Line Balancing with Secondary Regulators and Flow Control Faucets

[Tomcat0304]

Hey Everyone,

I, like so many others, am in the process of acquiring parts for my keezer build. I will be using secondary regulators with flow control Intertap faucets. I will ideally be using Accuflex Bev-Seal Ultra for lines.

I plan to have one tap devoted to soda (root beer/cola/etc.) and the rest serving various beer styles, generally in the 2.2 to 3.5 CO2 volume range.

How effective are flow control taps at compensation for different carbonation volumes?

Am I correct in thinking (not considering the soda line):

1.a All beer tap lines are not able to be the same length. Meaning, I can't serve a 2.0 volume English Barleywine then serve a 3.8 volume Berliner Weisse from the same tap without issue.

1.b If each line is not able to be properly balanced at a uniform line length across various carbonation volumes, I would need to break them down into CO2 volume ranges; i.e. 2.0-2.5, 2.5-3.0, 3.0-3.5 and balance from there. Would the ranges need to be smaller?

2. For balancing with a flow control faucet, the control should be at 50% open, enabling tuning up and down for a proper pour.

Cheers!
Jarod

 

[Tomcat0304]

Any advice?

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, don't want to leave you totally hanging, but I don't run FC faucets, so I'll leave "2" to those that do and take a whack at the other two.

1a. "It depends": a line tuned for one pressure will become increasingly less effective at controlling foam as pressure increases. So in your example a line tuned for one ounce per second pour rate a 2 volumes will likely suffer significant foam production at 3.8 volumes. Otoh, said line tuned for one second ounces at 3.8 volumes will just pour slow at 2 volumes.

1b. Your proposed three pressure bands might well prove sufficient...

Cheers!

 

[Tomcat0304]

Thanks!

 

[agrazela]

I have a 4-way secondary, the same lines, and 650ss flow control faucets.

All my bev out lines are the same length (about 3’, iirc), and I compensate for different carbonation levels simply with the flow control lever, yes. One of the main reasons I got flow controls, so I wouldn’t have to mess around with line lengths.

High carbed beverages just take a little longer to fill the glass at lower flow rate, is all.