Home of the BrewNosers

So I'm thinking about moving from a 2 tap system (mini fridge kegerator) to a 4 tap system (full size fridge) in the near future -- you know, trying to keep up with my buddies!

I don't have room next to / behind my bar for a full size fridge, but I would be able to put it in my furnace room and run lines (approx 15 ft) through the wall, through the adjacent bathroom (hidden of course), to taps on the wall behind my bar. A 15ft run would require me to keep the lines cool and I won't be investing in a glycol system (unless someone else wants to pay for it for me).

After doing some research, I though I might try setting up something like this salt water setup http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=271578 since I *think* it would be way cheaper.

Anyway, I really want to make sure that this will work before I dump the cash into it, so some questions for y'all:
1) Will this work in a non tower setup? Would tying the water lines to the shanks be enough to keep the taps cool?
2) What kind of beer line should be used for the tap lines? Will the regular old thick walled Bevlex 200 be too thick to cool?
3) Are there other options? I've been reading that cold air return from the fridge doesn't work too well over 5ft.

Thoughts?

Cheers.

Talk to Mike Orr. He's got a nice setup that runs from his keezer to his taps which are wall mounted.

From what I recall he has some PVC which runs to a insulated box where his taps are contained.
along with another air return which has a small fan recirculating air.

I don't remember if the PVC tube is insulated or not.

I think the biggest challenge is the 15ft span. From what I've been reading, fans may not suffice. Cheaper if they would work though.

This is exactly what I'm hoping to do in our new house plans (though probably be under 4ft through wall )so I'm interested in what people are doing too

Can you fit another small fridge beside your current fridge? If you can you might spend less in the long run to run lines through the side of the second fridge and into the existing fridge.

Celiacbrew wrote:Can you fit another small fridge beside your current fridge? If you can you might spend less in the long run to run lines through the side of the second fridge and into the existing fridge.

Already have 2 small fridges stacked. Built the bar before I got into home brewing so space is tight.

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Let me play devil's advocate here (Yes, not a good sales guy, I know).

So after some quick math the volume of beer in 15 ft of line is 82 ml, 2.7 oz or 16% of a pint glass. Will that even factor into the overall temperature and potential foam in a single pint? My question is this, do you need to invest a lot of time and money into a system to chill less than 3 oz?

EverwoodAveBrewShop wrote:Let me play devil's advocate here (Yes, not a good sales guy, I know).

So after some quick math the volume of beer in 15 ft of line is 82 ml, 2.7 oz or 16% of a pint glass. Will that even factor into the overall temperature and potential foam in a single pint? My question is this, do you need to invest a lot of time and money into a system to chill less than 3 oz?

I've weighed that option as well and also did the math. I do wonder about a couple of things though. Will the warm lines cause foaming issues? Also, if I'm away for any extended period of time, will the beer in the lines go skunky and cause bacteria growth? I'm pretty sure that I've weighed all options at this point. Still not sure what I'm going to do at this point and the project may be a little ways off. Come hell or high water though, I will have 4 taps at some point.

I'm wondering if you're going to need some sort of a pump/chiller system (e.g. glycol) to run cold fluid along side the beer lines to keep it cold in the 15ft run?

I have taps in my wall, fridge in the basement under it. Approx 12 foot run of 3/32 line.
I have the lines insulated with pipe insulation only. The amount of beer held in the line doesn't really affect things that I notice. If the beer sits in the line for a week, i just dump a couple of ounces. It really isn't affected though.

Run the lines and let the beer pour!

realisticaly, what's the longest beer will stagnate in the lines?