get some soon.

[@MRW3455]

@@MartinDrew Amen to that Brother 🙏🏻. Can't wait for the local Micro pub to open 🍻🍻🍻

[@Leo99929]

I'll second that! Many English cask ale recipes are developed with an amount of staling tolerance factored in, so the changes that oxidation bring don't immediately ruin the beer. Hence why cask ales are often more malt forward styles and rarely heavily dry hopped. I've only had a NEIPA from cask once, and that was at a festival where they knew it would disappear in a day or two. This also results in a self perpetuating cycle, where popular pubs turn over their ale faster, so it's of higher average quality, and less popular ones might end up serving beer that's past it's best in order to get their money's worth out of a cask, but the worse beer means fewer people go there, so they sell less beer, so the beer is worse, and the popular pub gets more customers, turns casks over faster, so wastes less to staling. A cask ale is it's own thing, and a keg struggles to reproduce that, even with a stout tap and nitro beer gas mix, because you don't get any of that slight staling that the beer recipe is designed to account for. Maybe instead of LODO practices, we could try "HIDO"? Conversely, what you do get out of a keg set up is beer that is consistently good from the first pint to the last, over many weeks. A cask for regular home use is rare for a reason: you would pour more down the sink than down your gullet.

[@GlenfinnanForge]

I wonder about casking your own homebrew in a bag-in-a-box setup, where you could pull the beer and the bag would collapse without imparting oxygen? If it were a good, stiff box you could get away with the low carbonation not bursting the bag, and avoid oxidation at the same time.

[@mikerichards6061]

Hi Kyle, hope you’re all well. Beer in a box can be hooked up to an angram with a cheap fitting. It’s becoming popular over here in the UK. You should also try screwing a sparkler onto the end of the nozzle to make it even creamier.

[@greigthomson8475]

Would say that a cask should have 1 volume of co2, instead of “5psi”. Not knowing the temperature people are keeping there ale at. This allows people to change there psi accordingly. Also “room temperature”, should be between 10- 13c (50f-55f) if you room is this cold you need to start paying for heating instead of beer engines 👍🏻. Final pick, you want a longer hose from the aspirator to the beer engine in. Much love 😉

[@AndrewLynch9]

Yes boys!!! I’ve been on the beer engine journey and done a few videos. The thing rocks and great for sessions!

[@lewisnewton9880]

There's been some movement from the UK CAMRA to allow for polypin or keykeg (well more like keycask) to deliver beer without oxidation as long as the yeast is live in the pin/keykeg and provides conditioning (like bottle conditioning) - this will give the most authentic UK experience without need to worry about oxidation as with traditional casking! These approaches will remove the risk of over pressuring the check valve and having a drippy hand pull!

[@n2n8sda]

Few pointers.. cask conditioned ale needs to be kept at round 50-55 degrees, traditionally this is a cold cellar below the pub. It is a living thing after-all, higher temperatures will degrade the beer quickly and you'll end up with a hazy beer before it sours. I wouldn't use any gas-line for any liquid intended for consumption, depending on the construction of the line it could have coatings on the inside of the plastic or rubber to prevent gas leaks that could make their way into the beer, probably not going to kill you with one drink but best to avoid. The handle for the beer engine is upside down.. the fat part is at the top, makes it easier to grab.

[@danroth7260]

There’s a taproom near me that always has at least one beer on cask, served through an engine, and it’s usually one of the ones on the main taps too. I almost always like the one from the engine better.

[@petercarparelli]

Love the video, long live Clawhammer! (hoping to get your 10 gallon system sometime when I'm not broke...thanks big rona) Would you all ever take a request video? I'd love to see you all make spruce tip IPA. I made one at home a few weeks ago and it turned out great. Curious to see what you think of them!

[@jcinsaniac]

Wonderful - I would love a chance to experience a hand pulled casked ale - impossible to find in the Southeastern US. I had found that the faucet used in recreational vehicles is manually pumped, but you would have to come up with a sparkler and the check valve - you might be able to simulate a beer engine, but I doubt it would be the same experience...nice to see it can be done, but it looks like it would cost $500 or more to obtain an engine and valve, and it would cost a fortune for shipping and duty tax. Thanks for sharing!

[@bigdaddytreevo4120]

I totally want one...

[@MotoMonkey92]

Would love to see a video on y’all’s recommended cleaning and upkeep for a beer engine for someone who puts one in the home.

[@MRW3455]

Just run beer line cleaner through it when you are going to change the keg.

[@duncanbayne3078]

Depends how quickly you drink the beer. The beer that isn't in the cask is in the lines and engine. Better to disconnect pipe near cask and then pull beer remaining out, then flush with warm water between sessions if same day and then starsan after line cleaning fluid before the next day. You will get loads of stuff growing in your lines and engine if you don't because the beer isn't chilled in the cask or lines or engine.

[@realalehomebrewer8273]

Add a Y connector and two valves. Have one leg go to the keg and the 2nd go to a hose to serve as a clean-out. Flush with water each when done using to prevent stale beer in the cylinder

[@gonzol55]

Could you describe a little more this setup from Angram. At website there is a posibility to diffrent config. What is extra nesesery to pour beer from Cornelius keg? BR

[@adamhibbertHOM]

I've got one in my garden bar, if I get beer from brewerys I try and get 'bag in box' deliveries so it's in a constant vacuum as it's pulled, they last about 2 weeks. If it's my home brew going on I started with BiB but now I've adapted some 5L kegs with all the fittings and added a Co2 connector and regulator for the little gas cartridges, similar to the UFlow set up.

[@duncanbayne3078]

Just getting my beer engine here in NZ, my plan is to use those 5 litre mini kegs for the cask. Beer in bag second choice. Can't wait.

[@Level20HT]

So if I just low pressure carb my kegs at a slightly warmer than average temp and serve using shorter tap lines with a piece of tubing on the end of my fountain taps? Seems like it would be roughly the same end result.

[@victorherrera3968]

Can you guys make tepache?

[@scotth721]

I imagine you could hook up the vent to your fermenter and harvest the co2 instead of using a tank?

[@johnrankin6044]

How many times have you guys used this thing since you got it? Why not try it from a cask, even with the breather?

[@ukrainewarroom8410]

You are describing much of the beer in British pubs. That Americans usually make fun of... You guys are catching up finally. 😏

[@WinSchutten]

Guinness released their XX, the beer they had before draught, as a co2 beer.. I think it really should be served from a beer engine to know what people were drinking before modern nitro beer.

[@SwishGavigan18]

reminds me of ye old English ale pump. probably the same thing tbh

[@MRW3455]

It's an Angram, identical make to those in English pubs. 😊

[@MattyMattMckenna]

Ah now its time for a LUKR side pull

[@ryanarmishaw3305]

@1:41 That's what she said🤣

[@ShermanistDruid]

Assemble a premade beer engine you mean?

[@eathannvdb]

@1:39 That's what she said

[@Duci1989]

Looks like a weird espresso machine until you put the the pull on it

[@MrTheoptimiser]

⁰

[@HW1984]

I think these are pretty cool, but for the life of me I don’t know why they are so hard to find in the US and why they are so friggin expensive!?

[@northeastcorals]

Local American man discovers English style flat warm beer 😅

[@twokn]

0:28 beating the capitalist plutocrats 👍😅

[@chsunny2358]

Bro please tell us how to make non alcoholic beer

[@atouchofa.d.d.5852]

No sir, I'll add no oxygen to my IPA