Long stainless beer shanks?

[Trail]

I'm working on a basement bar build and need to run some shanks through a brick wall with an air gap. It's a hair under 11 inches, all told - seriously!

I can find chrome plated brass shanks no problem, but I've read horror stories about the chrome flaking off. I can find stainless steel, but the absolute longest I saw was 10⅛.

Does anyone know where to source longer shanks? Would a non-chromed brass shank be OK? Are my fears of the chrome shanks disintegrating and leaving a metallic taste in my beer unfounded?

 

[MaryB]

Chrome flaking would take years...

Maybe make a way to fasten this to the serving side wall(stainless plate with built in drip tray?) https://www.kegworks.com/24-wall-shank-assembly

14" brass shank http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/faucets/shanks/4342NA-3.shtml

 

[PapaO]

Mount short shanks on something removable wood, metal whatever you looks good. This would give you access to the shanks to attach beer line and less mass to cool.

PapaO

 

[NeoBrew]

Mount short shanks on something removable wood, metal whatever you looks good. This would give you access to the shanks to attach beer line and less mass to cool.

PapaO

I would think that running beer through a foot of shank is going to really warm the beer up and cause some foaming issues. Unless you are going to cool the shanks. But if you are going to cool them you would likely need to open up a larger hole so you can get access to the shanks anyway. So you could use shorter shanks mounted to a backing plate of some sort.

 

[Trail]

I would think that running beer through a foot of shank is going to really warm the beer up and cause some foaming issues.

It's in a very cool basement. I am planning to cool from the keezer up to the shank, and don't expect too much trouble from one foot (<3oz) of warm-ish beer.

 

[NeoBrew]

It's not the 1 foot of warm beer, it's all the beer that has to pass through that mass of metal until the shank cools to beer temperature. If you look at this chart you can see that beer at 50 degrees holds about 25% less co2 than beer at 35 degrees. If you warm the beer on the way out of the tap it may tend to loose that co2 and you will end up with a very foamy beer.

Keeping both your beer lines and shanks cool is very helpful in pouring a good draft beer. Some tower based kegerators incorporate fans or cooling lines to chill the tower. Even in keezers it is important to keep the air destratified with a fan so that the shanks and line at the top of the unit are the same temperature as the beer down at the bottom. I know from experience that that can lead to poor pours as I had that problem on my keezer until I figured it out.

 

[Trail]

It's not the 1 foot of warm beer, it's all the beer that has to pass through that mass of metal until the shank cools to beer temperature.

This is wise. I put a thermometer down there and logged temps for a few days, only to learn that I vastly overestimated the basement's temperature stability and coolness.

What I've decided to do is cut out a 1x3 section of the backside of the wall: it's two layers of brick with an air gap, so doing this will leave me only a brick's width away from the serving side. This will allow me to mount using much shorter shanks, and give me access to cool them.