Advice for setup?

[tloneil]

Hi Folks,

I've been lurking for a while and am impressed with the level of knowledge on this forum, and I hope I can tap into that for some help with a bar setup I'm putting together. Here's the scoop:

I'm building a bar in my home, and plan to have a built in kegerator unit with a 4 tap draft tower on the counter. I would like to construct a setup where I can tap those 5 liter mini kegs in addition to the typical 5 gallon homebrew kegs. Is this even possible?

Thank you for any advice.

Trevor

 

[BigFloyd]

Anything's possible with enough money and effort.

Are you doing this because you want to be able to offer the commercial stuff to BMC-drinking friends who are scared to try your home brew or some other reason?

If you can figure out a way to adapt 1-2 of the gas lines and the same # of beer lines to those little 5L kegs, you could probably pull it off.

 

[invictusbrew]

Take a look at this thread from the NB forums: http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=61167

Interesting set up, though I think I'll stick to the normal set up myself.

 

[tloneil]

BigFloyd, the issue is that I don't have any homebrews to hook up unless my brother-in-law brings one over for a party. At the moment I only aspire to brew my own, but I want to get all the infrastructure in place during the construction so it's waiting for me once I do. In the meantime, I want options. The kids would like sodas hooked up too, and I think I recall seeing some 5L root beer kegs.

I guess the biggest question I had was if this were possible, and by the NB thread it looks like it is with the proper fittings. I suppose as long as you have CO2 coming into the keg under pressure you can push it through the tap?

 

[invictusbrew]

I suppose as long as you have CO2 coming into the keg under pressure you can push it through the tap?

Generally speaking, yes. My only concern with doing what was shown in the NB forums is that those "mini-kegs" are thin-walled for the most part and while the CO2 can and should be regulated to compensate, I don't like the idea of (even having the possibility of) popping one of those things.
That being said, it is definitely possible.

 

[BigFloyd]

I think I understand now what you're shooting for here. Like already mentioned, be very mindful of the CO2 pressures you'll need for the various applications you're looking at.

Soda pop normally gets pushed at about 30psi which is 3x the serving pressure for beer on CO2. So, you'll have to run a separate regulator for that.