Need Beer Line HELP!!!!

[kugeman]

At our brewery we're running eight beer lines (7 beer, 1 root beer) from the bright tanks to the bar and somehow one of the lines has become blocked. Does anyone have any tricks for how to unblock the line? A little background info might help...

The lines were installed by us about 8 months ago and up until now have been relatively trouble free. They are cleaned every other week using a powdered non-caustic alkaline cleaner (PBW) and an acid sanitizer (star-san). The 8 beer lines and 2 glycol lines are wrapped in Bev-Seal, 1 in. of foam rubber and 2 layers of duct tape to insulate and protect them. This is all encased in PVC where necessary for protection. Our lines run 150 feet from the brewery to the bar, necessitating the use of shur-flo beer pumps to pump the beer, but the pump has already been ruled out as the source of the problem.

The line in question (the root beer line. arrgghhh. stupid highly profitable stuff...) was cleaned the day before, and the line functioned properly until mid-day when it just stopped flowing. We've tried to force hot water and CO2 through the line, but we are getting absolutely NO flow at all. The only things I can think of are 1)The line is frozen, but the other 7 lines continue to function; 2)The line is kinked, but I can't find any evidence of that; 3)Some sort of mysterious blockage.

Does anyone have any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I would hate to have to write off using this line as it is greatly convenient. Oh yeah, to further complicate matters, the last 60 feet is encased in PVC under the cement floor. totally inaccessible.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have...

Hutch Kugeman
Brewer
Great Adirondack Brewing Company
Lake Placid, NY
adkbrew@capital.net

[dick murton]

I assume you have tried turning the chilling off and running warm water through the other lines to ensure the lines are throughly defrosted. Have you tried cleaning backwards from the dispense point ?. It sounds like a little lump of rubber or similar has broken off and got jammed - at least this way it has less distance to be pushed.

I also assume you are turning of the cooling before running your line cleaner through - if not, you may just have built up a clot in the line as the cleaner will not be as effective when cold.

Good luck - sounds like you need it !

[scott isham]

I have just about the same draft set-up and I have had just one line freeze up before. I would try turning the chiller off over-night and then running hot water trough it the next morning. If that doesn't work, that at least eliminates one of variables.

Cheers,
Scott

[Valleybrew]

Also, remove the tap head and make sure the tap didn't
fail or the rubber gasket shred and block flow.

[kugeman]

Thanks for the help. Using your suggestions I was able to reclaim my root beer line. yeeeeaaahhhhh!

Hutch Kugeman
Great Adirondack Brewing Co.