Cask beer ( sought of )

[vermont brewer]

Brewed a ESB recipe and transferred it a corny keg. I have a hand pump from pint365.com that I purchased. While not a true cask recipe as they are somewhat difficult to properly make I love cask beer and Bitters. My problem is that when pulling the pint on hand pump I am getting huge amount of foam through the pump into glass. I have the psi at 5. I bled off the head pressure in corny keg after it was complete. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fOCM2a1QH4Y?feature=share

[PeeBee]

Article linked in signature below:

[vermont brewer]

wow great article , I will go through it in detail and keep you posted. Thank you !

[vermont brewer]

Just saw your location, where in N wales are you. We have been there numerous times. Stayed in capel Garmon years back at the now closed pub. Bala, betws y coed, Love snowdonia !

[PeeBee]

Capel Garmon ... now that's not on many visitors' itinerary! Less so with the Pub gone, though I never visited it.

[vermont brewer]

Exactly that why we stayed there. Like to get off the beaten path. The pub that was there had great cask beer , first time I ever had it and since hooked on it. I think my problem with my foam issue is that the beer itself is over carbonated. WE put the psi up to 30 to speed up process and rolled corny keg around. So i think this is the issue. It pours well from my regular tap but not well from the hand pump. DIOLCH

[IPA]

Exactly that why we stayed there. Like to get off the beaten path. The pub that was there had great cask beer , first time I ever had it and since hooked on it. I think my problem with my foam issue is that the beer itself is over carbonated. WE put the psi up to 30 to speed up process and rolled corny keg around. So i think this is the issue. It pours well from my regular tap but not well from the hand pump. DIOLCH

Absolutely correct. There is only one reason for foaming, or as Americans say ,fobbing and that is over carbonation.

[PeeBee]

... There is only one reason for foaming, or as Americans say ,fobbing and that is over carbonation.

Hey! I used to say "fobbing" as a youth (i.e. long before the Americans rediscovered "beer"). We did used to believe the barman that it was due to thunderstorms though (which was also the cause of the beer being cloudy, tasting cr@p, etc, etc).

[vermont brewer]

https://youtube.com/shorts/7OpNjqV8LAU?feature=share


Thanks all, definitely a carbonation issue. Lowered co2 back down around 2 psi, and all good. Lesson for future is to let it carbonate at 10 psi for around 14 days, and then have co2 set at 2psi . No real way to have a true cask beer that will last but I think this is a good compromise

[PeeBee]

I'd avoid 10psi too. Force carbonating? Not much point if you are going to vent back to 2psi to serve (it should take about 2 days to vent 10psi back to 2psi - you can't just vent the excess pressure quickly and think that's it done). I recommend those Clesse LPG regulators (50-150mbar; 150mbar will be about 2psi) because most regulators are incapable of holding to 5 or 7psi, let alone 2psi (they also have BSP threaded ports which are easily adapted to your gas lines).

I don't know about "Pint365" pumps, but most Angram pumps will groan (literally!) if they must handle above 4-5psi.

I do prime a Corny with sugar for about 1.3 "volumes" (about 12g in a 19L Corny) before perhaps venting back to 1.1 "volumes" (equivalent to about 2psi), or not bother venting and let it fall from serving a few pints. I do purge the headspace in the keg with CO2 and leave 5-10psi on the keg (gas disconnected) to keep the lid sealed (it's soon absorbed by the beer).

[vermont brewer]

Thank you !!!