Glossary
Beer engine
A manual suction pump on a pub bar that draws cask beer up from the cellar, operated by pulling the handle.
Also called handpump, handpull, hand pull, beer pump, hand pumped.
Each full pull typically draws half a pint, which is why a bartender pulls twice for a pint. The pump draws beer by suction rather than pushing it with gas, so no carbon dioxide is added and the beer keeps the low natural carbonation the cask gave it.
The tall handle on the bar is the visible part; the pump cylinder is beneath it and the cask is in the cellar.
Related
- Sparkler — The nozzle fitted to some beer engines.
- Cask — What it draws from.
- Cask, hand-pulled — The dispense record.
More vocabulary
Coolship · Foeder · Hydrometer · Kettle · Lauter tun · Mash tun · Refractometer · Sparkler
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.