Beer Taps In New Bar

[marky_mark]

Hey Guys,

I'm putting a new bar in the freshly renovated room above our garage and I'm keen to get a beer tap set up in there for those wonderful nights of drinking and playing pool
My problem is I need to put the kegs downstairs, just about directly below the bar. The lines could then run up the wall and along the roof and emerge at the taps...The issues are cooling the beer and pressure loss, the beer going flat, within the lines.

Like most people I wont be drinking a beer every half hour, 24/7 so at some point the beer is going to sit in the lines. Thus even with insulation it will get warm. I thought of solivng this by having a cooler with 1/4 inch copper piping wound into the base, and covering it with ice every time I wish to use the taps, same as party keg setups you can get. This is fine as i could fit the cooler close to the tap... but the problem remains of the beer loosing pressure as it sits there... unless I'm drinking a very traditional english ale this isn't going to suffice...

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[GMK]

OK - easiest solution is to get a Flooded Font - u pump glycol up within the beer lines at -2 to -5 degrees - this causes the font to ice up - therefore - when warmer beer from sitting in the insulated lines comes up thru the font - it is cooled by the ice chill.

This is what the pubs do...

 

[Batz]

You need to talk to Ross , he's done all the leg work for you.

Pm him

Batz

 

[Ross]

Marky_Mark,

You do really need a flooded font. If you can't afford a gylcol unit to chill your lines & font - just make a reserviour in your storage fridge & run a line along with your beer lines (insulating them as well as you can) & connect to a pump. This will help keep the lines cool & chill your font.
You have the ideal situation with the kegs stored below the bar, this will enable any CO2 that will come out of solution (due to the warmer lines) to form at the tap, making it easy to "bleed" out any gas before pouring. Keep your distance as short as possible & you won't have too much problem with flat beer - at worst you can waste the first small pour - but mixed with the beer behind you won't waste any...

hope this makes sense...


Cheers Ross

 

[Linz]

Why not pump the beer warm to the bar and install cold plates or chiller coils(ala miracle box style)in a bar fridge near the taps???

just another shot in the dark.....

 

[Rex]

Why not pump the beer warm to the bar and install cold plates or chiller coils(ala miracle box style)in a bar fridge near the taps???

[post="99893"][/post]​

From my experience, that will work... but if you can keep your kegs cold they will keep longer if you're not a big drinker and give you less hassles with foaming.

 

[BrissyBrew]

A flooded front seems to be the way to go. I have seen on the net a very primative but great chilling machine.
A small tank glyco was sat in the fridge with an aquarium pump to push it up through some PVC pipe, the guy ran his been lines inside the PVC pipe. His front did not ice up, (because his fridge was set at serving temp). In short the guy made a 2meter high flooded front.

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

Marky_mark,
I think Ross has the right idea but another way that will work is if you have a bar fridge upstairs install a 'Cold plate' as descibed by Linz/Rex, keep your beer line short (drill a hole in the floor for a direct SHORT run-don't worry about the wife, you always get another)

CEERS & GOODLUCK :beer: