Flooded Font

[hsv_069]

I recently put together my chest freezer with a 4 tap font ontop. The font can be flooded but at the moment I dont have it hooked up and I am finding that the first pour is always full of head due to the tap being so warm. From what I understand to flood the font correctly you are supposed to use glycol that is kept below 0C and pump this through the font which will result in cooler taps and possible icing of the font body.

I currently dont have a seperate freezer that I can store the glycol in so I was thinking of just using a tub of water stored in the freezer set at 4C and pumping that through the font. I figure water will be alright as it wont freeze at 4C. Has anyone done this before and was it effective. Im not really interested in having ice form all over the font, I just want to have a beer that will pour well first time, every time.

 

[Maple]

sounds like a fair idea, not done it myself, however, even if the water is kept at the same temp as the kegs, the font will be slightly higher do to the warming factor of the font outside the freezer, so unless you set it up to start circulating the cold water through, you will still have a slight (although greatly reduced) temperature variance which will add to the foaminess issue. perhaps it may even be worth Salting the water as it can hold the lower temps better without freezing, not sure that this is really a good idea though as it may end up reacting with the internals of the font... just thinking out loud here...

 

[Batz]

That's how mine works hsv, there's no way I could justify another freezer just to chill the font. I have a 20lt plastic jerry that sits on the freezer hump, filled with plain water.

Batz

 

[cdbrown]

The issue some people have when flooding the font is that the recirculated water will of course get warm as it's trying to cool the font and will then cause your freezer to operate more frequently. Basically the tub of water becomes a big heat sink. Turn it on 10mins before you are going to get your beer and it'll do a good job in cooling the font, just make sure there's enough water in the tub that the return water from the font so that it doesn't get warm too guick. 4C is fine and no need to add salt or anything to the water.

 

[hsv_069]

Looks like I will give this a try then. I will wire the pump up to an external switch and turn it on just before I pour my first beer, then hopefully at the end of the night I will remember to turn it back off. This will mean the pump is only running when I want a beer, not all day while I am at work.

Batz, do you get any condensation on your font? I still have to get a drip tray so should I consider one that includes the font to catch any condensation?

 

[komodo]

Like the others said if its just to "chill" the font for a nice first pour then a water tub in the freezer/fridge/kegerator will be fine. fun it for a few minutes before pouring and all will be well. I probably wouldnt leave it running too long as you'll just warm up the water and get your fridge running more and once you've poured your first beer your lines will be filled with cold beer any way provided its not too long between the first and the next beer.

If you always have a beer at a set time yo might even like to put the pump on a timer - say you get home at 5:30 every night and pour your self a beer straight away - set the timer for 5:20 and off at 5:40 and you should be apples. Heck you can even get those digital timers that you can program different times for different days. Combine a digital timer with an analogue timer and set the digital timer to turn on at 5:30 then set the analogue timer for on for 15 minutes off to 30 minutes on 15 etc then the digital timer off @ 9:30 and you'd never pour a warm beer again. [just me thinking out loud]

 

[chopdog]

I have a 16l container with a glycol mix stored in the bottom of my freezer and i use a small pond pump to pump to the font. This works a treat, the container sits nicely in the freezer so i can place my glasses on top and my font gets extremely cold

 

[Batz]

Batz, do you get any condensation on your font? I still have to get a drip tray so should I consider one that includes the font to catch any condensation?

Yes plenty of condensation, and a drip tray that would collect that is a top idea. I finish with a little puddle of water around my font.
I only turn it on when I want to impress some people really :icon_cheers:

Batz

 

[ScottKemp]

I run a similar setup, except my Fonts are on the bar not on the freezer, I have an old 20 litre metal paint can that supplies the water to the font via a pond pump, which sits in the chest freezer. As you can see from the picture I get plenty of condensation and that is running 2 fonts, but I usually only run one constantly. You can always throw some Ice in the water to keep it from heating up if you are planning a big session

Whatever you do don't place the temp probe on the water container as your beer will probably freeze on warmer days as the freezer runs much longer than it would if the probe was on the keg - trust me on this as I have had the frozen kegs to prove it

Cheers
Homer

 

[davelovesbeer]

Just starting to set up my 4 tap flooded font on top of a 320L chest freezer. I am not able to run glycol, and am thinking of using a submersible pond pump, and water for the flood.

Just after a bit more input on reservoir size for the water, and what size pump people use (eg 250L/hr) or what?

 

[gava]

where do you guys get theses wonderful fonts?

 

[mxd]

ebay, there was a 4 tap flooded with 2 taps that went for $180ish.

 

[juzz1981]

This is probably a spastic question, but if you didnt have glycol could you use automotive anti-freeze? :mellow:

 

[seravitae]

Potentially, as antifreeze is usually a glycol mix with some adulterants. However antifreeze is not food grade, and although the flood line does not come into contact with beer/foodstuffs, some people wish not to take the benefit of the doubt and purchase food grade glycol from one of the retailers.

 

[Batz]

This is probably a spastic question, but if you didnt have glycol could you use automotive anti-freeze? :mellow:

Most of us place a reservoir in the same freezer as our kegs, if done like this you only need plain water. If you are wealthy enough to have a separate freezer running at near 0c then you would require glycol.

Batz

 

[technoicon]

sorry to bring up an old thread. but do you think this would work fine in a kegerator? with a new font.