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Re,the camra thing.

Posted by JosB on 2007-05-09 11:53:07

I think I can quote here from a document I prepared for EBCU some years ago. "As the beers discussed in this document in general have characteristically a high carbonation, trying to dispense these beers through a handpump will cause a very lively head on any beer that is draught. Similar problems will arise when trying to dispense beer on gravity from a keg, specially one that is not intended for gravity dispense (as the beer will probably not have a suitable CO2 balance for gravity dispense). Some German beers however are available in casks specially intended for gravity dispense (Alt, Kölsch, various Franconian/Bavarian lager beers specially "Keller"-beers, "Ungespundet" types of beer), and those beers normally have a (lower) CO2 balance that is adapted to gravity dispense. Normally, the line between the keg and the tap provides a resistance to the outflowing beer, thus keeping the CO2 balance in the beer intact. The length and diameter of the line have to be in accordance to the average CO2 balance in the keg, the applied pressure, the difference in height between the keg and the tap, the storage temperature of the keg and the dispensing temperature (as in bars a part of the line is often a part of a cooling system). Also the temperature of the line and the speed of dispense can have its influence. The optimal method for dispensing beer with top CO2-pressure is to pour it in one pull (the German "7-minutes-pils" method is also a disaster for beer quality, German brewers are strongly campaigning to abandon this bad habit)." and a short quote from a document by Hubert Hanghofer: "CO2 is an ingredient in beer like hops and affects flavor considerably." I have the impression that these documents got stuck with CAMRA NE/HQ, and never were passed on by CAMRA to any festival organisers. I could send you (and others who might be interested) the complete document by e-mail, plus an extra calculation sheet prepared by Hubert Hanghofer. Contact me at brouwer (at) hetveentje (dot) nl.

Re,the camra thing. by Peter Alexander on 2007-05-09 12:27:49