dent
Under Pressure
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- 20/6/08
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While being particularly violent while removing some taps from the door of a temporary keg fridge, I noticed the tendancy of the beer line to be rather ductile. This gave me the idea of using this property to make shorter keg lines, to turn this 6 metre run
into this (1m original length)
Turns out, it works pretty awesome. The benefits are less line used, less space in the fridge, and most importantly for me, less wastage when draining the stale beer from the keg lines - when you have 16 taps running, this adds up.
To make the thin tube, simply cut off a metre, step on one and and pull on the other hard enough to stretch it out. Try to grip it at the ends and do it in one hit - I think if the tube goes big-small-big-small-big it can't be good. The stretched tube should have an ID of about 3mm. This 1m stretched length seems to be equivalent as far as dispending goes to 6 or so metres of 5mm ID tube - I'm pretty sure the flow restriction math is rather non linear.
You should get nice smooth transistions from big to small
With this setup, the wastage amount from draining is this much, instead of closer to 2/3 a glass.
The pour is as neat as can be - I actually serve with more head than this usually
The tube I have used is what is available from Gryphon Brewing - I notice it is a little softer than the Valpar Flexmaster (but much easier to work with) - you might have to warm that stuff up a bit for this job.
Anyhow, thought I would share.

into this (1m original length)

Turns out, it works pretty awesome. The benefits are less line used, less space in the fridge, and most importantly for me, less wastage when draining the stale beer from the keg lines - when you have 16 taps running, this adds up.
To make the thin tube, simply cut off a metre, step on one and and pull on the other hard enough to stretch it out. Try to grip it at the ends and do it in one hit - I think if the tube goes big-small-big-small-big it can't be good. The stretched tube should have an ID of about 3mm. This 1m stretched length seems to be equivalent as far as dispending goes to 6 or so metres of 5mm ID tube - I'm pretty sure the flow restriction math is rather non linear.

You should get nice smooth transistions from big to small

With this setup, the wastage amount from draining is this much, instead of closer to 2/3 a glass.

The pour is as neat as can be - I actually serve with more head than this usually

The tube I have used is what is available from Gryphon Brewing - I notice it is a little softer than the Valpar Flexmaster (but much easier to work with) - you might have to warm that stuff up a bit for this job.
Anyhow, thought I would share.