Where are the kegs?

February 15, 2010 2:44 PM

Where are the kegs kept at a bar(?), not the extras but the ones that are currently on tap. They are not under the bar? Is there a long line run to the keg? How long a line can (is usually) run from source to tap?
posted by boatsforshoes to Food & Drink (25 answers total)

Typically they are in the basement.
posted by prunes at 2:48 PM on February 15, 2010

It really depends on the bar. Often in British pubs kegs are kept in a cellar. In american bars there are often lines running from a back room to the taps. Sometimes they are under the bar. I don't know what the maximum length is, but it's probably limited by what the pressure level is in the tanks.
posted by JauntyFedora at 2:48 PM on February 15, 2010

Mostly in the basement. Something to avoid thinking about: how often they clean the lines.
posted by sciencegeek at 2:59 PM on February 15, 2010

It'll vary by establishment - wherever they can be kept at the desired serving temperature. There's not a hard-and-fast rule about maximum line length, but you need to make sure the rest of the system is calibrated according to whatever you're working with. Specifically, making sure you adjust your pressure and (if you can) keep the line insulated as much as possible in order to keep the beer in the line at the desired temperature. Otherwise you can get a lot of foam on dispensing.
posted by nickmark at 3:02 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I agree it depends quite a bit on the layout of the bar, mainly due to logistics like, where they have space for a row of kegs to sit and feed the taps.

In the Southern Sun pub up the street from Chez lfr, there is a very long bar with a row of taps along the rear wall (such that the bartenders have their backs to the taps when serving patrons, and subsequently when pulling a pint, they have their backs to the patrons).

Having done a brewery tour there, I can state with authority that here is a correspondingly long wall of kegs right behind that wall of taps, with a feedline through the wall from each keg to each tap, so the kegs are simply on the other side of the wall with a short ~12" feedline between each. Since this place is a microbrewery, this Giant Wall o' Kegs is simply part of their warehousing / storage area. Other bars/pubs, ymmv. I have seen this kegs-behind-the-wall-of-the-bar setup at quite a few (American) bars, however, especially if they have a correspondingly large array of beers on tap.

Bars that have taps in clusters up front (along the bar itself) I would think would often have the kegs correspondingly either under the bar or in the cellar, whichever the shortest run of feedlines would produce. I'd think the logistics of keeping the feedlines relatively short would greatly depend upon mechanical/physical limitations of pressurisation, etc... that I'm too much of a secretary and not enough of an engineer/plumber/master brewer to figure out (hmm, maybe I'll ask mr. lfr, he's both a Mech E and a beer drinker...) but I wouldn't think you could run a feedline an extremely long distance without creating a great deal of foam and drama every time you switched a keg.
posted by lonefrontranger at 3:04 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

How long a line can (is usually) run from source to tap?

I don't know that there's a "usual" length, but I tended bar at an 1890's hotel in a Welsh spa town, and the active kegs were kept near the spare ones in the basement. The lines were at least 25 feet long and powered by tanks (CO2 for the lager and bitter and nitrous for the Guinness) also stored in the basement. It was tubing of a similar material to what you might find coming from an IV drip, but a larger diameter.

We flushed the lines every Sunday morning, and so did the other hotels in town. We used a diluted cleaning solution on the first run and water on the second.
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:07 PM on February 15, 2010

It depends. Most of the bars and restaraunts i have worked in the kegs were in the refridgerator walk in in the back. Some kegs where connected underneath the bar but most of the other kegs where conencted to a long line that went from the walk in to the bar.
posted by majortom1981 at 3:13 PM on February 15, 2010

I bartended at places that had 100 foot lines. You really need to clear the lines every morning because the beer that just sits there will not taste fresh...so long lines like that one cause alot of wastage. Tapped kegs are usually kept in the same walk-in cooler that backups are, but there is no rule...with most bars necessity is the mother of invention when it comes to beer and kegs and lines.
posted by vito90 at 3:13 PM on February 15, 2010

In Australia it's characteristic for the keg rooms of pubs to be in a basement below the bar. There's quite often a trap door set into the footpath outside so that kegs can be rolled straight from the truck down a ramp to the keg room. As a result you can tell if a building's been used a pub if it's got those trap doors.

I've drunk in pubs many stories high, so I assume that gravity isn't a limit on the length of a beer line.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:51 PM on February 15, 2010

I think it mostly comes down to where space is available. One place I frequent keeps the kegs right by the bar in a smallish enclosure and the DJ sits right on top of it. Another place where I used to work kept them in the basement.

About Sciencegeek's comment: This probably varies enormously, but here in Iceland the breweries are responsible for the lines, taps, gauges and other associated equipment. They also clean the lines regularly, in line with some health regulations, I assume. In return for this the bar in question cannot serve a competiting brewery/importer's product on tap.
posted by Zero Gravitas at 3:56 PM on February 15, 2010

My local watering holes have the kegs right behind the bar, one even has it as the walk in cooler that all the bottle beer is stored in that the bartender pulls from to serve.
posted by deezil at 4:14 PM on February 15, 2010

The lines were at least 25 feet long and powered by tanks (CO2 for the lager and bitter and nitrous for the Guinness)

I suspect you mean Nitrogen...
posted by Brockles at 4:44 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

In America, it's usually directly below the bar (the kegs are pressurized with inert gases to fight gravity (Guinness has its own weird mix for some reason.)) Waaay back, they were kept above the bar and gravity-fed (I understand that some Brit pubs still do this.)

I worked in one bar that had near-hundred foot lines for architectural reasons. They were heavily insulated *and* chilled to keep the beer cold. That worked rather well (they placed very high in a local free paper survey for coldest beer) but they still blew about a pitcher of foam the first time they were used each day.

Lines are normally cleaned monthly. This is usually a free service provided by the distributors to ensure their product tastes acceptable. (If you have multiple distributors, they will each show up and only clean their own lines.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:48 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, like everyone says - it's going to depend on the space available to the bar. Most places don't keep the tapped kegs right under the bar because that space is used for other things (bottled beer coolers, sinks, well racks, ice). In someplace like NYC where lots of buildings are built with basements the kegs will often live there, usually in a cooler. Down south where I grew up and not so many newer places have basements, there'll often be a cool-room close by (the pizza place i worked in the late 80's/early 90's actually had the tap right on the other side of the wall from the walk-in, the keg line run was maybe 4 feet, curled around through the wall and all).

The thing is kegs take up a lot of room, especially somewhere that's pouring enough to keep several on hand. Kegs can also be messy - when you tap a fresh one sometimes you're going to get a little spray out of the old keg, and sometimes from the new one too. You don't necessarily want that right behind your bar where you'll have to mop it up before anyone slips in it, and you've got people going back and forth trying to serve drinks at the same time.

Kegs are also usually kinda ugly, and unless you're going for some sort of industrial-chic atmosphere hiding them is a good thing. Having someone roll a slightly-dented, scratched up bare metal keg through your well-decorated homey bar - lots of owners would like to avoid that.
posted by pupdog at 4:57 PM on February 15, 2010

Regarding ales then there should be a period of 48 hours for the barrel sitting up on wooden chocks while the finings settle out. The barrels lined up to use will thus be in the same place as the ones being served. A good bar will have ale barrels separate from say lager, as they require a different serving temperature. Much of the design and set up will be inflenced by the space available and the logistics of getting beer from barrel/cask to tap. My local serves one barrel at room temp and actually serves direct from barrel to glass. A large bar I used to work in had a large cellar and took its ale prep seriously. It had at least 20 metres of pipe (maybe more) to get beer from the colder cellar to the main bar.
posted by biffa at 5:07 PM on February 15, 2010

I suspect you mean Nitrogen...

NO! NITROUS! It was the funnest bar EVER!

Yeah, nitrogen. Sorry.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:10 PM on February 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

Nothing much to add other than this question brought to mind a previous question and answer.
posted by mannequito at 5:22 PM on February 15, 2010

Where I worked, it was directly under the bar in fridges.
posted by salvia at 5:39 PM on February 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

It depends, but even at McDonalds the multiplex for soft drinks is usually in the basement. If no basement, some utility closet. The pub I was at last night, the equipment was in a room just off the bar. So, I think, basement is ideal, otherwise got to work with the space you've got.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 5:57 PM on February 15, 2010

I worked in a place that was 3 businesses- A coffee joint, a resturant and a bar- that all shared a basement. Kegs were kept down there near the walk in freezer and there was one room for Co2 tanks for soda etc.

It was a new construction, so maybe older bars do it differently?
posted by GilloD at 6:31 PM on February 15, 2010

Here's a page about "balancing" keg systems (adjusting pressure, hose diameter, hose length to get the right faucet pressure). Additionally, people want to keep the serving pressure/temperature close to the point where it will keep the carbonation for long term (if you set it too low or high, after a few days the beer will be less/more carbonated). That pressure is around 15psi for a serving temperature of 40F.

If you run the lines through any unrefrigerated space, you need to insulate very well and/or run some active cooling (for example, a glycol line along the beer line).
posted by qvantamon at 7:03 PM on February 15, 2010

Lines are normally cleaned monthly. This is usually a free service provided by the distributors to ensure their product tastes acceptable. (If you have multiple distributors, they will each show up and only clean their own lines.)

Monthly isn't nearly often enough to ensure the product tastes acceptable. Lines should ideally be cleaned weekly, and when switching a line over to a new beer.

The lines were at least 25 feet long and powered by tanks (CO2 for the lager and bitter and nitrous for the Guinness) also stored in the basement.

Guinness is pushed with a blend of CO2 and nitrogen. (Cool aside: William Sealy Gosset invented the t-test while working as a chemist in charge of quality control at Guinness.) Blended gas is also used for a long draw system (when the kegs are far from the taps) to make sure that the beer doesn't become overcarbonated.

Here's a simple, but really good explanation of how a draft system works.
posted by HumuloneRanger at 7:35 PM on February 15, 2010

Where I worked, it was directly under the bar in fridges.

yeah, me too. and we never, ever cleaned the lines. our regulars had come to rely on our drafts for most of their nutrition and if we'd run out all the gunk they'd have gotten anemic.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:08 PM on February 15, 2010

Also, the old timey naturally carbed kegs weren't gravity fed, but pressurized by a hand pump. Now called cask ales in the us and real ales in England. They have live yeast in the casks like some craft brews have in their bottles, and they carb the beer while the pump handle pressurized the lines. These beers are kept at celler temps, usually around 45f.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:14 PM on February 15, 2010

In most places I've worked, the kegs are kept in a walk in refrigerator (usually taking up room that my produce could be taking up!). I agree with everyone so far that's stated that the shorter the line, the better. Long lines lead to waste (due to stale beer kept overnight in them) and are a bitch to clean, meaning that they probably won't get cleaned as often. No offense to anyone here, but I have found that regarding cleaning, bartenders are almost universally a lazy bunch, so if the cleaning is challenging it's less likely to get done.
The best places I've been have their taps on the reverse of the wall of the refrigerator that they are kept in.
posted by kaiseki at 1:02 PM on February 21, 2010