Beer engine reconditioning, part 1

[Barry]

If you follow
this thead you'll know that I recently purchased 2 beer engines off trademe.


Seeing as my brewing inclination is towards British styles - real ale, I've been after a beer engine for ages. Usually they get snapped up quick smart by Greig (who hasn't shared with me the highly secret search/RSS query that tweets him the instant anything remotely resembling "beer engine" comes up for sale on trademe). These looked like too much DIY for him so he passed them over - I hit "buy now" within the first minute.

Over the next 2 days I experienced a fair amount of buyers remorse. I scoured the internet for images/diagrams/information on the kind of unit I saw in the sellers photos, to no avail.

Most information I could find was on the ubiquitous Angram all-in-one clamp on units. Mine were clearly a different beast. Lots of angst before I'd even laid eyes on the things.

I picked them up and noticed some broken bits immediately. I considered my options and in the end paid the full price. On bringing them home I worked out how they must fit together and realised I'd need to rely on my long dormant cabinetmaking skills - all the various bits and pieces are obviously meant to be precisely configured and housed within a free standing cabinet.

But most importantly my excitement had returned. The brass handles and lever mechanism are solidly crafted and well used, everything a bit dusty and grimy but with a good dose of elbow grease should clean up a treat.

Then I stripped down one of the pump units. I chose the one that outwardly looked in the best nick - with the intact "beer in" barb (the others one was snapped off). Inadvertantly this turned out to be the shitty one.

Despite all the metal bits being stainless, several nuts and washers etc had quite a bit of rust damage which had spread through the plastic piston, valves, end caps, o-rings, chamber. Yuck. I tried to undo a stainless nut on the plastic non-return valve that was rusted tight. The whole plastic thread broke off. Broke. Off. ARGH!

Buyers remorse returned.

The next night I cleaned up the other one. Expecting to see rust and shit everywhere, this one was was MINT! I swapped the beer in barb from the rusty unit and got one fully working clean and sparkling pump.

I took some photos in an "exploded" view and annotated them with the bits that needed replacing. I sent an email to a chap at Colin Farrar Brewery Services in West Yorkshire. He replied the same day saying he had some similar units, and would strip some down and hopefully answer my questions. SO EXCITING.


I started polishing various bits of brass and as I expected they came up wonderful and shiny, not perfect but once proudly used in a real British pub.

I'm not under any illusion as to the pedigree of my pumps. There is no proud manufacturers stamp unlike those on the Angrams I've seen. The pump clips are for John Smith's Bitter and Ind Coope's Burton Ale - two breweries that have long since sold out to international mega-breweries. But both with massive regional historical significance. In fact these pumps may well be a similar vintage as myself. Proper honest hard working real ale beer engines.

I decided I would document the restoration here as my extensive internet search was ultimately fruitless, I couldn't find a single image of anything remotely similar, no mention of spares, no diagram or information at all on assembly of the full thing. Hopefully this serves as a resource for anyone else who happens upon such units.

I've a lot more brasso to use, a cabinet to design and build and hopefully some spare parts to order from the UK.
By the end of it all I should have two complete working beer engines and be able to draw a pint of something I've brewed through that which I have lovingly restored.

Wish me luck.

[Reviled]

Progress?

[Barry]

Nothing yet. The UK guy has been swamped and hasn't been able to assess the comparable engines he has in stock. Stoked that he has a couple lying around though, fingers crossed they're good for spares.

In the meantime I've cleaned up some wood panels, I have enough for one box. I'll probably make the other one out of plywood. I have a cabinetmaker friend who has a workshop of stuff and considerable expertise and experience, he has suggested I make a prototype box out of some melteca panels he has lying around. I'm hoping that means he'll help me out. But I can't even pay him in beer, he doesn't drink it!
When I get a spare weekend day, hopefully this weekend, I'll knock something up.

[Reviled]

Mean, make sure you update us with some pics :o)

[Regional Wines and Spirits]

when making the cabinet dont under estimate the amount of leverage that will be exherted from pulling the pump. The one Cabinet that I used to use I had to put a floor in and fill it with slabs of concret to counter lever the engine.

Kieran

[Barry]

Mmm, cheers, good advice Kieran. I've been flip-flopping over the size of the cabinet and had decided that rather than scrimp on size and get 2 cabinets out of my nice timber panels, just make one with that and get some plywood for the other. Seems like the right choice.