Regulators and Beer Dispensing

[San_Diego_Matt]

So, for the past 4 or 5 years, I've used a regulator I built to dispense my beer. It started out as a dual gauge regulator that I then added another gauge/regulator to and then a Y below each regulator. There's a check valve and a valve for each outlet to I can turn gas on and off for all 4 hoses so I can, theoretically, serve 4 beers at once with 2 difference pressures.

I've had problems with this regulator ever since I built it. My main goal was to be able to carb and serve at the same time and it's never worked very well. I've currently got the 2 lines that come out of the first regulator going to 2 different kegs that I want to serve at the same pressure. They're commercial kegs so I should be able to use the same pressure for both. They're at the same temperature, they have the same length hoses on the beer out side and they're already carbonated. The problem is that only one of the lines is pushing gas. The other one is dead. I can dick with it, turn the gas way up and the keg that's working pushes foamy beer, but the other keg doesn't do shit. I've swapped that line out to the other regulator and it's working, but this essentially turns my 4 line regulator into a 2 (or maybe 3) line regulator and I've got homebrew I want to carb too and can't because I can't adjust the pressures.

I've gotten so frustrated with this setup that I'm going to scrap it for something better, but I still want to be able to have multiple gas lines with multiple pressures all from 1 CO2 tank if possible.

I think I've seen people screw killer multiple regulator setups to the collar of their keezer and this is what I want to build. My questions are:

If the regulators are run in a row @-@-@-@ and assume the gas comes in from the right end. Is there any way to carb on the 2 regulators on the left and serve from the 2 regulators on the right? Can there be a higher pressure on the left and a lower pressure on the right or do I have to have the highest pressures closest to the CO2 tank and the lowest pressures farthest from the tank or is it possible to have a run of regulators and have each of them dispense at what ever pressure I want?

My current regulators have gauges that only go to 30PSI on them so I can dial in the pressure pretty exactly and I like that, but I swapped out 60PSI gauges for 30PSI ones. Was this a mistake? Is there something in the regulator that determines what gauge I should use or is it really up to the gauge?

I'd like to be able to have check valves and a valve with a knob at each regulator so I can turn them off and not have to worry about the issues the check valves solve.

So, give me your gold standard suggestions. I don't mind spending some $ on this as long as it's going to work.

HELP

Matt

[bazookazilla]

http://morebeer.com/products/secondary- ... ?site_id=7

get one of these and use it with a small part of your current regulator.

[Ozwald]

When you're using a multiple out regulator off the tank, it's not going to matter which you have set to what.

If you're using a secondary regulator (which is probably the preferred way of doing it) then you have to go from high pressure to low pressure for each individual bank since you're feeding off the regulated output of the previous regulator. I would think about having a dual output right off the tank set to carbonating pressure. Run a line either to what you want to carb, or to a distribution block to carb multiple kegs at once, and run the 2nd line to a secondary regulator bank for serving.

[San_Diego_Matt]

Just to close this out. I took your suggestions and have ended up with this.

You only see one keg running in the pic, but, I have a 1/6 barrel also hooked up as well as 2 additional secondary regulators for additional kegs/pressurizing 2L soda bottles with a carbonator cap on them.



This is what the outside looks like:



and the inside of the door:



Other than having several places to check to make sure the gas is on, bottle valve, primary regulator valve and secondary regulator valve, and sometimes having one of them turned off and not realizing it, my system works pretty damn good. Drain is hooked up now too!

I bought the set of secondary regulators from the Chi Company www.chicompany.net. They let me customize my build to include TapRite regulators, 30PSI gauges, check valves on each regulator and gas lines connected. It came mounted on an aluminum panel, but the panel didn't fit in my fridge so it was removed. Build took longer than I felt it should, but I'm happy with the results.

Thanks for the help!

[Ozwald]

Good to hear. I'm sure you'll come up with a system that will make checking everything out pretty easy.