Building portable bar.. need suggestions!

[Black n Tan]

Nice rig. I have built myself a draught box. Unfortunately it sometimes gives me grief with foaming, so I don't have all the answers, but here are some things I have learnt: 1/ pass beer through the lines before placing the coils in iced water, to avoid ice crystals forming inside the coil and causing nucleation points for the CO2 break out, 2/ you need to put the coils in an ice bath of ice and water to effectively cool the beer; ice alone will not have enough contact with the coils to cool effectively, 3/ minimise the length of beer line exposed to ambient temps as this will cause CO2 to break out. I find I get more foaming when the beer is consumed more slowly (more time for the CO2 to break out in the lines). When the beer is consumed quickly I have no issues with foaming or the beer not being cold enough. I typically have the kegs pre-chileld which obviously helps with coldness, but I am tempted next time to have ambient kegs and see if that improves foaming: it may seem a little counter-intuitive, but at least worth a try.

 

[431neb]

I'm having a ******* of a time with what I think are Celli flow control taps and severe foaming. I have to slow the pour to a virtual drip to reduce it. I've only just started to use the font and taps so I haven't done all the problem solving just yet but I know that the font and lines are cold enough as it is a flooded font and the beer and lines are cold and insulated. I'm beginning to suspect leaky disconnects and or John Guest style fittings (the cheap knock offs) . I've only connected one keg of beer and one of cider. The cider is pouring fine but the beer is nightmarish. I will update when I isolate the problem.

Incidentally Wealsy22 , I'm still pimping out my "Portable" bar and it has mushroomed into the most unwieldy collection of fridges and freezers you've ever seen. I wrote off putting the kegerator inside the bar almost immediately (I scored a massive commercial font and the tails are too big to do both).

You might want to consider the jockey box idea for parties and park a keezer/freezer beside it for everyday use.

I must write up my experience with the bar build. It was a comedy of errors but the result is pretty cool.

 

[SmallFry]

I must write up my experience with the bar build. It was a comedy of errors but the result is pretty cool.

Cool, definitely.

Portable, maybe not without a big-assed trailer.

 

[wealsy22]

Thanks for the replies guys, i'll take everything into account this weekend and let you know how ive gone. Just finished a "mini" version of the bar aswell so will upload a pic later on today.

The main one is actually quite portable, it goes into the back of my ute with ramps and one person can push it on/off

 

[wealsy22]

So after chilling the keg in ice and shortening the beer lines the bar poured like a dream for 3 days! Thanks for all the tips. Here are some pics.

 

[sponge]

She's....


Beautiful!