Beer line chiller

[brewingfool]

Hi all,

Having worked for 13 years with a compressor-powered beer line chiller, I've become desirous of finding a way to save the energy of running it and end the headaches of being unable to pour beer when it goes down.

Has anybody tried keeping a coolant reservoir in their beer cooler (so it would be the same temperature as the serving tanks) and pumping that through the trunk line to keep the lines cold? The possible issues I see with this:

1. The coolant reservoir will not chill the returning coolant fast enough and the temperature of the lines will rise high enough to cause excessive foaming.

2. The coolant, starting at the same temperature as the beer, will not keep the trunk adequately cold to prevent foaming.

The longest trunk line is about 60'.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

George de Piro
Brewmaster
C.H. Evans Brewing/Albany Pump Station
Albany, NY

[CopperKettle]

You have to use a real chiller, the truck line should be 2-3 degrees colder than your walk-in to minimize foam in the line. If you are having trouble with your chiller, but a nicer brand new one. For a 60' run a 1/3hp unit should be more than enough. Plan on $900 to get the job done right. We use micromatic chillers and have had no problems.

The money lost from being unable to serve beer for even one day more than offsets the cost of getting a quality, reliable unit.