Newbie home bar experience needed

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Globaldave
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Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by Globaldave » Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:28 pm

Soooo you must get this a lot on here but I can’t seem to find the answer that I need. A home bar set up. I have a cooler single line in and out and the 2 bits for the circulation feed. I have a picture but not sure how to upload just yet.

The bar is outside and the keg is in a cool area. I have the co2 and regulator do I have to have a flojet pump and fob detector. I have read on here that some run a line alongside the beer line from the cooler, do I understand you would need a double feed or can you just use the circulation loop. I have no idea and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

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PeeBee
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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by PeeBee » Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:06 pm

Don't quite follow your cooler setup (as you are new you'll have to be "active" - post a few posts - before you are allowed to post attachments like piccies), but your cooler should have an in/out "python" line and one or more in/out "product" lines. The product lines are kept very clean (your beer goes through these) and the python line has plain water (and not clean, think of it as containing engine oil!) and will be pumped; it recirculates the cold water bath.

You don't need flojet pumps and fob detectors, although some do use them, because your lines will be relatively short and just pouring an inch of beer in a glass will see the cool stuff start coming through. Cooling lines run in a bundle of beer lines is a "python", again, you don't need one but some will use them.

You can get away with jumpering the in/out python lines (don't switch on the cooler with this line incomplete, or it'll spray water everywhere!).Connect the keg to a (cleaned) "in" product line, and the tap to the paired "out" line, and away you go. The product lines run through coils in the cold water bath to cool the beer. The cooler should be run for at least 1/2 hour if you expect cool beer to come out, longer if you want to draw a decent amount out in one go.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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PeeBee
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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by PeeBee » Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:22 pm

Here's a typical cooler:
s-l1600.jpg
Actually not so typical, it's got 4 product lines and 2 is more typical. The python lines are that pair of upturned pipes. The red stoppered pipe is the overflow and indicates when enough cooling water has been put in (don't try picking up the cooler when full - it weighs a ton).

I'm showing off, that's my new cooler and it won't arrive until Friday.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Globaldave
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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by Globaldave » Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:34 pm

HaHA thanks for the info. i will try and post a couple of pictures but mine doesn't look anything like that, i understand the basics i think like filling it till it it comes out of the overflow etc. i was given a Tbar with 3 taps on but i only want the middle tap the carling, there is a very small line that comes out that must restrict the flow and then to larger lines that look like cooling lines, can i attach the cooling lines one to each of the python pipes and then one from the keg to the input on the cooler and then from the output on the cooler to the smaller pipe coming from the tap?? hopefully the pictures will upload. here goes :D

[URL=http://s50.photobucket.com/user/globald ... d.png.html][IMG]https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f348 ... n4q5kd.png[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s50.photobucket.com/user/globald ... w.png.html][IMG]https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f348 ... vvc6tw.png[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=https://s50.photobucket.com/user/global ... d.png.html][IMG]https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f348 ... laaqkd.png[/IMG][/URL]

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PeeBee
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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by PeeBee » Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:36 pm

Damn, this post needs deleting!
Last edited by PeeBee on Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by PeeBee » Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:37 pm

Globaldave wrote:
Wed Aug 07, 2019 3:34 pm
HaHA thanks for the info. …
The second row has the piccie of the unit: It's got one product coil (the open tubes - you'll need to run line cleaner or the like through them and rinse them well), the jumpered tubes is the python line (and they've already been jumpered as I'd described).

The other photos are of python paraphernalia, and don't need to be dealt with just now. The third piccie is of the restrictor as you mentioned; can't say I've ever heard of the python line being restricted?

PS. Python lines are usually insulated or else they form condensation and drip over everything.
Last edited by PeeBee on Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Globaldave
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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by Globaldave » Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:03 pm

Hmmm i didnt know if i could disconnect the jumpered tube and connect them to the 2 clear tubes that come from the tap. the thin tube that has the flow adjuster on is for the carling tap. it will get a thourgh clean once my cleaning bucket turns up.

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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by PeeBee » Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:14 pm

Globaldave wrote:
Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:03 pm
Hmmm i didnt know if i could disconnect the jumpered tube and connect them to the 2 clear tubes that come from the tap. the thin tube that has the flow adjuster on is for the carling tap. it will get a thourgh clean once my cleaning bucket turns up.
The last thing you want is beer running into the python line. That's why I said think of it as containing engine oil! You describe it as the "thin" one, or the one with a line down it. If you've got one of these fancy towers with condensation running down them, that will be why the python lines are fitted to it. The condensation is eye candy, deal with the important bit - beer - first.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Globaldave
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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by Globaldave » Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:27 pm

ahh i see what you mean now, ive been getting a bit confused, i thought the 2 lines was to keep the beer in the line cold but i guess the short distance (1 meter) from cooler to tap i guess that wont be needed, thats good i can just eliminate them then, not bothered about condensation running all over my bar haha.

so then
co2 and regulator with line to the bottom of inlet on keg coupler

line out of top of tap on keg to cooler input and line out of cooler output to tap on the bar.

is it really that simple lol

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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by PeeBee » Wed Aug 07, 2019 5:09 pm

Just be doubly sure 'cos I'm giving advice over a distance based on some photos I'm sure I'm interpreting correctly (i.e. if it squirts beer all over you, I've vanished!).

I am assuming the two middle tubes on the cooler are the python lines 'cos they are jumpered and with a striped tube. That means I can assume the other two outer tubes are to the product (cooling) coil. They are always in pairs, an out and an in (in the case of the python line, an out and return). So the hashed together bundle of pipes ("python") is a slight mystery 'cos it appears to have two beer lines (clear) not one. There must be a return line for the python cooling line, though that might be separate from the python "bundle".

Anyway, enough, I'm confusing myself so can't be helping you any more. The "technology" pre-dates the moon landings so it will be simple (ish). Just don't ask me about "keg couplers" 'cos that is well out of my league (I'm not great at lunar landers either).
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Globaldave
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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by Globaldave » Wed Aug 07, 2019 6:55 pm

haha you have been a great help already i will not baffle you anymore with my complex set up, just go with it, i let you know next week. i will either be supping a nice cold beer or wearing it lol

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Re: Newbie home bar experience needed

Post by PeeBee » Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:46 am

Best I could find on manuals, but this "TRM900" seems to be a later model and the pipe configuration is quite different. Might be worth giving Brandels a call to see if you can get the right manual? You must find the model number for your cooler first.
https://brandels.co.uk/wp-content/uploa ... Manual.pdf
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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