understanding draft and long beer lines
JEFFREY M STANLEY
Draft beer today usually refers to beer that is packaged in some sort of
large container
(5 gallons or more). The old English word draft (spelled draught) meant “to
pull” because
cask conditioned ale was dispensed with a hand pump called a beer engine.
Some packaged beer is referred to as draft beer in a bottle because it is
cold filtered
prior to packaging rather than pasteurized at very high temperatures. High
temperatures
are said to kill the flavor of the beer. Keg beer is almost never
pasteurized. Beer that has
not been pasteurized must be stored cold and goes out of date much more
quickly than
packaged beer (usually 45 days after the keg is filled).
Brewers, distributors, and retailers all take great care and spend a lot of
money to
keep kegs cold and get the product to the consumer as quickly as is
possible. The end result
is much higher quality, brewery fresh beer. Draft beer is a product that
most people do not
have at home and can only be enjoyed when going out. It is also much
cheaper per serving
giving retailers the option to deliver better value to their customer.
DRAFT SYSTEMS
In the not so distant past most all draft beer was stored under the bar in
a large keg
cooler. In these simple draft systems beer travels through a short line,
about six-foot long, that
runs up an air-cooled three-inch tube to a faucet. This works well if you
sell only one or two
brands of beer and there is room behind your bar to store all of your kegs.
Unfortunately if you
have six different brands on tap and a back up for each, twelve kegs behind
the bar tends to get in
the way. Wheeling a 160-pound keg from the back cooler through a busy
kitchen and restaurant at
7:30 on a Friday night isn’t much better. The only solution is to run the
beer lines from a remote
location to the bar. This is referred to as a closed remote draft system,
usually a glycol system.
GLYCOL DRAFT SYSTEMS
Draft beer must be kept less than 42 degrees from the tap all the way to
the faucet. If
the beer is not kept cold all the way to the faucet the quality of the beer
will suffer greatly. Glycol
draft systems allow you to keep the beer cold even if the lines are very
long.
Glycol systems have five major parts. One, a cooler large enough to store
all of your kegs.
Two, an insulated trunk line that the beer runs through after it leaves the
storage cooler. Three, a
power pack that refrigerates the trunk line. Four, the gas system that
maintains the beer’s natural
carbonation and pushes the beer to the faucet. And five, the draft tower
mounted proudly on the
bar.
AVOIDING PROBLEMS
Glycol systems work perfectly and waste very little beer if they are
designed, installed,
maintained, and used properly. Unfortunately many glycol systems fall short
in one of these four
areas.
If the system is not designed properly using all of the needed components
it will waste
beer and your bartenders time by producing excessive foam. A draft system
is like a car. There are
many parts on a car that are not needed to make it run smoothly. But I
wouldn’t buy a car that did
not have a gas gauge no matter how well it ran. If you are cutting costs on
a draft system make
sure they are cosmetic. Do not remove options that make the system work
better.
Make sure your installer has done good work in the past. Get references to
insure your
system is professionally installed. Ask lots of questions. There are no
stupid questions. Go see an
example of his or her work if possible. A glycol system is a big investment
that will return large
profits if installed properly.
All draft systems, especially those with long lines, must have preventative
maintenance
service at least every two weeks. At the very least the lines should be
cleaned and the faucet
should be removed and cleaned. The lines cleaner should also check the
temperature of the beer
that is in the lines and the temperature of the storage area during every
cleaning. This will help
weed out many problems before they become beer wasters.
Last the bar staff must be properly trained to pour beer, clean and store
glassware, and to
recognize and report pouring problems. If the beer is pouring too fast, or
is foamy, it cannot be
fixed if it is not reported. Customers will let the server or bartender
know if the beer does not
taste right. Never pour from a system that is not working properly. You
will waste beer and loose
customers.
USING CO2 TO DISPENSE BEER
The gas system is a very important part of any draft beer system. When a
draft
system has very long lines it can mean the difference between a perfect
system and one that you
regret purchasing. The gas system can easily effect both the taste of the
beer and how easy (or
difficult) your draft system is to pour from. All beers have some CO2 gas
dissolved in them.
American lagers have a lot, many micros and imports have very little. The
dissolved gas level of the
beer effects the “nose” of the beer and also the way it feels and tastes in
your mouth. A few
beers that are served almost flat (Guinness is one example) also have
nitrogen gas dissolved in
them so they will still have a head on them.
When you are using CO2 to dispense beer the beer is sensitive to picking up
too much
gas (over carbonation), and also loosing gas (going flat). Whatever gas you
are using, it always
comes into contact with the beer in the keg. The gas entering the keg
pushes down on the beer
forcing it up a tube and out into the draft system. When using 100% CO2
there is very little room
for error when deciding how much pressure is needed in the keg. If the
temperature of the beer
raises 2? one more pound of pressure is needed. If the temperature of the
beer drops 2? the
pressure in the keg needs to be reduced by one pound. Different brands of
beer also need
different amounts of pressure. For example at 36? Coors needs 15psi,
Budweiser needs 12psi,
Killians Lager needs 13psi, and Bass Ale needs 9psi. If the pressure is
more than 2psi out of
calibration the carbonation level of the beer will change causing off taste,
pouring problems, or
both.
In summary, if the right qualified individual adjusts the CO2 pressure for
each beer
properly, and if the temperature of the beer never changes more than plus or
minus 4?, using CO2
is O.K.. In reality I do not recommend using plain CO2 to dispense beer,
especially with long lines.
There are too many things that can and will go wrong. Beer is far too
expensive to waste.
USING BLENDED GAS
(BEER GAS)
TO DISPENSE BEER
Beer gas is a very simple and very effective way to solve most draft
problems. If the
temperature in your beer storage area does not remain constant due to high
traffic. Or if your
trunk line is not at least as cold as your cooler forcing you to raise your
pressure above ideal, a
blend will prevent over carbonation. Beer gas will also allow you to run
all of your beers at the
same pressure solving problems caused by different beers flowing at
different rates.
BEER GAS DON’TS
As with anything else there is a wrong way and a right way to use beer gas.
If you do not
use the proper equipment beer gas can damage the beer and also be very
expensive.
PRE-MIXED VS ON SITE BLENDING
Beer gas is available one of two ways. You can purchase beer gas already
blended in a
CO2 bottle, or you can purchase a blender and make your own beer gas on
site.
Pre-mixed beer gas (sometimes called aligal) is an option if you don’t sell
much beer or you
cannot afford to purchase a blender. There are two drawbacks to using
pre-mixed gas. First it is
much more expensive over time than an on site blender. Pre-mixed gas is
about three times as
expensive as buying nitrogen and CO2 to mix on site. Second, there is only
one choice in blends
(30% CO2 and 70% N2) when you buy pre-mixed. This blend is not right for
everyone.
The only drawback to using a good blender is the up front purchase price. A
reliable blender
ranges in price from about $450 - $700. There are also plenty of mistakes
that can be made.
Some really cheap blenders will work even if they are out of one of the
gasses. For example if
your nitrogen bottle is empty some blenders will dispense all CO2 causing
severe over carbonation.
Some draft parts vendors also offer blenders that mix the CO2 with
compressed air to save money
on nitrogen. Compressed air will make your beer smell and taste bad every
time. I cannot
emphasize this enough; AIR COMPRESSORS WILL RUIN YOUR BEER AND CHASE AWAY
YOUR CUSTOMERS. A 240 cubic foot bottle of nitrogen costs between $15 and
$30 and will
dispense about 60 kegs. I recommend using the McDantim Trumix-100 (or
Trumix-200 if you sell
a nitrogenated beer like Guinness). It is very accurate and has no moving
parts to wear out.
FLOW OF BEER (F.O.B.) STOPS
There is very little to say about these. They simply shut off the beer
flow at the keg when
it is empty preventing the lines from draining. This will save the gallon
of beer you would otherwise
waste trying to pack the lines every time you change a keg.
1.) Step one illustrates normal operation. Beer enters the side and exits
through the bottom. The
red check ball floats on top of the beer.
2.) Step two shows the keg is empty and is filling the FOB stop with air
from the empty keg.
3.) Step three shows that as the fob stop emptied the check ball prevented
the air from entering
the main beer line.
When the bartender is pouring beer and the keg goes
empty the beer simply stops flowing from the faucet. The
bartender changes the keg in the normal way then opens
the vent on the top of the FOB (shown in blue). The vent
lets the beer enter the FOB from the new keg. Once the
fob is full of beer (about two seconds later) the check ball
floats to the top and allows the beer to flow normally.
There is no need to let the beer run down the drain for
sixty seconds, as you would without the FOB stop.
PUMPS
Beer pumps solve most of the same problems as blended gas. Beer pumps
apply
mechanical pressure to the beer in the trunk line instead of using the
pressure in the line coming
from the keg. This eliminates problems caused by beer in the trunk line
being warmer than the beer
in the cooler, which results in either over carbonation or beer going flat
in the lines. They also
prevent beers set at different amounts of pressure from flowing at different
rates. Pumps allow you
to avoid these problems without buying any gas other than CO2, which is much
cheaper over time.
They will not prevent over carbonation problems caused by temperature
changes in the
storage cooler. Because of this I recommend using this method only if your
cooler is for beer
storage only and the kegs on line are always kept at the same temperature.
Pumps should not be
used in high traffic or unreliable coolers without blended gas.