Kegs In The Garage - Taps In The Kitchen

[CosmicBertie]

Another small tip that I've found is, remember to soak the ends of the tube in boiling hot water. It allows the tubing to stretch enough that you can use smaller ID tubing if you want to. You could buy .5m or so to test too.

 

[cdbrown]

Very interesting to hear that you have good results with 5mm ID line. I suppose it does make sense though, because the smaller ID line means less beer in the line, and hence less weight that it has to overcome to push the beer upwards.

Smaller the line the greater the friction/resistance in the line and more pressure required to push the liquid.

Weird that don's setup operates somewhere around 7kPa with such a long line length and head pressure. My lines are about 3m and I run the system at 85kpa to get a reasonable pour speed and good carbonation of 2.5 (temp controller set to 4c). Then again - maybe my pressure gauge is out.

 

[donburke]

Another small tip that I've found is, remember to soak the ends of the tube in boiling hot water. It allows the tubing to stretch enough that you can use smaller ID tubing if you want to. You could buy .5m or so to test too.

and another tip is to use sex lube to help get the beer lines through the armaflex, and no i'm not joking

just remember to tell your wife what you are using it for so she doesnt start getting all paranoid

 

[donburke]

Smaller the line the greater the friction/resistance in the line and more pressure required to push the liquid.

Weird that don's setup operates somewhere around 7kPa with such a long line length and head pressure. My lines are about 3m and I run the system at 85kpa to get a reasonable pour speed and good carbonation of 2.5 (temp controller set to 4c). Then again - maybe my pressure gauge is out.

i would say taps, connections and type of beer line all affect the flow rate, and also whether the line is coiled in the fridge or running in a straight line

so too could our perception of what constitutes a good pour speed

i'd say it takes approximately 7 or 8 seconds to fill a pilsner glass

also good is that even inexperienced punters can pour a proper glass without making a mess, even if the tap hasnt been touched in a few days

 

[komodo]

Think about a blended gas rather than a straight CO2. BOC, Supagas etc have them often marketted as a beverage gas or cellar mix.
Definately get python - probably not as expencive as you first think - but be warned last time I looked into it there was a minimum meterage. Concider glycol cooling of the font and lines.
When I was going to do it I was going to get a "jacket" made for the font out of wetsuit type material and I was looking at ways to have the lines chilled but the font only chilled when I turned it on (using tapped Ts or even a solenoid system.)
Its do able but its not easy. Supposedly its harder to balance a home system than a large pub system from what ive read on US sites