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Author Topic: Long Draw Draft Beer System  (Read 903 times)

Offline bhughes81

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Long Draw Draft Beer System
« on: April 29, 2020, 05:06:58 pm »
I posted this in another forum, but I realized that it may have been the wrong one. So, I'm re-posting this in here.
.....

Hey, this is my first time ever posting here. I've been brewing beer for about 4 years now, but I've only been kegging and dispensing for about a year. I'm trying to learn everything I can about this, so hopefully I don't sound too dumb with my questions, lol.

So, currently, I have a very simple system with a used kegerator and a tap on the top. However, I'd like to start dispensing my beer at my bar that I built alongside my pool. I will be building my own keezer, but it will have to be about 75 feet from where the bar sits (closest I can get without actually relocating my keezer outside). I know there are ways to do long draw systems, and I've been trying to read up on them as much as I can. For reference, I do have a glycol system that I will be utilizing to keep the lines cool from keezer to tap. My question here is about the Co2 pressure necessary to push my beer that far without there being further complications with over-carbonation. I've read up on gas powered beer pumps and about blenders (keeping my eye on a Trumix 100 gas blender). Is one of these systems better than the next (pump vs blended) for a distance that long? Also, does anyone here have experience in building a system similar to mine that has a few pointers before I waste a bunch of money that I may regret later, lol?

Thanks for allowing me to get my question out here and for any future questions/comments.

Offline a10t2

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Re: Long Draw Draft Beer System
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2020, 09:24:24 pm »
A blender is probably overkill for a home system since you won't be buying in bulk regardless. Actually I'd suggest that a long draw system is overkill unless you can't just put the kegerator out there in the first place. Cornies just aren't heavy enough for moving them not to be the easier solution most times.

At 75 ft I'd suggest just going with blended gas. You'd need ~45 psi of pressure drop using 3/16" vinyl, and at 40°F that's 2.6 vol. So you might need to use a run of 1/4" to start and then reduce it, but through trial and error you should be able to get there.
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Offline bhughes81

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Re: Long Draw Draft Beer System
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2020, 12:36:14 pm »
Thanks for the response. I've built a smaller (8'x4') bar on my deck with 3 beer shanks to connect my 3 sixth barrels to. The reason I'm contemplating a long draw system is because I just don't have a ton of extra room for my keezer out there. Additionally, with the fluctuation in ambient temps here (we can have a week of 100+ degree temps followed by a week of 60s and rain), I don't trust that the elements wouldn't end up destroying the keezer as well.

I have actually looked into the beer gas as well (blended gas). Some others were telling me that just buying a blender and blending the gas myself was cheaper in the long run then buying the pre-blended gas, however, I have not checked into those prices at all.