New beer pump draft system issues

[mikedeich_]

Greetings all

Need some draft advice if anybody's got any ideas. Got a 7bbl brewpub going on down here in Argentina. We've just opened recently & immediately are having problems with the draft system. The set-up is as follows. Serving directly from our 7 bbl jacketed brite tanks. Using 6 brand new shurflo beer ace II beer pumps, one for each tank. The brewery is in the basement of the pub so beer pumps seemed like the logical choice. Currently only serving off of 4 of these tanks. Two are on a wall closest to the hole going up, directly under the bar....the draw length from these is about 2.5 meters (10ft or so), with regulator pressure at 18 psi. The other two are on the far wall, controlled by a separate regulator with a draw of 5 meters (20-25ft), @ about 50 psi. Both sets of tanks have different regulators but feed from the same tank. We have also insulated the beer pumps with a McGyver style use of large insulated tupperwares mounted to the wall with the beer pumps inside & a coil with glycol to keep them cool.

The tanks on the near wall pour fine for the first few seconds, so the tower must be adequately insulated....& then pour nothing but foam for a pitcher or two, & then pour fine. If used often enough they seem to continue to work fine. If left alone for 15-20 min, the same problem returns. The other two from the tanks on the far wall, pour slower & with minimal foam issues. However they will both 'spit' at random times, for some unknown reason. I can only imagine what problems will unfold when we start serving off the other two.

The two ideas running through our heads is faulty regulators (they are all old, & or cheap), the other is that the tubing we got for the glycol could be too thick walled and not cooling the draft lines enough. If anyone has any thoughts let me know. thanks.

[einhorn]

Without seeing the system, it's hard to do a long-distance evaluation, but it sounds more like either a kink in the line or (more likely) an area of the line which is not being cooled.

But first and foremost, you need to measure temperature of beer being poured, as 95% of problems (IMO) are either pressure or temperature related. I don't think that the regulators are your issue unless they are simply reading wrong.

Also, are you using FOBs?

[mikedeich_]

I have not taken a thermometer to the beer poured, but it does initially seem slightly warm. Im leaning towards the glycol lines being too thick and not chilling the beer lines enough. But Im not sure why I have two that foam crazy & two that pour slow, but otherwise fine (aside from slight 'spitting')....since both sets are chilled by the same glycol tubing. What do you mean by FOBs?

[BigWilley]

Thats a pretty short run to use beer pumps on. Maybe you are not properly restricted? What is your pour rate? Should be 100-128 ounces per minute. FOB's are devices that stop the flow of beer from a keg or tank when foam is detected so you dont waste beer repacking the lines. On a short setup like yours these would be overkill.

[einhorn]

You really should take temperature readings of poured beer. My suggestion would be to pour until it "spits", stop and read temperature. Then pour another glass and read temperature.

I assume that after a one-pitcher pour of foam, and then pouring perfectly, the beer is coming is straight from the tank/coldroom, so your problem is most likely poorly cooled beer lines. Taking temperature readings will tell you where the culprit is.

[edramshaw]

Is there a "high point" in the lines a little bit back from the tower? Typically if things were not being cooled properly, the gas would settle out of solution to the highest point in the system thus when you open the tap clear beer comes out (is it on the flat side here?) and then the foam burst would come followed by the good stuff. This correlates well with the fact that subsequent beers poured right after that foam burst unless it sat for a few. Basically the beer is cooling the lines at this point but when left to sit things warm up and the co2 comes out of solution. Did you make your trunk or purchase a pre made one? It could be that two of your lines are not making contact with the glycol lines completely causing them to be the issue.