Compensator Faucets

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JasonY

The Imperial Metric Brewery
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Just poking about over at st pats and was looking at these faucets. Anyone had any experience with these? Does the compensator part actually help you balance your pressure (assume it adds a variable pressure drop at the tap) so you could achieve different levels of carbonation with one beer line?

Link to them here
 
Roy @ TWOC in perth ocasionally has an inline version of these compensators in stock. (he's out at the moment). You can ballance a system at the trun of a knob, and it eliminated the need to have 4m+ beer like clogging up your fridge.....

Asher for now
 
Have you tried one of them? Any good?

Will have to check how much it's worth next time I call in.
 
yep,

Used them on a mini keg setup in an esky, and for tap dispensing from the fridge.... worked great in both situations...

Asher for now
 
I have a couple that were sent to me from a mate in Europe.
Have them all ready to go, but haven't tested them on beer yet.
Basically there is an internal taperd piece that turning the knob moves to either restrict or provide more flow through the tap.

Beers,
Doc
 
Sounds like just the thing I need for a mobile party keg.
Are the taps or inline compensators readily available in Australia and if so what's the damage $$$$ ?

Hoops
 
Asher said:
Roy @ TWOC in perth ocasionally has an inline version of these compensators in stock. (he's out at the moment). You can ballance a system at the trun of a knob, and it eliminated the need to have 4m+ beer like clogging up your fridge.....

Asher for now
Asher

If you notice he has some at some stage can you let me know? I am after something like that.

Hoops
 
oh my god how good are those turned wooden handles?
 
Owsit

just bringing this thread back up....

Here's a pic of one of my beer lines with an in-line pressure reducer fitted.
There's no more need to balance a keg system with meters of beer line filling up your fridge. this baby does it with a twist of a knob.....

Makes ballancing a system a breaze...

I got it from 'Ultimate Air' in Perth for ~ $22
you can check out their online store (still green though) here

Asher for now....

flowcontroll.JPG
 
Awesome, thanks Asher. Just what I have been hoping for. Sent them an email today, I'll definitely order one very soon.

Hoops
 
Asher,

Sweeeet.
What pressure differences have you tested ?
Is it very granular in the increments to change pressures ?

Beers,
Doc
 
I've tested it over the full range of serving pressures. It is very easy to use. when wound fully out the beer flows like a fire hose and when wound right in (about 6 to 8 revolutions of the allen key - its based on a thread so infinite settings) there is only a trickle.

these valves are ment for large bars that would have hundreds of meters of line from one end of the bar to the other, so the taps closer to the cellar would be adjusted to suit the taps further away.

With my reg set @ 100kpa, I let my kegs carbonate over a week or so, then just set the reducing valve to give me a flow rate to produce the desired head for each beer style.... obviously highly carbonated beers still need a higher keg pressure and vice versa for some ales. The main reason I went this way was so I could have 4 cheap taps on 4 kegs in my fridge without a spaghetti of beer lines.....

Asher for now....
 
Asher

how many of the compensators do you use?
Do you have 1 for each tap or only 1 ?

Hoops
 
1 for each tap set-up

as below

1 x Beer Out QD ($4.95US from morebeer.com)
1 x Pressure Reducer ($22AU from Beertech)
1 x Cobra Tap ($3.95US from morebeer)
& some 5mm ID beer line that I had leftover - Its important you get the beer line right due to push type connections on the pressure reducer

total cost per tap ~ $35AU

I have 4 at the moment - one for each of the kegs in my serving fridge :)

Asher for now
 
Do you know the OD of the 5mm ID line?
 
Well I just ordered 2 of them so I may even have them for the weekend.

I am planning to use one on my party keg setup so that I don't need heaps of beer line (which warms up real quick). I want to end up with a tap, then the compensator then QD so that the line length is minimal, basically mounting a tap onto the keg.

Thanks for all the info and the pic Asher.

Hoops
 
Good stuff - just to tidy this up a bit

I'm pretty sure the fittings are for 'Beva Tube' - 5mm. Thats Food grade brewery recommended tubing. 5mm inside diameter x 7mm outside diameter.
more info on push in fittings can be found at http://www.johnguest.com

Asher for now
 
Asher said:
Here's a pic of one of my beer lines with an in-line pressure reducer fitted.
Does anyone know if there is a retailer/wholesaler of these on the East Coast ?

Beers,
Doc
 
Doc said:
Does anyone know if there is a retailer/wholesaler of these on the East Coast ?

Beers,
Doc
Doc
I spoke with the guy this morning. He said they get theirs direct from the UK from Alamass (spelling?) which are the guys that do the Guiness and Kilkenny taps etc.
John Guest has something similar - "Banjo Flow Control" but it has a push fit and a thread fitting (see Ashers link above). May be able to get one with 2 push fits though? Their agent in Australia is :
John Guest Pacific in Lidcombe NSW (02)97379088.
Keep us all updated if you find anything out.

Asher
I was checking out the John Guest site earlier but everything is refered to according to OD for the push fittings. The guy at Ultimate Air said he will include a few inches of the beer line so that I can either use it or find something similar. If still no luck he has some other fittings that push into the compensator with a barb fitting on the other end - giving you a compensator with 2 barb fittings so you can use different size line. He was very helpful.

Hoops
 
Just spoke with the bloke at John Guest Pacific and he said they aren't made from food grade brass and he thinks there may be a problem with the beer foaming up, but he wasn't sure.
BFC36_P1.GIF
cost $12 + GST and
CFM36_P1.GIF
cost $18 + GST.
An adaptor to make it a push fit instead of thread is about $2.50 + GST
 

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