Tap that.
June 1, 2012 11:44 AM Subscribe
How to make a (non-beer) tap?
Is it possible to make a beer-tap style beverage dispenser for a non-carbonated beverage?
I'm constructing a soda water dispenser, and have a beer tower tap, with two faucets on it, for all intensive purposes, similar to this one. One faucet will be used for a soda water, this leaves me one tap to have some fun with.
Just to be explicit, I'm not looking to use this as a beer tap right now, that's another project entirely.
Is it possible to (inexpensively, hopefully) turn this extra faucet into a non-carbonated beverage tap?
Is it possible to make a beer-tap style beverage dispenser for a non-carbonated beverage?
I'm constructing a soda water dispenser, and have a beer tower tap, with two faucets on it, for all intensive purposes, similar to this one. One faucet will be used for a soda water, this leaves me one tap to have some fun with.
Just to be explicit, I'm not looking to use this as a beer tap right now, that's another project entirely.
Is it possible to (inexpensively, hopefully) turn this extra faucet into a non-carbonated beverage tap?
I'm a home brewer and have something very similar myself to dispense my beer.
Generally, with a tap tower like that, the beverage you're serving is coming from below the tap. As such, the use of a continually hooked up and turned on supply of CO2 gas is what supplies the pressure to the keg to force the liquid up the lines and out of the tap. So no, you can't have unfizzy liquid coming from a traditional tap like the one you pictured.
Now, when you brew beer, the resulting product is flat, and you have to add CO2 to make it carbonated. The way you do this is by hooking the keg up to the gas and let it sit for a week or two. The pressure builds in the keg, and the gas gets forced into solution, thus leaving you with a fizzy beverage. In theory, if you filled the keg, only used the carbonation to push the liquid to the taps, and drank it within a week, you'd not have (very) fizzy liquid.
posted by teriyaki_tornado at 11:53 AM on June 1, 2012
Generally, with a tap tower like that, the beverage you're serving is coming from below the tap. As such, the use of a continually hooked up and turned on supply of CO2 gas is what supplies the pressure to the keg to force the liquid up the lines and out of the tap. So no, you can't have unfizzy liquid coming from a traditional tap like the one you pictured.
Now, when you brew beer, the resulting product is flat, and you have to add CO2 to make it carbonated. The way you do this is by hooking the keg up to the gas and let it sit for a week or two. The pressure builds in the keg, and the gas gets forced into solution, thus leaving you with a fizzy beverage. In theory, if you filled the keg, only used the carbonation to push the liquid to the taps, and drank it within a week, you'd not have (very) fizzy liquid.
posted by teriyaki_tornado at 11:53 AM on June 1, 2012
Best answer: exogenous beat me to it, and upon reading his answer, he may be right.
But, even at "just enough pressure to push it out the tap" I think the beverage thats supposed to be "non fizzy" will still get a tiny bit bubbly within a week or so. That may not matter.
posted by teriyaki_tornado at 11:55 AM on June 1, 2012
But, even at "just enough pressure to push it out the tap" I think the beverage thats supposed to be "non fizzy" will still get a tiny bit bubbly within a week or so. That may not matter.
posted by teriyaki_tornado at 11:55 AM on June 1, 2012
Best answer: True, the CO2 pressure might result in a little detectable carbonation. The amount of pressure required to dispense (and thus the degree of carbonation) would be minimized by using a short and thick serving line between the keg and the tap to reduce resistance.
posted by exogenous at 12:01 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by exogenous at 12:01 PM on June 1, 2012
Response by poster: Thanks! This points me in the right direction for sure.
I wanted to use the tap for cold-brewed coffee, and it wouldn't be left sitting for more than 4-5 days or so. This sounds pretty plausible with a setup using that regulator. We'll just have to see how fizzy it gets, and go from there!
posted by furnace.heart at 12:08 PM on June 1, 2012
I wanted to use the tap for cold-brewed coffee, and it wouldn't be left sitting for more than 4-5 days or so. This sounds pretty plausible with a setup using that regulator. We'll just have to see how fizzy it gets, and go from there!
posted by furnace.heart at 12:08 PM on June 1, 2012
If you store your cold-brew coffee in a keg under low pressure at room temperature instead of chilled it will dissolve a lot less CO2. So if you have problems with CO2, you could dispense the coffee from the tap at room temperature and then server it over ice.
On the inexpensive side of things, you could deliver the coffee with a gravity feed. You would need to have it higher than the tap and you would need to rig up a keg or other container in a creative way.
posted by bdc34 at 1:06 PM on June 1, 2012
On the inexpensive side of things, you could deliver the coffee with a gravity feed. You would need to have it higher than the tap and you would need to rig up a keg or other container in a creative way.
posted by bdc34 at 1:06 PM on June 1, 2012
I am a bit late to the thread, but my local coffee shop serves cold brewed coffee on tap. They are using cornet kegs purchased at the homwbrew store down the street. Their coffee has never been noticeably carbonated.
posted by phil at 9:05 PM on June 1, 2012
posted by phil at 9:05 PM on June 1, 2012
You can use nitrogen or argon to push the coffee out of the tap. I'm pretty sure this is what they use for wine on tap systems. This is nice 'cos you can have the pressure a bit higher and get a decent flow rate. I have a CO2 kegerator setup and I have a tank of argon in the garage (for tig welding) but I've never got around to running wine through the taps. I think nitrogen is cheaper but I haven't been to the gas place in a long time so IDK off hand.
I imagine you'll have to clean the lines much more frequently if you're running coffee through them because of all the dissolved solids. I don't know how long cold brewed coffee lasts before stuff starts growing in it either. The nice thing with kegs is that you can make up a keg of cleaner and push that through the lines. Kegertaors are fun.
posted by glip at 6:34 AM on June 2, 2012
I imagine you'll have to clean the lines much more frequently if you're running coffee through them because of all the dissolved solids. I don't know how long cold brewed coffee lasts before stuff starts growing in it either. The nice thing with kegs is that you can make up a keg of cleaner and push that through the lines. Kegertaors are fun.
posted by glip at 6:34 AM on June 2, 2012
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posted by exogenous at 11:47 AM on June 1, 2012