Beginner. Pressure barrel not keeping pressure

[Bendy]

Hi

brand new to home brew first go with and all in one cheap kit. Fermented well tastes nice. Put in a plastic pressure barrel to condition with sugar. Cleared and tasty. But no pressure and have to let air in to get the beer out.

so can I re-condition in bottles with more sugar? Or can you only condition once?

don’t want to waste good beer

hope that’s clear

ta

 

[cushyno]

Yes you can prime again with more sugar. If you have bottles and want to decant to bottles, do it before too long. Any air you have let in to the pressure barrel contains oxygen that will gradually begin to spoil the beer.

 

[Bendy]

Thanks mate. Will sort out tomorrow.

and raise a glass to you when I drink it ;-)

 

[Sandimas]

brand new to home brew first go with and all in one cheap kit. Fermented well tastes nice. Put in a plastic pressure barrel to condition with sugar. Cleared and tasty. But no pressure and have to let air in to get the beer out.

Do a search on the forum, there's a thread on this topic every few weeks and lots of solutions out there. you should be able to fix it.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I wrote quite a bit about pressure barrels because many people struggle with them to start. If you’re still getting to grips with yours, take a look.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/pressure-barrels-more-than-you-wanted-to-know.89344/

 

[MarconiBrew]

You shouldn't let air in to get the beer out, surprised no one mentioned that you should be filling the barrel with Co2 when the beer doesn't flow.

 

[cushyno]

You shouldn't let air in to get the beer out, surprised no one mentioned that you should be filling the barrel with Co2 when the beer doesn't flow.

If the PB has a leak, putting more co2 in might help pour a pint, but it'll cost a fortune in co2 if the pressure needs topping up even half hour.
Tall and short of it, the PB needs fixing (see Hazelwood's excellent post). If the OP is worried about being able to dispense and doesn't have 40 co2 bulbs in stock, bottles may be the short term answer.

 

[MarconiBrew]

If the PB has a leak, putting more co2 in might help pour a pint, but it'll cost a fortune in co2 if the pressure needs topping up even half hour.
Tall and short of it, the PB needs fixing (see Hazelwood's excellent post). If the OP is worried about being able to dispense and doesn't have 40 co2 bulbs in stock, bottles may be the short term answer.

As he said he 'had to let air in', I took that to mean there wasn't an air leak as such.

 

[cushyno]

As he said he 'had to let air in', I took that to mean there wasn't an air leak as such.

He also said 'no pressure' so I'm assuming that priming or topping up pressure with co2 bulbs isn't working and that co2 is leaking out under pressure. A slight pinhole would cause pressure to be lost but wouldn't be enough to get a steady pour as the negative pressure inside the PB couldn't be replaced rapidly enough through a pinhole. I assume the OP meant there was no chance of pulling a pint without glugging - letting air in through the tap.

@Bendy how did you let air in, through the tap or the cap?