To understand the sparkler, it is important to understand how real ale is served in the English pub. In America, we use systems that push the beer out of a keg and through the tap by forcing pressurized co2 through the lines. With real ale, because of the beer’s natural and relatively low carbonation, the influence of extraneous CO2 is frowned upon. Not only is the use of forced CO2 not traditional, it can over carbonate real ale and hinder the change of favorable flavors caused by oxidation.

On a final note and as a dire warning not to let the great American tradition of pretending they invented something great and therefore know all about it, creep into cask ale writing, I recently read a treatise online vehemently demonising the sparkler. The writer’s credentials? He was an American who cited his visit to “the great Yorkshire city of Burton Upon Trent” as inspiration for his tirade against the sparkler……’Nuff said. Musings over. The above short article is from p. 707 of the November 1, 1885 issue of The British Trade Journal and Export World, Vol. 23. It explained what Barker’s device did, indeed exactly as people describe the effect today. The sparkler makes flat beer seem more sparkling by agitating the beer and creating the creamy effect. It’s often argued by the no sparkler corner that perfectly conditioned beer needs no sparkler. Probably true but as with most things in life, true perfection is well nigh impossible to achieve on a regular basis. There are so many variables from brewer to cellar man that the perfectly conditioned pint is not always achievable no matter how good the craftsman. It would make sense then to get a little help wherever we can. But Worthington is seven miles from Ince, likely too far for Barker to have travelled there unless he did so intermittently.The test brew was “Old Boy” from the Oldershaw brewery in Grantham, the place was the Yorkshire Terrier on Stonegate. We asked for a half with a sparkler and a half without. The barmaid was perfectly happy to do this, by the way. Pump clips can be made of various materials. For beers that are brewed regularly by the big breweries, high quality plastic, metal or ceramic pump clips are used. Smaller breweries would use a printed plastic pump clip and for one-off beers laminated paper is used. There are variations on the material used, and the gaudiness or tastefulness of the decoration depending on how much the brewery wants to market their beers at the point of sale. Novelty pump clips have also been made of wood, slate and compact discs. Some even incorporate electronic flashing lights. Older pump clips were made of enamel. A sparkler is a little plastic device that sits on the end of the pump and has lots of little holes, to create tiny little gas bubbles as your pint is dispensed. You end up with a creamy head that takes ages to settle. One of the potential downsides to York as a drinking destination is the universal use of sparklers. I say potential, as the sparkler has its vociferous defenders as well as its opponents. Still, the matter of sparkler and cask ale quality remains. For what it’s worth I prefer cask bitter without the sparkler. Its effect seems to blunt hop flavour and generally flatten out the taste.

The first advertisement I saw left off the “l” in Hotel, or the upload to Google Books did that. I thought that “Ince” must also be a misprint, or an imperfect uploading again. But no, Ince is a real place nearish to Manchester, Ince-in-Makerfield. (About 17 miles).

Standard Turn Down Spout 1/2" OD

The engine is a hand-operated pump that is used to draw beer from a cask or keg. Dispensing real ale. It is also known as a beer “handpump”, and is a common sight in British pubs. With a few bars using them today in the states. A pump clip is usually attached to the handle giving the name and sometimes the brewery, beer type and alcoholic strength of the beer being served through that handpump.

Do you want to add 3/8 ID half inch vinyl beer line to connect from the end of your cylinder to the beer engine so I can pull beer from your cask or ale Pump Handle It’s not that the hard core has tired of the controversy. Newer issues arise and attention turns elsewhere.The sparkler was referred to parenthetically in a 1949 brewing journal article by J.W. Scott, “From Cask to Consumer”. Initially, I thought it was a post-1945 invention, or perhaps an expedient to make thin, wartime beer more attractive in the glass. The Multibore creamers are the easiest sparklers to use. The holes agitate the beer, so when fitting you need to screw the creamers on fully. Depending on if you use the 0.6mm holes or the 1mm holes on how much head will be on the pint you serve. Evan. It’s a fair cop-I don’t earn the majority of my income from writing, so couldn’t/wouldn’t claim to be a professional writer. However, unlike most bloggers, I have actually had hard copy published, and practised editorial duties, so I would hope I understand the nature of the written word. I will take the charitable view that you simply misunderstood my comments, rather than being too dense to understand them. Basically, all I was doing was agreeing with Stonch about everyone making certain, basic, assumptions. I didn’t say anything about assuming readers know “exactly” what I’m on about-my blog is deliberately just about pubs and drinking, and nothing technical. You can’t get more basic than that. But, for example, I do make the same assumptions that most (including this excellent one), beer blogs make. I expect the readers to be generally interested in beer/pubs, and I don’t continuously explain what real ale is. I don’t think crediting the reader with above amoeba level intelligence is any bad thing. Cask ale of course has no CO2 added at the brewery or pub, so, as it pours fairly flat, the sparkler enlivened pints that looked unattractive. For some reason the south has never minded flat pints, it may be palate-related, it may be the desire to have a brimful glass. I feel fairly certain his Crown Hotel is as pictured, at 106 Wigan Road – unless you sleuths reading – you know who you are – uncover a Crown Hotel in Ince. If you do, a pint on me, but you must meet me in Toronto. Okay, two pints.*

New Springs is only two miles from the centre of Ince. You see its Crown Hotel pictured, a handsome house that looks old enough to have been the locale where Barker did his field work. It's important to clean your engine after each use to prevent bacteria from growing. Start by disconnecting the beer engine from the cask or barrel. Remove the tap and disassemble the parts. Clean all of the parts with water and a cleaning solution. Caustic solution of 2 to 3% would be suitable to clean a beer engine and it's lines.Soak and Rinse the parts well. Allow them to air dry. Reassemble the beer engine and connect it to the cask or barrel. Where Can I buy One? What if we told you that there was a device that could help you pour beer from traditional cask-conditioned ales? Pouring the perfect beer every time. And all you had to do was follow a few simple steps with a hand pump? The Beer Engine is just that device, and this guide will show you how to use it like a pro. Whether it's mounted to the bar top or used with a clamp on.

You don’t read much today about “the sparkler – is it good or bad?”, but oceans of ink and bandwidth were sacrificed in the past to a cause that seems delphic to non-initiates. That said, it wasn’t so convincing a test as to make us ask for the sparkler to be removed every time. And I have to say that late that day I had a lovely sparkled half of Theakston’s Old Peculiar, which I’ve never really enjoyed before in its “raw” state. So, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to say that non-sparkled beer was “better” than sparkled beer across the board.