The cure for your short hose troubles

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
TJTHEBEST said:
I got some of these from grainger, and they barely fit in my diptube. I broke 2 of them trying to shove them in the tube. broke into a bunch of little pieces. Then after my keg was empty i was a real pain trying to get them out. Tried the air compressor and that didnt work. I ended up shoving a piece of solid copper wire up there to get them out.
Click to expand...

Did you get the correct size? Mine slide in/out with no problem. 5' line work great. Still foaming, add 3 sticks at 18 psi 44 deg, no problems.
 
I ordered 10 of these. Hope they come today.

About sanitization. There have been only 2-3 posts about boiling the suckers. How does Delrin hold up in boiling water?
 
Delrin melts at about 350F, so you can autoclave it if you really want to, or boil it at 50 billion feet below sea level.
 
vkmaynard said:
Did you get the correct size? Mine slide in/out with no problem. 5' line work great. Still foaming, add 3 sticks at 18 psi 44 deg, no problems.
Click to expand...

I thought I got the right ones from Grainger but they just don't fit...
 
I have my dunkelweizen set to 20PSI @ 34F which should get me just over 3.5 volumes. So the low end or the style. with 5' of 3/16" tubing and 3 of the mixer nozzles it pours perfectly. I didn't even try without them. The first ~3 seconds are all foam, most likely because the tower is warm. After that it's completely smooth. I'm glad I found this thread!
 
Holy Smokes - the epoxy mixing tubes work effortlessly. My pour went from 3/4 foam to a nice light head with two nozzles. The pour takes a few seconds longer but at least it's carbonated.

My setup - 4ft 1/4 inch line @ 12 PSI.
 
Yup, 3 mixers in a keg of Belgian golden strong carbed to about 3.5 Vol works great. Before I found these I was having big time troubles with serving a saison. Almost setup a separate beer line just for Belgians..
 
AWESOME!!!! I just went to Grainger and picked a couple up. I set up my keezer yesterday and was blowing foam and getting piss#d. These things kick ass! FYI these are the ones I got. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DEVCON-Epoxy-Mix-Nozzle-4TT44

I also ordered a pack of these http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/LOCTITE-Mix-Nozzle-3NVL6?Pid=search

The devcon one's are .240" or thereabouts. I put mine in the bottom of my dip tube. The end with the flat piece is a little wider so I put the other end in and it fits great.
 
ozzy1038 said:
AWESOME!!!! I just went to Grainger and picked a couple up. I set up my keezer yesterday and was blowing foam and getting piss#d. These things kick ass! FYI these are the ones I got. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DEVCON-Epoxy-Mix-Nozzle-4TT44

I also ordered a pack of these http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/LOCTITE-Mix-Nozzle-3NVL6?Pid=search

The devcon one's are .240" or thereabouts. I put mine in the bottom of my dip tube. The end with the flat piece is a little wider so I put the other end in and it fits great.
Click to expand...

That might explain why some folks are having trouble getting mixers to fit their dip tubes. I got the Loctite brand ones from my local Grainger and they literally drop right in the tubes, no pushing required, so they're likely a bit skinnier than the Devcon brand mixers...

Cheers!
 
I can't believe how long this thread is! Anyway... has anyone ever had trouble using these with Perlick faucets? I'm trying to do a little troubleshooting and just throwing that out there.
 
day_trippr said:
that might explain why some folks are having trouble getting mixers to fit their dip tubes. I got the loctite brand ones from my local grainger and they literally drop right in the tubes, no pushing required, so they're likely a bit skinnier than the devcon brand mixers...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

+1
 
splobucket said:
I can't believe how long this thread is! Anyway... has anyone ever had trouble using these with Perlick faucets? I'm trying to do a little troubleshooting and just throwing that out there.
Click to expand...

I'm using them with six recent-vintage 525ss faucets. These twisty things are the bomb! They totally removed the need to change beer line lengths to accommodate high-volume brews (Wheaties) or low-volume brews (Stouts). I just configure each keg with the number of mixers needed and get foam free pours no matter the brew on fixed 6 foot lines...

Cheers!
 
Reverend JC said:
I guess im confused. You guys all use perlick taps or something similar right? I can see why you would need something if using a picnic tap, but if you are serving out of regular taps why not just buy more hose? its cheap.

I have 10' coiled sitting on top of each keg in my fridge and it came out perfect from the very first pour.

Not trying to be contrary, just trying to figure out your mission.
Click to expand...

I replace my hose regularly, that stuff gets expensive as it builds up
 
Drake371 said:
These things would work great in a Immersion CHiller or a HEX ..... breaks up the boundary layer on the inside of the tubing for better heat exchanges....

just my two cents.
Click to expand...

The slower movement will strip less heat per time, and more per volume. You can achieve the same, let me repeat, SAME result by turning down your faucet
 
WickedSoxFan said:
Hey all - first post, just wanted to try to give back to the community... great thread, and thanks to the OP for the suggestion - works like a champ!

Here's the Delrin MSDS from DuPont.

I'm no chemical engineer, but looks to me like you shouldn't burn it, or use with "strong" acids or bases, or oxidizers.

The last part got me - might not want to hose the swizzle down with Star-San without a good rinse afterward... I like preserving the flavor of my beer, but preferably not with formaldehyde. I'm pretty sure Star-San is considered an oxidizer, but it's definitely an acid-based cleaner: StarSan Tech Sheet. Whether or not it's "strong" enough in diluted form to affect the swizzle is anyone's guess.

With that said, I'll give them a good wash and rinse with bottled distilled water, then pop them in tonight to see how it goes... but I think I'll take my chances avoiding the StarSan...
Click to expand...

I'm thinking isopropyl will clean them. They are sitting in ethanol as it is.
 
So as a software developer for Real-Time Analyzers (www.rta.biz) I was able to do some chemical analysis on samples of this delrin plastic mixer (from McMaster).

I decided to do a study on delrin in HCl (hydrochloric acid, a strong acid that should leech out chemicals), Starsan, Isopropyl, and Ethanol.

The HCl destroyed the sample in the matter of hours, and obviously I was able to see the Delrin in the sample as it was dissolved into it.

More interestingly, after subtracting the StarSan spectrum with the Starsan and Delrin, I was left with a spectrum that directly lines up with Delrin, so I did notice some Delrin in the StarSan sample. The StarSan sample was not diluted, and was used how you buy it. One can do tests with different dilutions to see the effect, but by principle if it is noticeable in pure StarSan, it should still be noticeable under weaker conditions, but I might not be able to test it at that concetration (because of all the water).

I just finished looking at the measurements, and am putting together some results, the above test was done quickly, so I want to re-do it more carefully.
 
Interesting data, but at 1 to 256 dilution (1oz to 5 gallons) and 30 seconds contact time I'm not all that concerned.
 
Not to denigrate what you're doing... it sounds like you're in a CSI lab, pretty high tech stuff. Do you think beer is acidic enough to break down delrin? That might be more concerning given the contact time is weeks/months and that it's actually consumed - unlike the starsan.
 
bruin_ale said:
Not to denigrate what you're doing... it sounds like you're in a CSI lab, pretty high tech stuff. Do you think beer is acidic enough to break down delrin? That might be more concerning given the contact time is weeks/months and that it's actually consumed - unlike the starsan.
Click to expand...

A lot of people leave StarSan in their kegs. I'm not interested in concern rather than I am with a fact like ethanol or StarSan has the capability to leech out chemicals from the plastic. Even at much higher concetrations, knowing those chemicals have the ability is all that I can test. It's more like an intro to CSI lab. It would take too much time/money to figure out on the particulate level if it is happening at certain concentrations.

One thing I don't have the capability to test is different pH levels. Beer will be one of my tests, but the amount of water in beer will make it hard.

It's looking as if isopropyl is the best method for cleaning. I saw very little difference in isopropyl after coming in contact with it, but like I said, I rushed the tests because I was eager to see what was happening. I'm going to leave them for some time and do a more detailed anaylsis
 
bruin_ale said:
Not to denigrate what you're doing... it sounds like you're in a CSI lab, pretty high tech stuff. Do you think beer is acidic enough to break down delrin? That might be more concerning given the contact time is weeks/months and that it's actually consumed - unlike the starsan.
Click to expand...

And as an FYI, I'm already using these mixers, but I'd like to know what's going on because there are stainless steel products out there claiming to do similar things.
 
Woof! That's a lot of coin for each of those suckers, and given I might follow a pale with a sprightly wheat, I'd need multiple different values for each faucet.

I'll stick with the mixers, sanitized with the same cheap vodka with which I fill my ferm locks...

Cheers!
 
I have two of the swizzles as a second attempt. They did not work so well the first time because my beer was over carbonated. Now that I let this one slowly carbonate, they work like a charm!

Do you guys reuse these from batch to batch?
 
Daedalus said:
I have two of the swizzles as a second attempt. They did not work so well the first time because my beer was over carbonated. Now that I let this one slowly carbonate, they work like a charm!

Do you guys reuse these from batch to batch?
Click to expand...

All the time. When I have a keg kick I always clean the Out dip tube anyway so that's when I pop out the sticks and drop them into some cheap vodka. When I'm done cleaning the keg and filled it with sanitizer I shake out the sticks and pop them back in their original nozzle tubes for storage 'til they're needed again...

Cheers!
 
I got some of these this week and think they're awesome. They make so much sense it's surprising you don't see a product on homebrew sites to do this. Likewise, all over the forums people talk about longer hoses... This is better!
 
TwoGunz said:
I got some of these this week and think they're awesome. They make so much sense it's surprising you don't see a product on homebrew sites to do this. Likewise, all over the forums people talk about longer hoses... This is better!
Click to expand...

Don't people always talk/wish for a longer hose? haha

I agree - people who aren't getting good results aren't doing something right because many people out there are having success (I am one of them). These are great for getting your spaghetti out of your keezer.

Right now I am trying to figure out how much line resistance they add. I estimated that they are similar to adding ~5ft of beer hose at about 3volumes of carb (give or take) with no gravity factored in. So i went with 2.2 R per ft for 3/16 bevlex x 5 feet to get 11R per mixer stick from mcmaster car. From there I said let's call it about 10 R per mixer stick.

Nothing exceptionally scientific about how I got to that. It just seemed like a lot of people were reporting that with a 5ft hose they were foaming and a 10ft hose gave a good poor, or 1 mixer stick added + a 5 ft hose.

My current set up is unique though for a couple lines. Two lines I have are factored in with gravity and 1/4 '' lines.

For reference to those folks who even want to run a bar line up to the first floor with a basement see below:

Gravity = 10ft x .5r = 5R
+ Line = 1/4'' bevlex 15ft x .65 = 9.75R
-----------------------------------
= 14.75R (this ran too fast if carbed to 3 volumes and foamed so I added 1 mixer stick and nice slow pour to perlick faucets)
with mixer stick ~24.75

My bevlex 3/16'' line in my keezer on a party tap was 5ft and foamed at about 3 volumes. Added a mixer stick and nice slow pour.

gravity = 0
+ Line R = 2.2x5 = 11R (too fast and foaming)
With Mixer stick ~21R



Point being, if you factor in for your system with the numbers I have above you will be pretty darn close and can tweak as you need. I am setting up a stout line so I will see how far off my numbers are :D
 
Oh man, you had to go get scientific on us. I reduced your equation:

2 mixers + some bit of hose = sort of slow but good nuff pour!
 
TwoGunz said:
Oh man, you had to go get scientific on us. I reduced your equation:

2 mixers + some bit of hose = sort of slow but good nuff pour!
Click to expand...

Haha that is the reality though - this isn't an exact science.

I will be peeved though if the perfect pour is 2 mixer sticks and some length of hose... + 5 feet more than I cut hahah. Then I will have to start all over again. The main thing is I want to get close so I can replicate results. :D

I just vented my guinness in the hopes that it will be flat enough by the time I set up the stout faucet!
 
They do work well. However, there definitely is some interaction between the beer and the plastic, as over months/years they become quite brittle.

Fortunately I have a friend in the metalworking industry who made me essentially the same thing, but made of 316 stainless. They work awesome and will last forever.

Unfortunately, it's not economically viable to manufacture and sell them. They'd have to retail for around $14. :mad:

Michael


TwoGunz said:
I got some of these this week and think they're awesome. They make so much sense it's surprising you don't see a product on homebrew sites to do this. Likewise, all over the forums people talk about longer hoses... This is better!
Click to expand...

ss_helical.jpg
 
datamike said:
They do work well. However, there definitely is some interaction between the beer and the plastic, as over months/years they become quite brittle.

Fortunately I have a friend in the metalworking industry who made me essentially the same thing, but made of 316 stainless. They work awesome and will last forever.

Unfortunately, it's not economically viable to manufacture and sell them. They'd have to retail for around $14. :mad:

Michael
Click to expand...

Too bad we couldn't get a bulk buy on those!
 

Similar threads

C
Hop Water/Seltzer - Troubleshooting Carbonation and Dispensing
Replies
6
Views
762
danno6102
D
M
1/4" beer line with oxebar keg in regular fridge - Length/foam issues
2
Replies
69
Views
2K
Matheos
M
S
Floating Dip Tube Foamer
Replies
30
Views
810
madscientist451
madscientist451
B
Foaming issues with kegging
Replies
3
Views
1K
day_trippr
day_trippr
Velnerj
Another foaming issue
Replies
10
Views
1K
day_trippr
day_trippr

Latest posts

Back
Top