Cask or keg. Out of the cask

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2 The Beginners Guide to the Pub Cellar Starting out in the pub trade can be a daunting experience, particularly when facing the complicated arrangement of equipment behind the scenes. Even those that have been in the business for a while have to work to perfect the art of good cellar management. We have written this guide for those that want to obtain an overview of the hardware involved in serving perfect beer every time. Cask or keg Depending on your favoured brew, your beer will be contained as it arrived from the brewery in either a keg or a cask. Without entering into the debate about the way real ale should be contained, we ll content ourselves at this stage with a simple explanation of the difference. Cask ale, real ale or cask conditioned ale are all terms used to describe an ale which has been allowed to mature, ripen and develop in the barrel. Unpasteurised and left alone to develop by the brewer, the result is a living product with natural carbonation and frothy top. Keg beer on the other hand is conditioned at the brewery and contains no live yeast so gas is added to provide the texture. Both have their fans and certain beers will certainly lend themselves more to one delivery system than the other. Out of the cask Cask ales, following delivery, are placed in a cool dark cellar for the secondary fermentation to take place and they ll need a few days to fully condition. Cellar temperature should be controlled at between 12 and 14 degrees centigrade, cooler than room temperature. Any warmer and the beer won t be as palatable, any colder and the flavours won t be as pronounced. The cask is placed on its side to encourage sediment into the recessed area, the belly of the barrel. Stillaging is the process of storing the cask in a position where the beer will naturally flow towards the outlet. The shape of the barrel obviously lends itself to movement so wedges are used on either side to keep it in place, known in cellar man s terms as scotching. In order to be drawn, the peg on the upper side needs to be removed so that air can

3 BEER PIPER flow and release the beer to the hand pump. It is replaced at the end of service to ensure the beer doesn t go flat prematurely. Drawing the beer from the cellar to the bar is the hand pump system or beer engine. By means of a piston attached to the hand-pump and a one-way valve, the where space allows, the simple gravity pour means that no pump is necessary, the beer is simply fitted with a tap and positioned so that the beer pours directly from its position. Anyone who has visited a beer festival and tasted beer as intended by the brewer will appreciate the simplicity and efficiency of this method of delivery! publican draws the beer with a strong pull of the pump, each draw dispensing about a half pint if done correctly. Sparklers are sometimes fitted which artificially produces more head on the beer at the expense of the natural carbonation. Opinion is divided over this practice as beer character intended by the brewer may be affected however some may compensate for this in their brewing. As an alternative to the manual draw, electrical dispense methods are used and it depends on the region and

4 The Beginners Guide to the Pub Cellar From the keg The keg is manufactured from a nickel alloy, reinforced and welded to be incredibly strong, airtight and smoothly finished to inhibit bacterial growth. A long metal tube like a straw, the spear, reaches from the bottom of the vessel to the outlet at the top. Forcing Carbon Dioxide into the top of the keg pushes the beer down and out through the spear so that it can be dispensed through the lines to the bar. CO2 also performs another function which we ll come to shortly. The fittings used by different breweries around the world mean there are a variety of attachments to consider when connecting the keg; A, D, G, M, S and U types. Different beers require different pressures leading to the array of coupling devices we have in our cellars. A type couplers commonly used by German brewers, for example, have a while the G type employs a shaped underside to locate the outlet. A quarter turn on the majority of couplings keeps them securely connected. Some are considered more sanitary than others and of course post filling sanitisation at the brewery saves the publican a lot of worry. However, the couplers themselves need to be properly cleaned once a week to prevent bacterial build up. The actual coupling with which the keg is connected to the system may vary but the fundamentals remain the same; a locking handle which releases and holds the coupling in place under pressure along with a line for the introduction of CO2 or Nitrogen gas to the keg and a line out for beer to the next phase before it gets to the glass. lip around half of the base that slides over the keg outlet

5 BEER PIPER Gasses employed If you ve left a pint of beer exposed to the air for any length of time or had a pint that tastes of vinegar in the systems are connected. Not only that, imagine a creamy lager...not something you would want happening. past, you ll know what exposure to oxygen does to beer. Proper handling to prevent souring needs to be observed. In order to move the beer from the cellar needs gas and the propellant used tends to be CO2; in lager it provides that crispness to the tongue and gives a bit of additional bite. It also prevents the product from going flat by putting back some of the CO2 lost while open. Smoother beers need a little gentler handling, especially where their natural CO2 levels are slightly lower. Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide tanks are delivered pre-mixed at 70/30 or 60/40 concentrations depending on what is being served. Mixed gas canisters and pure CO2 canisters are colour coded as are the lines running from them for health and safety purposes so there can be no mistaking exactly what

6 The Beginners Guide to the Pub Cellar Gas Primary reducing valve / secondary reducing valve Gas bottles are filled with gas under extremely high pressure 2800psi so it would not be possible simply to fit the gas directly to barrel. The gas must be released at a vastly reduced pressure in a safe and consistent way. First in line is the primary reducing valve which steps the pressure down to a more manageable level; mixed gas to 45psi, CO2 to 38psi. The valve may be attached directly to the gas bottle or fixed to the wall. The secondary reducing valve allows for finer control over pressure. Every beverage will have its own natural or equilibrium pressure when coming from the brewery and each one will require a different level in order to be served correctly; too much gas and the beer or cider will be way too frothy, too little and it will be flat. Fobbing A term that is literally born from the phrase Foam on Beer, the problem with emptying a keg is that by the time the majority of the beer has gone, it will be filled with froth that will get in the lines and take a long time to clear, not to mention cause thirsty customers to become irate. A handy gadget employed in the cellar is called a Fob Detector. This sits between the keg and the line that leads to the bar and uses a small floating ball to block off the valve when the beer runs out, stopping the foam from filling the lines. When bar staff open a tap and receive nothing, this is the cue to change the keg. After turning off the gas, replace the coupler to a new barrel and bleed the fob detector through the top valve. The detector is reset by filling with the new beer and then releasing the ball from its position blocking the line.

7 BEER PIPER Dividers In the majority of pubs, more than one tap may be allocated to serve from a single barrel. In these instances, a divider located in the cellar will direct the beer to each; 2,3 and even 4 way dividers are common. Getting the beer to the bar The beer has been delivered by the brewery, the coupler has been attached, the pressure is just right. Now, back at bar level there are eager beer lovers anxiously waiting to partake of the freshly brewed ale. The beer lines themselves are then routed into trunking in order to keep them tidy and directed up to bar level. The final and most important stage is getting the beer to the tap and the waiting customer via the beer lines. Owing to the fact that most cellars are below ground, there is a natural resistance against the beer travelling upwards, namely gravity. Added to this are the narrow lines through which the beer must travel towards the tap. The distance travelled will vary and there are complicated calculations to ensure that the right pressure is applied in moving the liquid along the lines.

8 The Beginners Guide to the Pub Cellar Keeping the lines clean In most instances, there will be several pints of beer in the line at any one time and the natural content of the beer can leave deposits; yeast, bacteria and calcified lines and four pints in each: 56 pints wasted! There are ways of mitigating risk and far more efficient cleaning methods through a dedicated line cleaning system. mineral known as beer stone. All of these can ruin the hard work employed by the brewer in achieving the perfect taste and if beer has lost its flavour then the complex delivery system may as well not be there! Lines should be cleaned weekly with a robust and reliable system. There are pubs that still carry out the beer line cleaning by hand which, apart from being highly time consuming, requires handling corrosive and harmful chemicals; without the proper precautions it can be very dangerous. Additionally, all of the beer in the line must be thrown away representing lost revenue for the establishment, particularly if there are a significant number of lines to clean. Imagine a pub with fourteen

9 BEER PIPER Electronically Controlled Line Cleaning Beer Piper have developed a system that allows virtually all of the beer in the line to be sold first and allowing publicans to schedule line cleans at times that are more convenient, even with the bar open. Beer Piper is as Call us now on: Or us at: enquiries@beerpiper.co.uk fundamental a part of the hardware in a pub cellar as any other while remaining independent from other equipment. Allowing beer to flow cleanly and freely at the same time maintaining its freshness and flavour comes down to good cellar management. If you would like to know more about Beer Piper s innovative line cleaning system or would like to organise a free trial without obligation call now

10 Intelligent Beer Line Cleaning Systems