Plungers and taps, beer and barrels

I cannot imagine how many times you sat at a table in a bar and, without paying too much attention, you asked for “a beer on tap”. You did not ask for a beer in a bottle…

But where does this definition come from? In the past the beer was stored and packed in wooden barrels of different sizes, and, in order to tap the amber liquid, it was necessary to have a hammer and put a wooden plunger into the barrel to be used as a faucet.

The next step was the steel keg and the wooden plunger become a… tap… a tap connected to a tube embedded in the keg in order to keep it tightly closed and protected.

In the market there are different type of plungers – named slide, bayonet, a triangle – and each of them is suitable for beer to be tapped.

Consequently also the fitting change: each fitting has a different shapes, but all equally usable. COMAC produces machines and kegging lines able of processing any type of fitting.

Since the kegs are pressurized, some of them have a safety valve that prevents the disassembly of the tap without having first released the overpressure may be present. This key allows to disassemble it.

Moreover, a proper cleaning of the keg and of the plunger is extremely important : the taste of the beer can be irreparably damaged by an improper cleaning of the keg and of the plunger where the beer comes out to be tapped.

COMAC is pleased to suggest its customers to make use of the countercurrent washing with caustic soda, which, unlike the traditional one, is able to clean in an extremely accurate way all those minute and delicate parts that make up the plunger.

Even tapping is a very important step: each type of beer requires its own tapping method and the taste of beer can also change dramatically if a beer is not tapped properly. The tilt of the glass, 2 or more tapping steps, the correct temperature of service are some of the devices you can not ignore.

And finally, a recommendation, certainly not for beer expert: in beer there must be the foam, at the cost of sending back the mug.

Generally, in fact, the foam must be abundant, at least a couple of fingers, and its function is to preserve the aromas and perfumes, as well as keeping the correct beer temperature … this is true for most of the beers except for the English and Irish ones, which traditionally, contain little CO2 and then have less foam.

And you prefer a beer or bottled water? We look forward to getting your comments.