Cooling beer lines

[gyorke]

Does anyone have any experience with setting up a cooling system for a basement to upstairs beer line run from a keezer or a kegerator? Most people seem to use forced air cooling.
Thanks

[mr x]

I don't think forced air will do it. I think you might need commercial grade line with glycol cooling. Like they sell at Simgo and Can-Bev.

[ratchet]

I would imagine that with enough time and fabrication you could run a fluid pump with some H20 and some sort of sodium additive... but you'd have to design a control system with a couple thermocouples and an arduino... then hook it up to a relay and fountain pump with enough head to pump the height difference.

you'd also have to fabricate a dual-jacketed line termination fitting for both ends... and add some insulation and a return line.

I guess the short answer... it's not really worth it unless you like doing that sort of stuff... it's a lot of work and it'd likely be more expensive than buying a system.

[KMcK]

I think you might need commercial grade line with glycol cooling.

I prefer propylene glycol over ethylene glycol in my beer.

[NASH]

I don't see why the cold air duct wouldn't work though. If it were me I'd run 3" or 4" insulated ABS or PVC pipe with 2 low cfm fans, one each on the exit and return ends.

You could use a cold water bath like this: http://www.a1barstuff.co.uk/detail.asp?ProdID=521 Around here most bars use cold water baths from coke or Pepsi, they usually supply them free for exclusivity. At the Hart and Thistle there's 14 beer lines and the 3/8" cold water recirc line run inside the trunk line to the bar, the cold water line is zip-tied to every faucet in the tower then it returns to the water bath, so there's 16 lines inside the trunk in total.

[gyorke]

I appreciate the feedback and the suggestions. I am going to do some experimenting.
I'll do my best to keep the topic updated for those who are interested.

[gyorke]

Well it's been a while and a few prototyping wrong turns but I now have cooled taps next to my kitchen, upstairs from my keezer. I use a simple water reservoir in my keezer and a small fountain pump to provide cooling for my bundled beer lines. The beer at the taps is about 5 degrees warmer then in the keezer but not an issue for me. It's a small pump (8.3 watts) so right now I am running it constantly, likely change it to pulse in the future. The key to using the small pump is a sealed system; the cooling lines are under water at both ends so only a little pressure is needed to move the water upstairs.

I'll be posting pictures under the kegerator thread : http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... 9419#p9419" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;