Beer Pump Recommendations

[Valleybrew]

Hey all,

I am about to order beer pumps for our pub. We have 12 draft lines on a Perlick installed system. The draft run is around 80-100 feet depending on the tap tower. I have been on Micromatics website and see that there are 2 types of beer pumps that they carry. One is the Flowjet that I have worked with at a couple of our draft accounts. The other is a called a Shurflow Beer Ace II. I am looking for any inputs from people who have used either and have some feedback on them. I will also be using wall mounted FOB detectors. We are removing our serving tanks and going to kegs as we move our production off site. Thanks in advance.

Steve Altimari
Valley Brewing Company
Stockton, Ca.

[jarviw]

from a brewer's perspective, I am all for beer pumps. It will allow the beer to be sit at preferred temp/CO2 pressure, and transfer to anywhere you want, especially for vertical transfer. Both ones they sell at Micromatic work great, but Flowjet has the neat little reverse connector for easy cleaning bypass.

But do let me warn you the cons of beer pumps...
1) it is driven by gas-- it will be extra gas cost! I think they number is about 1 pound per half barrel, meaning that you basically double the gas needed. Also, if you not using air, you will also need to divert the gas out of your cooler...

2) You will not be able to back flush the draft line for cleaning. the only way you can clean the beer pump is by running the pump with cleaning solution going the same direction as the pump flow... which will be a total pain when you have several taps to clean.

3) Beer pumps have a limited lifespan... they will die eventually, but hopefully not on a busy Friday evening.

Per Micromatic, the new thing is their gas blender... great from a bar owner's perspective, not the most ideal from a brewer's perspective.

PM me and we can talk more.

[gitchegumee]

I've used the Flo-Jets and FOB detectors in a 3 story, 24 faucet pub. I can recommend these pumps highly. Use a small, oiless compressor to drive them--CO2 is a waste of gas. They are ideal for cleaning simply because you can drop the keg coupler in a bucket and the beer pumps suck up and clean the lines when you pull the tap handle. Don't know why that would be a pain--you can do as many lines simultaneously as you can fit couplers in a bucket. Easy! The installation is straightforward and commissioning them is a snap. Micromatic will give you great support. You're on the right track, I think. Good luck!

[brewkettle]

Used Pumps

I have 20 good working Flowjet pumps (24 total) with 12 adapters for reverse flow cleaning if you are interested. You can have it all including some distribution bars and a drier for the air supply for $800.00.
We are just finishing installing blenders and will no longer have a use for them. They were installed in Feb 2003.

Chris
The BREW Kettle Taproom and Smokehouse
Strongsville, Ohio 44136
440-567-9520 CELL
brewkettle@ameritech.net

https://www.thebrewkettle.com

[kugeman]

My system is currently set up with Shur-flo pumps and I wouldn't recommend them. In the first year of operation I had to replace all 8 pumps at one time or another. They're supposed to be set up so that the gas used to push the pumps never comes in contact with the beer, but some of them have definitely leaked a bit. Thus I use CO2 to push the pumps instead of a compressor. I haven't had to replace any of them in the last 2 years (the system is about 4 years old) but when I do, I'll be switching them out to Flo-Jets.

Just my 2 cents...

[BeersmithMT]

I have to weigh in here in support of a gas blender. There are cases where beer pumps have advantages - particularly where there are multiple bars on different floors with varying amounts of line restriction. However, if you a have single run of 80-100 feet, a blender is probably your best option. I am unsure what Jarviw meant by:

Per Micromatic, the new thing is their gas blender... great from a bar owner's perspective, not the most ideal from a brewer's perspective.

I think a blender is actually ideal from the brewer's perspective as you can maintain the desired carbonation level no matter what the run/restriction of a particular draft system. The nitrogen portion of the blend is virtually insoluble in beer. The life expectancy of a blender is much longer than a pump: ours has been working faithfully for 9 1/2 years with zero problems. You can also utilize bulk liquid CO2 and nitrogen generator sources to keep your gas costs at a minimum. Micromatic will custom set the dispense blend % to match the restriction of your draft system to pour a perfect pint every time.

As far as cleaning goes, I agree with Jarviw. You will only be able to clean pumps in one direction. When not using pumps, you can alternate the cleaning direction of every line and recirculate cleaner through them, thereby using much less chemical and providing for better contact time.

Anyway, if you are planning on a single bar service area I would highly suggest a blender over pumps. If you are going to use multiple service areas with significantly different line restrictions, then pumps are probably your best bet.

[jarviw]

I will clear it up a little bit on my thoughts on the gas blender...

I actually think gas blenders are really cool and quite cost-effective (and, heck, I just posted a list of cons of beer pump), but I am not going to advertise for Micromatic.

My "not most ideal from a brewer's perspective" is that, with a (one single unit) blender, you will only have one CO2 level setting for all your beers. No problem if all the beers on tap are more or less the same style group with the same level of CO2. But if you want to have different CO2 levels with all the different styles you want to serve on tap, a blender won't allow that flexibility... (you can tweak with the choke line to adjust the restriction, but that will set that line permanently at that pressure/CO2 level-- not practical!) (or you can have more than one blender... but they are not that cheap.)

In general, they deal with this issue of different CO2 level by setting the gas blender at a ratio to protect the most expensive/slow seller, hoping others will be consumed before their CO2 level go way off.

On the other hand, beer pumps will allow you this flexibility of having different CO2 levels. You can set up the different CO2 pressures on each beer and simply adjust the beer pump to meet the restriction.

that said, there are still a load of advantages of gas blender as Beersmith mentioned, and it's cheaper/easier to operate.

Again, as a brewer, ideally I want to make sure every single beer is being served right-- CO2 level, temperature, and its own glassware. blender can save me money, but also compromises my artistic freedom. just my 2 cents.

[Valleybrew]

Many thanks for all the insightful inputs. We actually do own a N2 generator/blender as well as having bulk CO2. Both are currently plumbed into my walk-in. We ran our stout as Nitro for many years. Just went back to CO2 to make the growler customers happy and to allow bottling of the Stout for take out. I switched to the blender/beer gas mix a few years ago and it actually worked really well. The only problems came with the last barrel or so of beer always seemed to lose carbonation. The other problem was that our ancient grundy serving tanks would constantly find new ways to leak causing our N2 generator to not keep up (even a tiny leak). I just recently went back to pushing with CO2 knowing I would be back to some over-carbonation issues on the slower selling beers but knew the conversion to beer pumps was planned. The other reason I want pumps is to allow different carbonation levels on different beers (English Mild Low etc..). I have a small compressor in house for my bottler so I will be able to use it for beer gas pump. Many thanks again,
Steve