Sparklers on handpumps

[clarets7]

Although I'm a southerner by birth, Suffolk born and bred, I've lived in Yorkshire for nearly 40 years so have had to get used to the all pervasive use of sparklers on handpumps. In a discussion the other day about the north south divide over sparkler use I claimed it not only altered the texture of the beer but also the taste, which was disputed by some of my friends. Surely the two are interlinked? I can't imagine what a pint of Adnams Bitter would taste like served through a tight sparkler , what are peoples opinions on this?

[Eric]

It depends much upon the condition of the beer at the other end of the line. A newly tapped cask with maybe 2 volumes of CO2 won't need a sparkler to pour a decent pint if properly pulled. Indeed it might be difficult to pull one with a sparkler fitted. As the carbonation decreases, a point is reached when the sparkler is required if a decent head is demanded.

Beer should have a head, it does it naturally. In the North if one is pulled a beer with no head, it will be sent back.

Beer through a beer engine is improved as it mixes with air in the glass and is better than when poured under gravity or a very gentle pour with an engine.

[nallum]

There is a difference but it's subtle and not necessarily noticeable without doing a valid comparison. As I probably didn't the day before yesterday, with a very nice Fuller's 1958 SPA, which I have been enjoying for a couple weekends. Being a Fuller's, a Southern brewery, it didn't really occur to me I should try it with a sparkler. But then Eric provided info re a similar recipe brewed by a Northern brewery, in Durham. So I thought I'd try with sparkler. Definitely a subtle difference relative to my 2-weekend bias (without a sparkler), but fundamentally it was the same beer. If both were poured then left on a table side by side for 5 minutes they might not be easily told apart, except visually.

[PeeBee]

I have an opinion on them things too! I think it's one of those things everyone has an "opinion" about?

This is a lot of waffling! But I know there will be keg-heads reading this who can't grasp "flat" hand-pumped beer can have a better head than their "4 volume CO2 super-fizz "lager"!

I try not to be "dictatorial", but I do strongly recommend if wanting to try a sparkler to try that beer with and without and decide what's best with that beer. I've had beers where a sparkler rips the guts out of the beer (reducing flavour and body), so ... Rule One: Don't assume a beer will be improved/degraded by a sparkler, try it first!

I can't point you at my (ten year old now!) essay ("treatise" , or whatever) because my own opinion on such things has altered in those years. (I'll point you at it anyway! ... The "treatise" is linked in my "signature", below). I didn't understand what was happening in my handpumps back then (if I do now? But ... hey-ho). All my handpumps are fitted with solenoid valves to automatically close and seal the pump's cylinder after use (so the beer doesn't go off, the cylinder is otherwise being open to the atmosphere). More recently mini non-return valves are fitted in my sparklers to do the same thing but more cheaply. Both valves create very tight restrictions in the pipe, causing beer to be passing through it to degas much like a sparkler. I.e. The "sparkler" is just an additional "foamer" to what is already there.

Anyhow, a sparkler works the same, the beer's forced through a tight restriction, venturi effect causes a drop in pressure (liquids are not as un-compressible as we were taught in early years) and dissolved gas breaks out of solution (resulting in foamy head!).The pressure change is "relative", so you can take a "flat" beer, pass it through a handpump, and subject it to large change of pressure, to get a frothy head! Hand pumps subject the beer to large drops in pressure (eh?), because they must draw beer from barrels that may be 3 meters lower than the pump. The beer returns to atmospheric pressure when it drops in the glass. That's a change of pressure of ... you work it out! Beer barrel at atmospheric pressure, say one meter below the tap, subjected to, whatever negative pressure to raise it to the tap, where it returns to atmospheric pressure. The beer contains about 1.1 to 1.2 volumes of CO2 after venting (for so-called "Real Ale", 1.2 volumes to ... a good bit less than that).

I'll have about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of head on my bitters, served with no sparkler, head pressure artificially held at about 1psi (approx. 1.1 "volumes" of dissolved CO2) with an variable LPG regulator. The stout I have is on 1.3 to 1.4 "volumes" CO2, served with a sparkler, pressure held with "special" 20-300mbar LPG regulators (I just like the big, tight, heads on stout ... but it actually does give the stout a velvety texture!)


Cheers

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[nallum]

Definitely for a nice dark ale, for me.

It's clearly complicated by style and condition of the ale and even the operator pulling it through the engine.

I can usually force a good head in paler ales without a sparkler, but it requires a Northern pour nozzle that dispenses in the bottom of the glass. Interestingly, a Northern pour nozzle can be used as a Southern pour nozzle by simply lowering the glass. Impossible the other way round - putting a Southern pour nozzle in the bottom of a glass to get a Northern pour. Why I have a redundant Southern pour nozzle collecting dust.

[PeeBee]

I missed something in my previous babbling above ... flavour! ("Flavour" was asked for too). I did mention flavour could be seriously reduced by a sparkler, but I don't understand the reasons for that, so I can save you the long-winded description.

But that Stout I'm holding: I said I use a "special" regulator. They are LPG regulators for heaters in large game bird brooding sheds (Spanish "Clesse"). And can output just over 4PSI (300mbar). They look identical to the 50-150mbar regulators I would normally use (Propane Low Pressure Regulator) but can put out twice the pressure (ordinary regulators are more expensive and will not hold 6 or 7psi let alone 2 or 4psi). They are secondary regulators used with CO2, never primaries.

But you should question how beer at 4psi CO2 can "taste "smooth" when it's positively "fizzy" (sharp and acid due to dissolved CO2)?

The same process making that fine head on my Stout ("Bru'n Dry Stout" recipe, served at room temp. with handpump ... i.e NO flippin' nitrogen!), that is forcing the degassing of dissolved CO2 for the head, is obviously reducing the carbonic acid (dissolved CO2) and "sharp" flavour in the Stout. Or ... it's nothing like as good without the sparkler!

QED?

[PeeBee]

Definitely for a nice dark ale, for me.

It's clearly complicated by style and condition of the ale and even the operator pulling it through the engine.

I can usually force a good head in paler ales without a sparkler, but it requires a Northern pour nozzle that dispenses in the bottom of the glass. Interestingly, a Northern pour nozzle can be used as a Southern pour nozzle by simply lowering the glass. Impossible the other way round - putting a Southern pour nozzle in the bottom of a glass to get a Northern pour. Why I have a redundant Southern pour nozzle collecting dust.

Ahh ... you know what I'm like ... always inventing long, drawn-out, explanations ... always answering back ... never "wrong" (eh?) ... etc. So ...

(The reality is much simpler. Yeuck, but not looking so healthy behind that "bar" ... I'd best keep the lights off.).

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I stripped off the "Northern pour" nozzles yonks ago, and replaced them with short Southern pour nozzles (or Angram's - as then was - take on them which still look Northern but smaller - they couldn't give up entirely their Northern roots). The Stout is in the righthand pump: Complete with nozzle extender (to reach bottom of glass) and the "sparkler". The non-return valve (aka. check-valve) is fitted in the extender.

And yes! The handpump pull by the operator (that'll be me in this case) is important! No limp-wristed tug on the handle; give it a good (steady) pull to get the beer swirling in the glass to form the whacking good-looking head!

[nallum]

Agreed, nothing worse than a tad too much CO2 in a decent dark ale.

Just tapped one. A very nice Porter inspired by Dogbolter and embellished with some invert #3.

IMG_1392.jpeg (2.13 MiB) Viewed 2389 times

Conditioned under minimal CO2 pressure for a month but needs to be forced through a sparkler to get rid of all the 'excess' CO2 to 'shine'.

Edit: keg to be carefully translocated, by special forces, to join up with the beer engine overnight, while the northern hemisphere sleeps.

[JonB]

I recall the Craft Beer Channel covered this in their YouTube Keep Cask Alive series (well worth a watch).

They did Taylor's and Fullers I think with and without sparklers. From memory they said Taylor's (the Northern beer) was better with and the Fullers without. Apparently Taylor's deliberately make Landlord in cask a bit more prickly so when it gets pared back by the sparkler it tastes "correct."

It does make sense to me breweries would optimise their recipes to the expected serving kit (so southern beers taste better without, northern with as a gross generalisation)

@PeeBee
Not wanting to derail this thread, but could you possibly share a link to the check valve you use on your beer engines as I would like to give this a go please.

[nallum]

I think the male thread on the nozzle is 3/8 BSPP. It shouldn't be that difficult to get a stainless female-to-male check valve. Then put a sparkler on the end when needed.

But I'm not convinced it's a good idea to store 'live' ale in a beer engine, tbh.

I flush mine with fresh water between consecutive sessions then with beer line cleaner after not using during the week - whenever not used for several days.

[PeeBee]

...
@PeeBee
Not wanting to derail this thread, but could you possibly share a link to the check valve you use on your beer engines as I would like to give this a go please.

They were something like these (8 or 10 mm), requiring a small recess to be drilled into the plastic extender (it is plastic ... the picture makes it look metallic).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/358048037878 ... R_j6tNOWZw

But there will be other suitable arrangements as "Nallum" described.

I wouldn't worry too much about suitability of handpumps to be holding "live" beer (though I wouldn't suggest keeping stagnated beer in them for days on end). The idea was to keep the beer in the cylinder free from contact with air (which handpumps otherwise allow). However keeping the nooks and crannies of a handpump clean is an unlikely to be successful. But as long as the beer doesn't stagnate in the pump too long (2-3 days max.?), and the first pull is drunk first (expect it to be sub-prime, but not unpleasant) I can expect a couple of months without flushing (sometimes shorter periods before flushing ... you soon know!).

The point is the pump doesn't become a tedious chore to maintain ... but it mustn't distract from the pleasure of drinking the beer either!

P.S. A handpump demand-valve (sometime incorrectly called a check valve) should be considered essential.

[JonB]

Thanks that's really helpful.

I might have a couple of those extenders in the box of assorted s**te thrown in with the hand pull I bought...

[PeeBee]

I should also have mentioned: It was necessary to purge all oxygen-porous silicon beer tubing from the hand-pump (Angram used it). It took some imaginative routing of the much stiffer reinforced PVC tubing replacement to do that!

I've still got some "Bru'N Dry Stout" (the one in the piccie above) on a pump that hasn't been "flushed" since broaching for New Year's Day. It hasn't deteriorated noticeably in all that time. I do consider that quite remarkable though! A keg doesn't normally have anything left after a month, never mind two!

Have fun!