Combining 2 Kegs to 1 tap

[inthebackwoods]

I had a random thought last night and wanted to post it on here to see if it would work or not. Suppose you had 2 kegs and 3 taps. Let's say keg 1 had a pale ale and keg 2 had a stout. You wanted tap 3 to have a nice blend of both the pale and stout (Black and Tan). Would it work to take the beer line out of keg 1, hook it up a splitter and do the same with keg 2 to a second splitter. Have one end of keg 1 splitter go to tap 1, one end of keg 2 splitter go to tap 2, and have the two loose ends of keg 1 and 2 meet up at a separate splitter connecting them both to tap 3. So tap 1 would have keg 1's pale ale. Tap 2 would have keg 2's stout. Tap 3 would have a blend of keg 1 and 2. I was thinking since pressure is forcing beer out of both kegs, the pale would never leak into the stout keg and vice versa. I know it seems like a lot of effort, but just trying to humor the idea to see if something like this is even possible. Thoughts?

 

[momobono]

Interesting thought experiment... and maybe an epic result!

You're correct with the gas pressure there... it will always be positive pressure coming from the kegs, so you won't get any bleed-back through your liquid connects from one to the other.

You'd probably need three Y-shaped connectors with barbs on the end, with corresponding clamps. I would install a ball-lock on the combining connector, just for safety (my troubleshooting engineery side is nervous).

I want one if it works.

 

[P-J]

You need to think about this a little more. The only way that you can accomplish this mission would be to install check valves on the lines that go to your blending faucet. If you do not do this, all the faucets will blend some of the beer.

Imagine this: You pour from tap 1. There will be a pressure drop in the pale ale line during the pour. While this is happening, there will also be a pressure drop in the line going to tap 3 (the blend) and this will be reflected back to the line coming from keg 2. Result? blended pour.

 

[fly-fisher]

Not sure this will work with out some sort of backflow preventer. The reason I say this is in theory the pressures between the lines and kegs are all balanced. But the second you crack tap #1 open there will be a momentary pressure drop. Now the question is will the momentary drop be enough for keg #2 to push beer past your Y and in to the Keg #1 line till it balances again?
This is why I think you will need some sort of backflow preventer down stream of your Y's and up stream of your mixed beer faucet.
Just My Two Cents Worth.

Dave

 

[fly-fisher]

Opps sorry for the over run on P-J. T believe he posted just as I was typing my response

 

[brewingmeister]

Just curious but why would you want them to come out mixed instead of having the option of mixing or floating them from their respective faucets?

 

[inthebackwoods]

You need to think about this a little more. The only way that you can accomplish this mission would be to install check valves on the lines that go to your blending faucet. If you do not do this, all the faucets will blend some of the beer.

Imagine this: You pour from tap 1. There will be a pressure drop in the pale ale line during the pour. While this is happening, there will also be a pressure drop in the line going to tap 3 (the blend) and this will be reflected back to the line coming from keg 2. Result? blended pour.

Forgive the ignorance, but what do you mean by check valves and where in the setup would I need to put them?

 

[inthebackwoods]

Just curious but why would you want them to come out mixed instead of having the option of mixing or floating them from their respective faucets?

Curiosity factor of if it would work more than anything.

 

[brewingmeister]

The backflow preventers or check valves are put in the liquid line and their purpose is to allow the liquid to forward but not backwards. So if you pull from a faucet and there are splitters involved the liquid won't just flow from the path of less resistance.

 

[P-J]

Something like this:

CHECK VALVE TEES

You just need to do a search to find an inexpensive product that fits your plan.

 

[JuanMoore]

Something like this:

CHECK VALVE TEES

You just need to do a search to find an inexpensive product that fits your plan.

Rather than a check valve T like that that only prevents backflow from the downstream line into the T, you'd really want a single in line check valve for each incoming beer line. This way the beer from one incoming line couldn't flow into the other incoming beer line. US Plastics has a wide assortment of suitable products that are reasonably priced. Here's an example-

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=24234&catid=489

The whole thing seems like a bit of a pointless exercise, but that's JMO.

 

[inthebackwoods]

Something like this:

CHECK VALVE TEES

You just need to do a search to find an inexpensive product that fits your plan.

Sweet! I'll do some research and see if I can find something for a price that would make the experiment worth trying. Thanks.

 

[inthebackwoods]

Rather than a check valve T like that that only prevents backflow from the downstream line into the T, you'd really want a single in line check valve for each incoming beer line. This way the beer from one incoming line couldn't flow into the other incoming beer line. US Plastics has a wide assortment of suitable products that are reasonably priced. Here's an example-

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=24234&catid=489

The whole thing seems like a bit of a pointless exercise, but that's JMO.

Even better. If I try this, I will post results. Thanks for the tips!