Dispensing / Balancing Tap Set-up

Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:06 am

O.K. Maybe I'm a bit slow but hear me out...

Right now I have a cobra tap that I dispense with with my kegs in a cheap fridge. It works but I've always had a hard time pouring a beer with an appropriate head. It has about 5' of line. It's not the end of the world because in about 6 wks I will have the fridge that will be chilling my beer for the 3 taps in the dining room (can't wait) and will be making the final connections. My questions are these:

-How do I serve beers of different carbonation levels from the same CO2 tank - I'm assuming several regulators in-line and check valves to keep the beer & CO2 from coming back

-If I know that I want a certain pressure of CO2 to carbonate the beer at a certain temp, does the beer have to be dispensed at that pressure (like for a hefe where it's at maybe 3.5 vol's the pressure will force the beer out quicker that a low carbonated eng. ale) or can they all be configured to pour at a reasonable rate. My hefe always comes out really fast bc the pressure is cranked up for carbonation reasons. Is this where balancing lines starts to come into play?

I will have 3 taps. 1 will most likely be german wheat beers all the time, 1 german lager and the other german lager or possibly bitter or stout if I wander outside my norm.

Should I just use a longer line on the wheat tap to add more restriction in the line to get a slower pour and set the lager line lengths according to those styles? The run will require about 5 ft of line from post to tap but I can just coil up the excess line in the fridge if I need to.
pmanz
 
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Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:13 am

You are correct on every count and seem to have a great handle on the process.

Make sure you have real beer dispensing lines (the walls of the tubing are quite thick) and you will save yourself many headaches. I use about 6' on regular beers (40f and 11psi) and 14' on weizens, sodas, and sparking wine.

I like to carbonate and serve at the same pressure, separating different carb levels with multiple regulators and different line lengths.

Oh yeah, make sure when you pour you open the faucet (either metal or picnic) fully and smartly and close it the same way to keep the foam under control.
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DannyW
 
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