17 replies to this topic

[Genesee Ted]

DUDE! This sounds almost as epic as OldFart's CO2 thread! How's it all work?

[Clintama]

My beer tap dispensing system is made by Perlick. It is 4 taps mounted in a stainless steel cabinet with a drain underneath. The faucets are mounted to a heavy manifold that along with the 4 beer lines, but also has a copper tube that's embedded in it. That's for the glycol or whatever cooling solution to circulate through this manifold and thus cool the faucets. All of this it mounted to the wall of my walk-in where the kegs are kept at 50F. What I had originally was a pan that contained about a gallon and a half of water in the walk-in with a small pond pump in the bottom of it. When turned on, this circulated 50F water though the manifold and back to the pan. It worked well, but in my infinite wisdom, I decided to replace the water with propylene glycol. This seemed like a good idea, except the viscosity of the glycol is too heavy for the pond pump to push and now it doesn't work. I bought another pump, but due to other distracting issues have been unable to install this pump or even test it to see if it's capable of pumping glycol. So now I have the worse scenario, a large manifold that's sitting at room temperature which takes forever to cool by just dispensing beer every so often. I can supply pictures of the outside of the Perlick tap system, but unfortunately I either never took or can't find any pictures of the manifold. The entire manifold is now embedded in foam insulation, so even if I took it off the wall, which I'm not doing, you couldn't see anything but that foam.

[Genesee Ted]

That is pretty sweet. I don't know anyone that has anything like that! How do you plan to fix the manifold issue?

[Clintama]

I bought another pump, unfortunately, it's 12VDC. I just need to come up with a power supply that can handle it and reinstall it in the walk-in. If this pump can't handle the viscosity of glycol, then I guess I'll go back to water. FWIW water did a good job with the previous pump, but in time it started growing stuff in it. I wanted something I wouldn't have to clean all the time. I need to do something before it gets hot. While my brewroom is air conditioned, I set the temp up when I'm not in there, so the faucets get warm as well. The first few glasses of beer will have a lot of foam because of that.

[Genesee Ted]

That is unfortunate. Keep us posted, this is a cool project! Nice looking room too!

[Clintama]

Thanks.

[SteveMillerTime]

I bought another pump, unfortunately, it's 12VDC. I just need to come up with a power supply that can handle it and reinstall it in the walk-in.

Use a computer power supply. Yellow wires are 12v DC. As long as the power supply has a higher amperage than the pump you're golden.You'll just need to trick the power supply into thinking it's connected to a computer. Which is pretty easy. Just ground the green wire.

Edited by SteveMillerTime, 15 March 2013 - 06:33 AM.

[Clintama]

Use a computer power supply. Yellow wires are 12v DC. As long as the power supply has a higher amperage than the pump you're golden.You'll just need to trick the power supply into thinking it's connected to a computer. Which is pretty easy. Just ground the green wire.

Thanks. I've got a power supply that I think will work, I just need to get off my @$$ and get back on this project. I'm sure you're correct that a PC supply would work well.

[SteveMillerTime]

Thanks. I've got a power supply that I think will work, I just need to get off my @$$ and get back on this project. I'm sure you're correct that a PC supply would work well.

It'll work great. I just used one for my pump, I just had to add a switch since I'll eventually be adding a second pump and I needed control over when it runs.Just make sure it works before you go ripping the un-needed wires out. All you need is a paperclip in the green wire pin and the black wire pin. plug it in, and test the yellow wire pin to a black wire pin witha voltmeter, should see around 12v

Edited by SteveMillerTime, 15 March 2013 - 06:41 AM.

[SchwanzBrewer]

put some KMETA in the water at the cleaning ratio (about 4x the treatment ratio) and seal it up.I was thinking about doing this for my tower on the kegerator. I would get some copper tubing and make a spiral around the lines and use an aquarium pump to move the water.

[Clintama]

What is KMETA? Is that the stuff used in wine?I was lucky in finding this Perlick system on Craigslist for $50, faucets included, although I switched them out. I think your idea with copper tubing would work fine, along some with some good insulation.

[SchwanzBrewer]

What is KMETA? Is that the stuff used in wine?I was lucky in finding this Perlick system on Craigslist for $50, faucets included, although I switched them out. I think your idea with copper tubing would work fine, along some with some good insulation.

Potassium metabisulfite. It's used to dechlorinate (and de-chloraminate) tap water. Also used in wine making to sterilize the fruit. In higher concentrations it will kill bacteria and yeast. I would use some distilled water and add the kmeta and seal it up. That should stay clean for a long time.

Edited by SchwanzBrewer, 15 March 2013 - 08:40 AM.

[Clintama]

Isn't that campden? I use that to dechlorinate my water.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Isn't that campden? I use that to dechlorinate my water.

same thing. higher concentrations can be used for sterilization.

[Mya]

same thing. higher concentrations can be used for sterilization.

doesn't do shit without an acid to generate S04 gas, IIRC

[SchwanzBrewer]

doesn't do shit without an acid to generate S04 gas, IIRC

For killing bacteria/yeast?

[Mya]

For killing bacteria/yeast?

that's how I understand it to work, the gas is formed in reaction to acid (usually wine) and kills the critters, otherwise it's just a salt added to water

[SchwanzBrewer]

Winemaking equipment is sanitized by spraying with a 1% SO₂ (2 tsp potassium metabisulfite per L) solution.

When mixed with wine it makes the SO2. I think it sanitizes at high concentrations on it's own.