Gap
A quick search on the AHA archives found the bloke and his method. I have left his name and stuff on the bottom so you know who it was that came up with the idea and put it up for all the AHA members to see. Not sure if it works, but as Vlad said, it is supposed to.
All the best,
Trent
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Just wanted to pass on this little tidbit of info for cask ale enthusiasts. Those of you who are strictly aligned with CAMRA should probably skip the remainder of this post.
I have a beer engine and have been on a cask ale/real ale kick the past 6 months. I don't use real pins and firkins, but use corny kegs conditioned with 2 oz corn sugar and chilled to 55 F. My problem comes not in dispensing exactly, but in replacing the head space with CO2 instead of air. Venting the kegs to atmosphere (as in a soft spile) is fine for when the kegs will be emptied in a few days, but for those of us who want a cask ale served at home, how do we accomplish the same thing? With a cask breather.
A cask breather is a device - a pressure regulator if you will - that allows head space to be replaced with CO2, but at atmospheric pressure so that it doesn't over carbonate the beer nor push it out of the engine. Some cask breathers also have a relief valve to vent extra pressure from the keg (from actively fermenting beer). Personally, I have a problem with spending a hundred bucks to get a real cask breather, so I've been trying to figure out a 'frugal' way to make one.
It turns out that a standard low pressure propane regulator (11" Water Column) is a fixed pressure regulator of about 0.4 psig. I bought a new one, hooked it up in my CO2 line to a QD and affixed it to the keg. It works like a charm, and only cost me $20 (including barbed fittings). Just be sure to keep the business end of the beer engine a foot or more above the keg.
Hope you find this useful.
Steve Jones, Johnson City, TN
State of Franklin Homebrewers
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