Kegging and dispensing over distance/elevation using keg pressure or something else

A few years ago I set off to turn my kitchen dry bar into a wet bar by routing beer from my kegerator to the taps 10 or so feet above. I was advised against it by some employees at my local home brew store who said that I'll just end up with a lot of foamy warm beer. As a result I built a bar on casters over a kegerator, which was admittedly pretty awesome, but still less integrated …
Category: Mac

How to fully carbonate a keg with no beer line at very low serving pressure?

I use a tap attached directly to my corny keg (similar to this: https://barleyhaven.com/corny-keg-faucet-tap-ball-lock.html). That means I have my serving pressure at 10kpa. My carbonation method is to cold crash to 2 degrees, keg and purge oxygen, then hook up CO2 at 200kpa (30psi) for 36-48 hours, then reduce to serving pressure and leave for a week or two. I get a nice pour with a bit of head, but the mouthfeel just isn't right - not enough bubbles - …
Category: Mac

Why is the tubing diameter for a cold plate different on input and output?

I'm making a parts list to make a jockey box out of a spare cooler. I noticed that both Northern Brewer and Micromatic recommend different tubing sizes for the input to the cold plate and the output from it. https://www.northernbrewer.com/cold-plate-fitting-out vs https://www.northernbrewer.com/cold-plate-fitting-in Why don't the cold plates use the typical 3/16" beverage tubing on both sides?
Category: Mac

Serving through a carbonation stone

Are there any disadvantages to leaving a diffuser stone (0.5micron) in the keg for serving? The one I had bought is attached to a replacement SS dip tube and permanently in the keg. My option would be to transfer to a new keg after carbonation, but... extra cleaning/sani/time/effort and chance of O2/contam. In other words, if it's not a big factor, and the stone will still bubble gas up to the headspace for serving, I won't bother. To take that …
Category: Mac

What's the minimum size for a jockey box?

I'm planning on build one cooler based dispensing system for my kegs. My previous experience was with a box with 2 aluminium coils (~15m long) and 2 faucets. It holds a 20 Kg ice pack. And the beer pour is just fine when the carbonation and settings are OK. But, I've found that for a period of a party/beer session, that amount of ice is overshoot. If full of ice, the box let you drink cold beer for about 3 …
Category: Mac

3/16 ID x 5/16 OD beer lines

I recently found a good deal online for food-grade beverage lines. I guess I only paid attention to the inner diameter measurements (3/16") to make sure it would fit with my existing barbed nipples and other adapters. Now that I've received my shipment, I noticed that it's much thinner than my existing lines. Turns out, my old ones are 7/16" outer diameter, while my new ones are 5/16". Other than the increased likelihood of a pinched or kinked line, is …
Category: Mac

What makes a beer tap/faucet different from the water ones?

I'm planning on build a cooler-based jockey box to drink my kegged beers. And was thinking what's the different things in a beer tap/faucet? I'm having trouble to find one with reasonable price in my town. I understand that some faucets have 'cream function', or 'flow control' diferences, material finishes (stainless, chrome plated, brass, plastic..) but the standard/basic type just allow you to on/off your flow of beer. Rigth? Can I simple choose other kind of tap to put on …
Category: Mac

Knocking out the barrier between fridge and freezer?

I have a fridge freezer combo that I am going to convert to a serving fridge. I have done this with an old fridge before but decided to upgrade when I moved because it was really old and crapping out. Question: What will happen if I cut out the majority of the barrier between the fridge and freezer? I'm concerned about everything freezing, or over/under using the refrigeration unit. Why: 2 reasons, first I really want my taps at a …
Category: Mac

How quickly can you pull beer through a jockey box with a 70' coil?

I'm looking at building a jockey box with a 70', 5/16" (21.3m, 8mm) stainless steel coil (installed in a drum-style cooler.) Seems to be a good compromise between size, weight and cost. How quickly can I pull cold beer out of it without it foaming? My back-of-envelope calculation says a 2133.6cm by 0.8cm coil holds π × 0.42 × 2133.6 = 10723 or just over a litre of beer. The Mythbusters say you can cool a six pack of beer …
Category: Mac

mead - is shaking the bottle necessary

I have made 2 batches of mead that are now coming to maturity. One at 11 percent, aged for 18 months and one at 18 percent, aged for 3 years. I notice that both are very clear, beautiful bouquet and clean tasting, but with a bitter aftertaste. When I pour out the last dregs of the bottle into the glass, there is a little turbidity, but also a complete flavor change - there's sweetness added too that offsets the bitterness. …
Category: Mac

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