mixing beer at the tap

[raining_turtles]

I have a small keezer that will only fit 2-3 kegs, and for some reason I am enamored with the idea of having the option to have a separate tap that is a blend of 2 taps. IE, I could have a sour and a farmhouse and choose to have a farmhouse, a sour, or a sour farmhouse.
I know that you can just mount those two taps close and do a double pull. But if they were both carbed the same with the same serving pressure, as long as there was a check valve at the split in the beer line to keep from one product flowing into the others line. Would it pour a straight 50/50 mix?
The set up in my mind would be a tee right at the shank on both that were to be mixed, leading to a check valve, leading to amixing valve if necessary, then to the tap.
I know this is a really complicated solution to a something that really isn't even an issue and will make line cleaning real "fun". But... I still want to do it just because.

 

[gnef]

Yes, if you met all those criteria, and found food grade liquid check valves, smooth Tees, and had exactly the same line length on both kegs, you could get a 50/50 pour.

Now, if something is not quite perfect, for example, if your check valves seal at a higher pressure differential, you could still get contamination from one side to another. If your check valves aren't properly smooth, you could get additional foaming, same with the Tees that you end up using.

In my mind, there are too many places where things could go wrong, and who is to say the next two kegs you have on will work for blending? Plus, if you put in the hardware, you will be stuck with a fixed mixture ratio, unless you adjust the pressure on one keg.

I've gotta pull Occam's razor here. This is not simple, and it is not the best solution for what you want to do. Pouring separately is best, and allows you to mix to any percentage you desire. There will be fewer places for things to go wrong, fewer places for contamination, fewer places for CO2 to come out of solution, etc.

If you decide to go with it, let us know how it goes though!