Something that is difficult to recreate at home is the character of a pint from a beer engine.
The gentle carbonation helps the delicate yeast flavours of a good strain express themselves, especially on the back of the tongue, where normally, carbonic bite would be most vicious. A beer engine contributes to the barmyness of a good beer.
The remedy to this problem is just to get one. A stand was built out of scrap wood as no suitable countertop was available. A one way valve between engine and polypin (from now on referred to as 'pin' for brevity) attached to a quick disconnect means that the majority of the beer in the line - which is in the long section of line nearest the pump - stays in the line, and can be pumped into a glass after turning the tap of a pin off and disconnecting. The small stub between the pin and the quick disconnect is lost, but we can live with that.
A mini cellar was easily created for a 5 L pin by using a cool bag and swapping in frozen bottles of water to achieve a 10 - 14 degree temperature.
Pins were primed at 3 g of table sugar per L. The carbonation on my first effort, a stout was just slightly low, although it produced a highly acceptable head. Next time would up the sugar and not chill as quickly as I did. The 5 L pin was just perfect for having a couple of guests for a few days.
