Pretty much says it all. Looking for a used 5.4 gallon pin, for cask ale off an engine. Prefer to pick up (Madison, WI) but if you're willing to ship, that's cool too. Thanks.
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Wanted Wanted to buy - Used cask (pin)
- Thread starter Gadjobrinus
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rmr9
Well-Known Member
I’m sure you’ve checked already but sometimes you can find them on Facebook marketplace or craigslist, at least I’ve seen them before
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Yep, thanks. Like hourly, lol. Only thing are a couple of firkins a few hours away, and a guy who said he had pins and firkins....I confirmed volume with him, shows up with 7.5 and 15 gallon Hoff-Stevens. Still looking.
rmr9
Well-Known Member
Dang that’s a bummer. I can imagine it would be hard to rip through a firkin before it went off too! I would check out g4 kegs. They sell to consumers as well, just have to ask for a quote for a pin. They have them in stock. Got mine from them years back and I would again if I needed another.
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Thanks, I did look into that - was it you, maybe, where I saw you'd used them? - but on their site there's only kegs, no casks. But thanks, I did query them just a few minutes ago.
rmr9
Well-Known Member
Yeah it was me - realized after I replied that I’m fairly certain I commented on another thread of yours saying that’s what I used. If you go on their site and look at keg products and scroll down they have pins and firkins too. Hopefully they give you a good quote!
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Thanks rmr. My memory is faulty so it doesn't surprise me this is covered ground. I did see their cask pin and am looking for a quote. Many thanks.
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Just an fyi, but G4 doesn't ship directly any longer, but will ship to my LHBS as long as my store is willing to use their reseller's info, as G4 doesn't charge sales tax. Shipped to my store, they quoted $138, and that's with "a $4.00 promo" - which is about what I'd pay if I ordered directly from Kegco. I'll keep looking for a used one but may end up just getting a Kegco.
Wayne1
Well-Known Member
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Thanks Wayne. Yeah, I'd seen that and queried on whether he ever works with used pins. He said only firkins. I also have a couple of firkins within driving distance from FB marketplace. I'd love it, but only way I could do something like that would be to do double brews in the fermenter as I do 5 gallon brewlengths. Then....what to do with all the ale? I don't have that many friends!
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His shipping is high in my opinion.
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I agree. In fact I find his prices in generally really high, or as one brewer I know calls it, "extortionate." So much so that it's often cheaper for me to buy directly from the UK, even with shipping. Kind of sucks imo that he's the only US distributor for many cask items.
Can you use a small corny keg on its side?
Another thought, supplying nitrogen from a bladder will keep your "cask" beer better for longer.
Another thought, supplying nitrogen from a bladder will keep your "cask" beer better for longer.
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I could, but in order to do that I'd need a way to cool that would be just as big (internal dimensions, space) as the pin. And call me a romantic, but I really want to serve from a tap and pin, man.
Hadn't thought of the NO2, thanks. Interesting.
100% Nitrogen (N2)!
And not beer gas (a mix of N2 + CO2).
Nitrogen is an inert gas to beer, and won't be absorbed much when not under pressure. You're just filling the headspace with an inert gas, protecting it, so your cask beer stays fresh and won't slowly oxidize.
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Lol, good caution. I've got a lo pressure regulator and gauge I plan to set to 2 psi per @Peebee but the nitrogen is an interesting option I'd not thought of. Though I have to admit when I read your post my mind did start turning to mixed gas stout....and just as quickly I saw my doom as my wife would likely off me in my sleep, lol. I think she's reached max on crap everywhere!
Who's woken me up!
Now let me see ...
Don't do it! Remember your schoolboy Physics (damned if I can, did I do Physics?). Fill the space in your keg with 100% Nitrogen and the 100% Carbon Dioxide dissolved in your beer will think ... "I'm not having that" ... and will start coming out of solution in an attempt to make the concentration in solution comply with the concentration of CO2 in the space above, i.e. equilibrium in accordance with the laws of partial pressure and ...
.
I know ... let's just say 'the beer'll go "flat"'? At which point you won't want to wait for your wife to do the job and you will top yourself.
Now let me see ...
Don't do it! Remember your schoolboy Physics (damned if I can, did I do Physics?). Fill the space in your keg with 100% Nitrogen and the 100% Carbon Dioxide dissolved in your beer will think ... "I'm not having that" ... and will start coming out of solution in an attempt to make the concentration in solution comply with the concentration of CO2 in the space above, i.e. equilibrium in accordance with the laws of partial pressure and ...
.I know ... let's just say 'the beer'll go "flat"'? At which point you won't want to wait for your wife to do the job and you will top yourself.
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OK, thanks, hadn't thought of that! And the last time I thought of Dalton's Law was 40 years ago - scuba diving in deeper water off the CA coast. Nitrogen narcosis and the bends. No fun!Who's woken me up!
Now let me see ...
Don't do it! Remember your schoolboy Physics (damned if I can, did I do Physics?). Fill the space in your keg with 100% Nitrogen and the 100% Carbon Dioxide dissolved in your beer will think ... "I'm not having that" ... and will start coming out of solution in an attempt to make the concentration in solution comply with the concentration of CO2 in the space above, i.e. equilibrium in accordance with the laws of partial pressure and ...
I know ... let's just say 'the beer'll go "flat"'? At which point you won't want to wait for your wife to do the job and you will top yourself.
So, why won't that happen when the cask space is filled with air?
Air being:
~78% N2
~21% O2
~1% Ar
~0.04% CO2 and
traces of other gases.
The N2 would not be under pressure, the headspace would be filled and equalized by means of an expandable gas bladder (e.g., a mylar balloon).
What did I miss?
The changes in gas equilibrium don't happen instantly. Over a long enough time to keep beer good over 2 or 3 days. But that same beer won't be so nice after 7 or 8 days. Unfortunately, that would happen (and still does) in some places, and it put many off UK "cask beer". Though why the disgruntled drinkers switched to mid-late 20th C. fizzy keg is beyond my comprehension.
Homebrew must hold up for a bit longer than 2 or 3 days (more than 7 or 8 days too, I think!).
Homebrew must hold up for a bit longer than 2 or 3 days (more than 7 or 8 days too, I think!).
Hence my suggestion to keep the headspace filled with an inert gas such as Nitrogen (N2), at either room pressure, or say, up to 2 psi. CO2 can be used instead to keep the cask beer lowly carbonated and should keep it fine for several months that way, no different than beer in a keg, but at much lower pressure, so there's no fizz and foam.
But air needs to be avoided at any point, as it will oxidize the cask beer getting worse with time. It's not a pub, with a high rate of consumption.
It is happening somewhat in the UK. Though I've yet to experience it (or, perhaps I have and it's so good I can't tell). But, the gas doesn't come in contact with the beer. The gas is separated from the beer by, being in a bag, a membrane, or something. And then the gas doesn't then have to be nitrogen, just air will do.
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Sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding something guys - are we not talking about a blanket of inert gas, but rather a bladder that takes up the increasing headspace?
That seems to be what @Peebee is hinting to.
I've never seen any such application using a bladder. Most pins, firkins, and (real) casks* I've come across use a breather, so the beer will be exposed to air.
* Quite a few brewery tap rooms I've been in use a regular Sanke keg under low pressure feeding a hand pump, and call it a "cask." They often "individualize" that cask by adding additives (keg hops, herbs, spices, fruit, etc.) and dispense the beer with a fairly big head.
I should be the one who's sorry! Elbowing in and muddling the conversation (in a buy/sell forum too). I'll fuddle it some more by chucking these in (best descriptions I could come up with, but it's the beer in the bag and the gas outside it - oh, and it's mainly for fizzy beer, not cask) ... you've probably heard of them, they are the market leader (?), though I'm not sure anyone has fully ironed out the issues in all applications? Keykegs
But you mustn't think of gases as "immiscible". They will not form a "blanket" for long, they just mix up with gases around it, however different in weight they are. And liquids are just very thick gases (
), no structure like solids, and gases will pass-through / mix-up with liquids like they do with gases (well, not quite and certainly not as readily). Hence, it's all "fluid dynamics" whether gas or liquid. ...Humm ... I don't think I'm helping matters. I don't even know where all that came from? I could just be becoming delirious 'cos I haven't put a brew on in 2024 yet!
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