braided vinyl tubing from keggle to CFC

Hi all,

finally have my keggle assembled with a weldless bulkhead. The bulkhead has a barb hose attachment on the outside for a draining the keggle. My plan is to put a use a piece of braided vinyl to drain the keggle into my CFC.

I had to heat up the vinyl tubing (dunked into hot water) to get it to slip onto the barb hose attachment on the bulkhead but now its tight on there. I know I can heat it up again to pull it off, but I was hoping to have it slide on/off easily enough that I could leave it on my CFC and slip the hose onto the keggle bulkhead when I'm ready to drain.

What does everyone else use? I thinking I could heat it up again while on the barb hose attachment, and it might permanently deform so it will slide on/off. Any other tricks?

Thanks in advance!

I use QD's on my keggles. Quick on off. I don't have the link, but got them from McMaster-Carr

Seeing how you will be running 212* wort thru that I would NOT use a vinyl tube. You will be melting it and that will leach bad stuff into your beer.

Use silicone that's rated for the hight temps. Or as I have mine is a compression fitting hooking the CFC right to the valve.

I disagree. I use Braided Vinyl, potable water grade from Menards/Home Depot, going from boil kettle to CFC and have had no problems. And I'm not dead yet. I agree that for safety of mind it *could* be a good idea. But it's not mandatory, in my opinion.

(That being said, FSR, I like how you have yours set up. If my setup were a little more stationary / well-thought-out, I would probably do the same thing as you've done. Props to you.)

@ The OP, I've never had trouble removing hose - in fact, due to stretching, I have to cut 2" off the end of my hose every, oh, 5 or 6 batches, because it starts to not seal as well. Did you buy too tight of a hose diameter size, possibly? If so, you'll probably have to cut it off the barbed fitting *every* time, or invest in some quick-disconnects as the others have mentioned.

Thanks for all of the responses!

@kilted brewer: yeah, I thought of QD, but I'm brewing tomorrow and so I was looking for a more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of answer!

@FSR: silicone will definitely be the tubing of choice in the next go-round. But I find the braided vinyl holds up nicely. I hear what you are saying about vinyl and leaching, but with everything I've read most peoples' conclusion is "well, it could be a problem, but I still use it" I guess you can have the same criticism of silicone...

@christo: Interesting you have to cut off sections because of stretch. I bought the braided vinyl w/ a 3/8ID to fit over the 3/8copper of my CFC. I just looked and it appears the bulkhead has a 1/2 barb fitting...so there is my problem right there! I could go buy 1/2" ID hose, but then it would be too big for my CFC...maybe I need to find a 3/8 barb fitting now...

Yep - I had to do the same thing. It's probably a 1/2" ball valve, using a 1/2" NPT - 1/2" barbed fitting. Replacing it with 1/2"NPT x 3/8" Barbed should solve it. I found my fitting for less than $3 at a Home Depot/Menards/etc.

As far as cutting the ends - Like I noted, I do it rarely - 5-6 or more batches between each time it needs cut.

I use the same braided vinyl hose to go MLT->kettle, and kettle-> CFC, so it gets double use. If it's going to be used kettle->CFC only, I would expect it to last well over 10 brews before needing to trim the end.

Brewing tomorrow would cut it close, but just so you know McMaster has amazingly fast shipping.

broadbill said:

@FSR: silicone will definitely be the tubing of choice in the next go-round. But I find the braided vinyl holds up nicely. I hear what you are saying about vinyl and leaching, but with everything I've read most peoples' conclusion is "well, it could be a problem, but I still use it" I guess you can have the same criticism of silicone...

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My dogs like to eat their poo but that does not mean they should or that it's good for them.

I used to use the vinyl tube to run my sparge water from the HLT thru the mainfold and I know that at 170* it was melting the hose a little which can't be good.

For the time being I'm sure you'll be fine but I would want to change it out as soon as I could.

FSR402 said:

For the time being I'm sure you'll be fine but I would want to change it out as soon as I could.

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I've done 4 or 5 batches now with my new cfc, and I've been using the vinal tubing. I swear I can taste an "off" flavor that reminds me of a new blow up raft that I had as a kid. It's very light, and not noticeable except once in a while...it just is there.
I ordered 5 foot of Silicone hose from Austin Home Brew yesterday.

BigKahuna said:

I've done 4 or 5 batches now with my new cfc, and I've been using the vinal tubing. I swear I can taste an "off" flavor that reminds me of a new blow up doll that I had as a kid. It's very light, and not noticeable except once in a while...it just is there.
I ordered 5 foot of Silicone hose from Austin Home Brew yesterday.

Click to expand...

I'm sure it's the tube that's giving it to you.

Oh and fixed it for you.

FSR, what do you ferment in? What about racking materials?

I use the braided vinyl too. I don't get any off flavors. I also use clamps to hold mine on, since the heat will make it stretch and start to leak. Maybe I'll look into getting silicone tubing in the future.