Kegging / Tower advice

[ggltd]

Fellow brewers- I am ready to make the jump from bottling to Corny kegs. My neighbor says he can scrounge some of these. I am on the fence for a tower unit: stainless or chrome, 2 or 3 faucets. My cold unit is big enough to handle 4 or so corny kegs, but would I have 3 beers on tap at one time? And sales pricing is tiered with and without hoses and connectors. Your thoughts please.

[Desertbrewin]

Best move you'll ever make! Moved to kegging about 2 years ago and can't believe I ever bottled. Have used both chrome and stainless faucets and don't know that I have seem much difference, better longevity out of stainless. Started with one tap, move to two and whish I had 3, so the more the better if you have the space IMO. Guessing your using a chest freezer since you mentioned using a tower rather than shanks. If your using a tower probably going to want to look at some method to cool the tower to avoid foaming issues with the beer lines in the tower heating above 38 degrees. Have one like this on my kegerator http://cgi.ebay.com/Danby-kegerator-tow ... 43a3b8e9b2

[Mylo]

but would I have 3 beers on tap at one time?

Only initially... then you add more.

I'm up to seven.


Mylo

[thatguy314]

A tower looks cool, but it's a waste

Bars have chilled towers that keep the beer cool, often with a glycol system. Homebrew towers have a thin piece of foam, that'll work for the same night, but if you leave it overnight the beer will taste off the next day and you'll want to clear the tower. You can rig a fan of some sort to circulate the cold air up into the tower and avoid that, but learn from my mistake: just use the shanks.

With the money you save you can buy forward sealing faucets like perlick. Those are a much better use for your money. They're all stainless, don't stick like traditional faucets, and don't let air get into the line so the beer in the line doesn't really stale that much.

http://morebeer.com/view_product/6495// ... _Stainless (they have it at all the major homebrew supply locations)

[beltbuckle]

I also agree that it's a waste. I bought a tower and it looks nice and all, but it's a royal pain to disassemble and clean the lines. It's also hard to keep the lines cool in the tower (though that can be overcome). In the end laziness won out and I don't use the tower and pretty much always use picnic taps because they are cheap, easy to clean, quick to change, etc.

[ajdelange]

Pretty much agree on the towers. When it comes to the faucets I swear by the Wunderbar (http://www.wunderbar.com/products/bever ... inless-one) ones. Their website is a little funny so I recommend downloading the manual - that will let you see how the things are built.

[thatguy314]

but it's a royal pain to disassemble and clean the lines.

Did I also forget to mention that?