1. Home
  2. Everything Beer
  3. Warm beer lines in tap tower

Warm beer lines in tap tower

I have been brewing for about 10 years and kegging for about 3 months. I finally saved up my pennies and got a kegerator and some corny kegs. I'm having a blast! There is only one issue that is bugging me right now: I have a tower tap (for a picture see

formatting link
), so about a foot or so of the beer lines (I have a two-tap tower) runs upward in the metal tower housing on top of the refrigerator. The cold air does not make it into the tower, and the ambient air temperature surrounding the tower keeps it room temperature in there. This time of year room temperature is in the 80s.

The problem I have is when I tap a beer, I get a bunch of foam before the lines cool down and the beer taps better. What I would like to do is find a way to cool the beer lines in the tower so I don't have this foaming problem.

I have tried two things, both of which failed miserably:

  1. my own system with a power supply fan and pvc tubing connected to a hose. Problem: Backpressure. Barely any air flowed upward into the tower.

  1. A fish tank pump. Problem: Not enough air again, and the pump seems to heat up anyway, and my wife hates the 60 cycle hummmmmmmm

I am thinking that if I stick with air cooling, I need to find a way to move more air. It isn't as if I can just put a fan in there because there is very little space left for anything to flow into the tower, and the air has to flow out of the tower too. I need to move air quickly through a rather small hose with enough pressure to get good return flow. Ideally I'd like a magic box (which does the pumping/blowing... maybe a blower fan) with two hoses, one for inflow and one for outflow. I could put the inflow opening near the cooling coils in the fridge so I get nice cold air up there, and stick the outflow upwards into the tower.

Another option is liquid cooling... but that would probably be a bit expensive and I don't know of anything geared towards the small-time brewer such as myself. But I am open to any options.

The folks at beverage factory didn't have a solution (I bought the kegerator from them, this one if it matters:

formatting link
).

I have heard of glycol cooling systems but haven't been able to find any non-industrial information on them.

Thanks for any help.

Leigh Orf deselby0_at_yahoo_dot_com_baby

Reply to
Leigh Orf
Loading thread data ...

what's the size hole you drilled for the tower? I've heard the smaller the less cool air will get inside the tower to reach the tubing. A small hole = better insulation.

Reply to
Kerry The Liar Loves Waffles

A mini-glycol system is what I was going to suggest, but I'm sure it is cost prohibitive for a 2-3' run. Many bars have the same issue, and they open the tap, pouring a little down the drain (which they hate, of course). What's bad is when that beer in the line gets warm for a while, it, of course, tastes awful.

Frank in Austin

Leigh Orf wrote:

Reply to
Frank Mancuso

"The problem I have is when I tap a beer, I get a bunch of foam before the lines cool down and the beer taps better. What I would like to do is find a way to cool the beer lines in the tower so I don't have this foaming problem."

The solution, of course, is to draw air up into the tower from the fridge. That poses a couple of challenges.

There are blowers designed for this purpose. They can be found in beverage supply houses such as

formatting link

What you need to do is put together a tube-within-a-tube design. The larger tube fits around the opening in the roof of the fridge where the tower comes out. The second tube surrounds the hoses, and fits within the larger tube, up about 2/3s of the way into the tower.. Cool air can be blown from the blower through either of these tubes. The second tube provides the return for air. You can use a tube-within-tube specialized blower. ADM Amalgamation has a tower cooling kit p/n TCK-1 (34.95 at last check) which is specially designed for this problem using 4" and 2" vinyl duct-within-duct tubing. You won't find this blower on the website. You'd have to call or order their catalog.

The main issue with this accessory is that your compressor will run more frequently as warm air is pulled from the tower and blown around the inside of the cooler. Not enough to worry about lifespan, but enough to up your electric bill.

No connection, just blah-blah-blah...

Reply to
Ned Buntline

This is a solution that was posted to a private homebrew club email list. I think it is just a matter of finding the right fan..

-------------------- Subject: Kegerator Conversion

The Son of Kegerator is now complete. The question posted last week about fans and ducting was solved as follows: I bought a 120v 3in fan that got very warm, so I returned it. I had a 3in 12vdc fan laying around the house from a refrigerator and decided to try and figure out how to power it. In a moment of clarity, Eureka! It occured to me that maybe, I could use a 12vdv transformer like the ones used for answering machines and radios. I tested the theory with a 6vdv transformer that I had handy and it worked. I went to Walmart and bought a universal 3-12vdc transformer for $8. For the ducting I bought some 2in pvc, mounted a 2 to 3in coupler on one end and mounted the fan inside so that it would blow air up the tower. I drilled a hole in the side of the blower tube and threaded the beer lines into the tube. I sealed all air gaps around the fan and tubing with silicone. I then mounted the assembly inside the draft tower and connected all of the beer lines and it works like a champ. My return air duct is the space around the outside of the blower tube going back down to the freezer. Temperature control is a Johnson Controls controller that I was using on the previous model. The tower stays cold, the beer is cold and Adam is a happy camper. There are a few pictures posted in the photos section. I meant to take more during the process, but got wrapped up in the job and forgot.

-Tom

--

formatting link

Reply to
Tom M

Here's a creative (and Wild Ass Idea) suggestion:

Take a length of copper pipe that's about twice as long as the tower. get

2 end caps that will fit the pipe and a piece of 1/4 inch soft copper tubing. drill 1/4 inch holes in the center of the end caps plus another hole offset in one of the endcaps. solder the caps to the pipe and then pass the 1/4 inch tubing through the holes so that about about an inch of tubing projects out of each end. Solder this in place.

-|====|-

Fill the tube with water through the extra hole and plug it with silicone. Use a short length of beer line to connect this contraption to the tap, then connect the beer line to the bottom end. The water filled pipe should project down into the kegerator as far as possible, while projecting up into the tower as close to the tap as possible. The idea is that the copper pipe and water will be cooled by the length that sticks down into the kegerator and act as a heat sink for the section that sticks up into the tower. You can vary the length of the tube if you need clearance, but the more that sticks down into the kegerator, the better the cooling effect will be, probably. Or not, I donno.

-Brett

Leigh Orf drunkenly bellowed in news: snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de:

Reply to
Brett Hetherington

seems like a lot of work when widening the hole would suffice. Check

formatting link
forums for more info.

Reply to
Kerry The Liar Loves Waffles

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.