Anybody ever used an EDME Brewcraft Pressure Barrel? Thing looks to be about a 5gal party pig made of opaque white plastic. Pros? Cons? Anything you got? Found one unused, all parts and gaskets still in original packaging. Seems like a poor man's cask. Maybe I can dry-pie in it.
I think it's just that, a cask like barrel you can put your beer in. Seemed from reading a while back, most used it in the replacement of bottling. Would fridge it if need be and it was carbed and ready to serve a real ale, temps and carbonation set.
I'm not conversant with that particular make but I've owned lots of "pressure barrels" over the years and they all have a sump at the bottom to catch the sediment.The centre of the cask is raised into a punt such as is found in wine bottles.The takeoff tap is above this and once the beer has settled it should pour clear. The thing to watch is that the beer should be essentially clear by the time of casking , even clear beer has a sufficient yeast count for conditioning.Add three ounces of table sugar in solution, screw down the lid, place the cask in position and leave it for at least a couple of days before sampling. Not quite cask beer but not at all bad.
Thanks for that. I was hoping you'd chime in on this one. Is 3 ounces of sugar meant to give the slightly lower carbonation profile of cask (as opposed to 4-5 oz if bottling), or is this a common thing with most bulk serving vessels? Does oxygen replace volume drawn off as in cask, and does the resulting maturation occur? How long would beer in a vessel like this develop before it becomes a mess?
3 ounces is fine for the levels of carbonation best suited to beers such as milds and bitters (aka Pale Ales). Provided that the seals are gastight there's enough CO2 in the headspace to dispense all of the contents.Should be an overpressure of around 1.5 vol , remembering that "still" beer is already fully carbonated. Many of these casks come complete with a CO2 injector valve which works with Sodastream gas bottles.If the pressure fails a short blast of gas gets things working.Or take off the lid, add some more sugar solution and wait a couple of days. Normally no air gets into the cask so the beer won't develop.Some people simply remove the cap when the gas runs out and convert to gravity dispense. Replace the cap immediately pouring finishes to let the beer recondition.This gives a better result but is best only done when the cask is getting towards empty as you've got to finish it within a couple of days.
