Over thinking it?

[DazGore]

I have 2 brite tanks connected to my flooded font, which is attached to a stainless steel bench.

I have a glycol chiller, and the brites (serving) tanks are chilled using that.

I do not run the glycol 24/7 for my beer lines/font loop, and only turn it on if I am going to be having a few, so generally the 3m beer lines are sitting with warm beer in and I discard the first couple of hundred mls of the first pour.

My question is this...

I have the tap always on from my brite tanks, which are keeping cold from glycol through a stainless coil, but my 3m of beer line is not cold, unless I turn on the loop (Glycol running from cooler, to Font, to beer lines, and return), so will this beer sitting in the beer line, become warm, potentially sour, and make its way into my brite tanks somehow, or will the residual coldness from the brites keep that cold enough, and the pressure in the brites will stop any backflow of the beer lines, or should I close the valve on my brites between pours/sessions?

Thanks
Daz

 

[TwoCrows]

Just put one way beer line valves.

If you have constant pressure in the tanks that should overcome the thermal pressure change.

 

[golfandbrew]

Cleaning your beer lines regularly will do more to protect your beer from tasting sour than keeping that 3m cold all the time.

That said redundancy is your friend here. Best to close the bright tank valves between use just in case one of your taps opens up.

When you go to pour a beer open the tap first, then your bright tank valve and you won't have to worry about the beer in the line going back into the bright tank.