Lack of pressure...

[Trotters80]

Hello, anyone know my there may be a lack of pressure from my beer barrel?. I don't bottle my beer.

It doesn't happen all the time, but my current batch doesn't have a head on my beer & it "glugs" out of the tap rather than pouring out like water does from a tap. Its just not doing that for some reason?.

Beer is still good though

 

[Tony1951]

If it is 'glugging' you are likely taking air back through the tap and bubbling it through the beer which will make it go stale pretty quickly. Don't pour any more.

Assuming that the beer was primed (you probably need about 85gm of table sugar in a five gallon barrel, made up into a syrup with boiling water) the gas generated has probably escaped through a leaking top washer on the cap.

I would open the cap, check the state of the washer, and if it is OK, grease it lightly with Vaseline. Then I would pour in the above mentioned syrup and re-seal firmly, but not gorilla tight. Put it in the warm for a few days to week, and then try again. It should serve with plenty of pressure - even giving you mostly foam at first. If it doesn't you are still losing pressure.

If you continue to serve the beer by letting it glug air back into the barrel, it will be ruined very soon.

 

[GlentoranMark]

I've had nothing but trouble with my cheapo barrel despite replacing all seals and using vaseline around them. I'm moving to corneys but I may use the the barrel as a FV, the tap will come in handy for draining.

 

[Racinsnake]

+1 to Tony
It's also worth checking your brass valve is tight. And a problem Iv had recently even though it's a well used barrel - check the neck of the barrel is flush/level as this is vital for a good seal.

 

[wfr42]

My second barrel had a very loose brass valve, it needs to tightened under the lid with a spanner.

I will now always check that the bolt under the lid is more than finger tight when barrelling.

After repriming as suggested abive. Pushing the band down on the valve should produce a hissing sound if CO2 is building up.

 

[Cwrw666]

Never let air glug back through the tap, no matter how desperate you are for another pint. It'll ruin your beer. As soon as you realise you've no pressure, take the cap off and sort out the seal - then reprime. With my PBs I've found that I always run out of pressure when the barrels half empty, so I reprime and that'll give me pressure right down to the tap.

 

[Tony1951]

Never let air glug back through the tap, no matter how desperate you are for another pint. It'll ruin your beer. As soon as you realise you've no pressure, take the cap off and sort out the seal - then reprime. With my PBs I've found that I always run out of pressure when the barrels half empty, so I reprime and that'll give me pressure right down to the tap.

+1 on the above.

I have a CO2 bulb valve on one of my barrels and a box of bulbs but by re-priming, I never need to use the daft little 8g bulbs. The natural conditioning CO2 is enough. I can get the whole barrel out sometimes on the original priming, but mostly it runs out at about the last six or eight pints. For that I will just loosen the top and let it run out for the last couple of nights. If it runs out about half way, which a couple of barrel fulls did, I just re-prime with about 50gm of table sugar and within a day or two it is well up to pressure. Since I have always got more than one barrel on the go, I am never short of a pint of something to drink.

 

[wfr42]

Never let air glug back through the tap, no matter how desperate you are for another pint. It'll ruin your beer. As soon as you realise you've no pressure, take the cap off and sort out the seal - then reprime. With my PBs I've found that I always run out of pressure when the barrels half empty, so I reprime and that'll give me pressure right down to the tap.

Never thought of that - i've just been using the 8g CO2 bulbs, but repriming would be cheaper long term, thanks.