Advice On Fonts - To Flood Or Not To Flood

[neo__04]

Hi all,

Just working through the process of organising all the bits for my chest freezer conversion.

The question I have is whether or not I should be getting a font that is flooded or not.
I was looking at this on ebay...
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Dual-Double-Draught...=item4aa5c53508

Would this be ok? I have read a lot about non flooded fonts having lots of froth on the first few beers. Is it normal after the first few?

Also has anyone used one of these regulators? Any good?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-CO2-Regulator-4...=item4aa5cdd336


I dont really know much about the topic. But any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sammus]

true that non-flooded fonts will give you a bit more froth on the first pour. IMO I would get whatever you like the look of, flooded or not, then not bother flooding it. Effectively flooding a font at home is a PITA and not really practical. Either you have a big bucket of water in a fridge somewhere and pump it through with a pond pump, in which case the font acts like a big heatsink and the water warms to room temp pretty quickly (ie you can only do it for a few hours while your entertaining guests or whatever); or you have a dedicated glycol system/freezer that costs an absolute shitload to set up and run. Some people have set up a computer fan blowing up the guts of those non-flooded cylindrical fonts such as the one in your link. I believe such a setup is fairly effective, though I haven't seen one in action so I'm not sure.

I've set up 4 different keg systems, two of them had taps mounted to a wall (ie a collar on a chesty or a fridge door) and they by far and large provided the best 'first pour of the day'. The other two were fonts on a chest freezer, and both of them have problems pouring a glass of foam if it hasn't been used in about half an hour.

Just saw the other part of your Q. Yes, pouring returns to normal after the first pour or two. I think this stems from the new beer cooling the lines/taps down to a good temperature. As that new beer hits the warmer lines/tap, some of the CO2 comes out of solution and it will pour very frothy. It's all good after that though.

 

[clintmo]

i have a flooded font setup with a container of water and pond pump, the pump is set to turn on when the compressor turns on (a double adapter on the temp controller fridgemate) - this means its on for like 5-10 mins every 40 or so. This helps keep the water in the container cold as its not constantly pumping. Flooding is definitely cool imo the only downside is all that condensation on the font drips onto my freezer lol.

I have upgraded from the font you are looking at and personally found it worthwhile. in terms of better pours and better looking / cooler. I also found flooding it with cool water did not cost the earth, just a pond pump, double adapter, hoses and hose clamps. cheers