What line length/size can you get away with with flow control taps?

[laxation]

How nuts can you get with flow control taps? Ive never seen one in action so dunno how much difference it makes.

With 6mm line and dispensing at 10psi, can you use just a metre or so, or are there still limitations?

 

[Fro-Daddy]

I've heard of people mounting them on a corny with the shortest line possible and apparently they work.

 

[mofox1]

How nuts can you get with flow control taps? Ive never seen one in action so dunno how much difference it makes.

With 6mm line and dispensing at 10psi, can you use just a metre or so, or are there still limitations?

Nil line - have a look at the mini keg threads... you can mount a FC tap directly on top of the mini keg w/o any line. Works fine.

I don't have a F/C tap, but I do have a flow restriction adaptor right between the disconnect & the tap which serves the same purpose.

 

[mstrelan]

The lines in my keezer range from about 30cm to 50cm depending on position of the keg. This means less beer outside of the keg. And I have FC on the tap on my mini keg too with no line.

 

[damoninja]

I'm definitely upgrading to FC taps and shortening the lines at some point on both my keezer and porto drafto

 

[laxation]

Cheers guys. When you have it direct on the keg, does that still work even at 10 psi?

Pretty awesome if it does..

 

[Grott]

I run two 1 metre lines to the taps in the door which are not FC. My lines are 4mm id thus giving more restriction than 6mm. This has worked perfectly for me.

 

[moonhead]

I've found the opposite with FC taps, they add more foam due to all the disturbance through the FC components. I run like 5m of 4mm line normally for a non-FC tap and things work lovely, put a FC tap on there and it foams up like a mother...

 

[Lionman]

You still need long line length with FC taps, at least with the Intertap ones anyway.

They just create slow flowing foam, unless the beer is not very carbed.

They are really for fine adjustments, not dropping the pressure by 10psi.

 

[mofox1]

Pints poured last weekend argue otherwise (not intertap tho)... Although certainly agree they are more foamy than a properly balanced line.

Lax: I have my mini kegs set to ~9, a bit lower than "normal". Might be why it pours alright.

 

[earle]

I have 2m lines on my Perlick FCs (the newer model). The main issue I have with foaming is caused by warm taps in my coffin top, after the first beer they pour without excess foam. When setting up I was advised that you could go with very short lines (eg 50cm) but you would get a better pour more easily with a couple of metres.

 

[nosco]

I have 6 kegs in my keezer and I have the lines just long enough to reach the ones in the corner. Less than a metre.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

I run my intertap SS FC straight on my portable setup keg with the pressure at 80kpa definitely doesn't pour foam.

In my keezer I'm using celi fc taps and have appox 80-100cm of 6mm id line and no issues there either.

 

[Meddo]

Same as some others, can go as short as you want in my experience, foaming is affected much more by the temperature of the tap body than the length of the line into my Intertap FCs. This one straight on the keg at the weekend poured beautifully at 1 bar when on high rotation Friday night. A bit of foaming came through as it warmed up a bit between beers when the punters were drinking a bit slower the next afternoon in the heat.

 

[Pnutapper]

in the heat.

View attachment 108287

What is this thing you call "heat?"

 

[Meddo]

Was a very agreeable 22 degrees up the Fraser Coast on Saturday arvo

 

[Lionman]

Maybe I have been misattributing my foaming issues to line length when its just a tap temp issue.

The FC can probably hinder/confuse this somewhat as people close the flow restrictor as a response to foaming but this can lead to the tap not cooling down as quickly due to slowing the flow of cold beer though it. If that makes sense.

 

[Meddo]

Maybe I have been misattributing my foaming issues to line length when its just a tap temp issue.

The FC can probably hinder/confuse this somewhat as people close the flow restrictor as a response to foaming but this can lead to the tap not cooling down as quickly due to slowing the flow of cold beer though it. If that makes sense.

Could be mate. When my taps are warm (basically always in my garage in Brisbane, except for the very depths of winter) I tend to close the FC throttle down to about 1/4 open to gently flow through about 20 ml or so of beer into a glass - this flushes out whatever warm stuff was inside the tap body and flows through a bit of cold to chill the tap down. I'll then wait about 10-15 seconds for that cold beer to equalise with the tap and a little of the froth to settle in the glass and then pour at about 1/3 open on the throttle, and if it's coming out nicely I'll then open it wider as seems appropriate. If I don't run that first little bit of beer through I can almost guarantee the glass of beer will be at least 50% foam.

I've tried getting longer shanks to get more metal into the keezer body, and then put individual blower fans on the exposed section of each shank to try to cool down the whole chunk of metal, but it still doesn't keep the taps cold enough to dodge foam on the first pour although it's certainly helped. Rarely will I have any problems on second or third pour regardless of line length - I've used 250 mm through to 2.5 m with bugger all difference once adjusted with the FC.

I tend to find that each beer responds slightly differently in terms of foam anyway - two side by side taps pouring at the same pressure will give different foaming rates to each other at the same throttle settings. Whether that's due to different properties of each beer or machining differences in the taps I'm not sure, I haven't trialled a tap switch to test yet.

 

[Lionman]

Need some sort of low cost heat exchanger for the shanks.

Maybe water cooled shanks with a reservoir in the fridge with the kegs.

I am envisaging replacing the nuts on the shanks with some sort of aluminium water block now, hooked up in series from tap to tap.