Flooded Font; Anyone Made One?

[fixa]

I'm in the planning process of building my next bar (sshhh, don't tell SWMBO) and it involves an odd shaped font of custom design. I would really like it to be flooded. Has anyone made their own flooded font before?
I searched back, and couldn't find any....
Would the best bet be say thin copper pipes attatched to the inside of the font, or say long channels along the font be better?
Am i crazy? :blink:
Cheers

 

[Wortgames]

I would say that you need to decide what the objective is.

If it's simply to cool the beer lines all the way to the tap, then I'd use thin copper pipes bundled in with the beer lines themselves, and insulate it from the font body as much as possible.

If it's because you want condensation on the font exterior, then obviously you need to make a good thermal connection with it.

Alternatively, you could try to literally 'flood' the whole font.

I used a flooded font for a while when I was in Sydney, and I have to say the constant dampness from the condensation and the thought of the energy costs involved in basically trying to chill the house would probably make me think twice about doing it that way again.

 

[Nickb167]

The flooded font i have floods the entire unit. Its sealed at the base with a copper tube coming out of it extending almost to the top of the font so the cold liquid is pumped to the top of the font and the recirculated out the bottom. Someone may have a photo of a font taken apart which would be of great use to you.

nick

 

[tangent]

i've been thinking about doing the same thing for my brothers new bar
what did you have in mind Fixa?

 

[fixa]

I had something like an aeroplane wing in mind, with the taps coming out of the front edge of the wing. I guess i could enclose it all and just pump the whole thing full'o' water..

 

[Tony]

I had a crazy idea once!

I would love to get a font and beer on tap at my bar. The bar was in the house when i bought it and its not really set up to take a chest freezer for the kegs.

I toyed with the idea of having the freezer somewhere else and running beer lines to the bar.

"But then the beer would go warm on the way" i thought.

I concocted a plan to make a big tube like a counterflow chiller with the beer lines running inside a large insulated tube (say some 1 inch polly)with glycol solution pumping through it and them returning to a resovoir in the freezer with the kegs.

only problem i have with this is the long distance of beer line and am afraid of the problems like gas comming out of solution in the long lines causing frothy beer when its poured.

Im still going to investigate this idea as its about the only way i can think of.

I will start another thread to get ideas from people regarding my tap issues, just thought this idea was relavent to your quest

cheers

 

[tangent]

my brother is willing to donate (it's for his bar) a half of split motorcycle fuel tank. I figure the fuel tap and everything is already mounted on it and it has a handy cap for topping up the glycol

 

[paul]

I chilled the lines in my font by making a coil out of 1/4 o.d. copper tubing. In the bottom of my chest freezer I used a pond pump in a bucket of water.

With the font that im using the top cap just comes off and I fed the two lines in and pushed the coil in. It stopped the 1 foot of warm beer in the lines on the first pour.

 

[Doogiechap]

This one seriously impressed me. (Well done mobrien)
Cheers
Doug