.17" ID Polyethelyne on .25" barbs

I'm frustrated by the crappy off flavors I've gotten from standard PVC beverage tubing. If I wanted a 3oz taster pour, I'd have to dump 2oz first.

I also don't care for coiling up 10 feet of 3/16 tubing. In a perfect world, I'd like to use 4 feet of .125" ID tubing but there's no way to get 1/8" on a 1/4" barb. 3/16 is hard enough and 1/8" is 33% smaller.

I know about the epoxy mixing insert trick on the dip tubes but it adds things to the keg cleaning regiment and there's a good reason to maintain the resistance of flow for the entire liquid run. Changing velocities along the way can knock the CO2 out of solution.

Polyethylene tubing is known to contribute less flavors/aroma to beer than PVC, but it's a little harder to work with because it's rigid. I found some 1/4" OD, .17" ID tubing at Lowes and scratched my head trying to figure out how to attach it to a 1/4" barb. Here's what I came up with.

Use 3/16" ID bed tubing pieces as couplings. I was only able to push it in by 1/2" and once I put the clamp on, I can't pull it apart.




It held overnight at 13psi. However, I won't go nuts replacing all the lines until I find out what pressure blows it apart. If it will take 25psi, I'll call it good.

Five feet of this stuff pours just a touch faster than ten feet of 3/16".

i use fingerlakes food/dairy pvc 3/16 from mcmaster and the only flavor issue is on the root beer line. so your using the line for an ice maker or ro system might use?

mordantly said:

i use fingerlakes food/dairy pvc 3/16 from mcmaster and the only flavor issue is on the root beer line. so your using the line for an ice maker or ro system might use?

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Is that stuff flavor free even with a small sample like 3oz? Liquid tubing is the last thing I need for my keezer and I don't want 30 feet/keg of lined 1/4" tubing and polyethylene seems like a pain. Bobby's tip does make it more feasible though.

Another thing I was thinking of trying was 1/8" ID, 3/8" OD polyethelyne from mcmaster and drilling it out to 1/4" ID on both ends for the barbs.

i think tygon is not a flavor creator. but kinda spendy.

How are you dealing with line management? Are you able to coil this stuff at all to keep it out of the way?

With only 5 feet, it's barely enough to coil since my taps are on the lid. My lines travel along the lid to the back, behind a PVC strap, then to the QD's. It will coil to about a 6" diameter no problem though.

Bobby did you ever test this at higher pressures? And have you noticed any off flavors from it?

I haven't done the elevated pressure test yet but the original one in the first post is still hanging in there at 13psi. I don't catch any of the nasty plastic taste on the first 2oz with this stuff, not so far anyway. I need to try it on my pilsner tap though because it would likely shine more on a delicate beer.

hmmm - I may need to give this a whirl - I bought 1/4" ID poly tubing from McMaster-Carr and since I heard you want to try not to splice I ripped apart my keg works tower rather than going into the jumper line it came with.

The issue is that when the beer (only water run through so far) is not being poured the pressure has water squirting out the top where my poly meets the splicing elbow that came with the tower - its a SS elbow smooth on the end to go into the faucet and slight barb on the line side. I tried to replace it with a barb-barb fitting but it wouldnt fit into the faucet...now the only thing standing between me and my kegs is a lead at this joint.

I'm open to any suggestions though going with a thicker vinyl around the joint may be my first attempt to fix.

Oh, the elbow barb isn't large enough for a good seal? Maybe you need to use otiker clamps. The OD of your poly is really too small for a worm drive clamp to apply even pressure.

Bobby_M said:

Maybe you need to use otiker clamps. The OD of your poly is really too small for a worm drive clamp to apply even pressure.

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That seems to be a brand - are you talking about using ear clamps (with/without insert)??

yeah, sorry... ear or pinch clamps but they do require a special tool. One trick I've used is to slide a snug fitting larger diameter piece of tubing over the small stuff and put the clamp on that. It helps to distribute the pressure better.

+1 on the Otiker clamps. They are great! VERY tight, never leak (When properly installed) and cheaper than worm clamps.
When I worked for Pepsi, we used what I would call a 90 degree side cutter to clamp them down. Now I just use a regular old side cutter out of the toolbox
Use a side cutter parallel to the clamp to cut them off if you ever need to remove one.

The only real down side is you have to keep a handful of sizes around.

Hey BSB...
It's hard to tell from my pics, but there are 2 layers of tubing to get the output of my chiller pump necked down to the 3/8" copper. I used worm clamps, and they leak (In the pic). Otikers now! It's solid.

Now I just need to find someone I can borrow the clamping too for vs spending $30 to install 2 clamps...oi

Nooooo...
Just use a side cutter/wire cutter/dikes or whatever you call it...
You can put a LOT of pressure on that clamp. It's not going to cut through unless you take both hands and squeeze the bejesus out of it. It'll almost crush all the way through a thick walled beer hose before the ear fails under the side cutter. To remove the clamp just turn the cutters 90 degrees (Parallel with the clamp itself) and cut the ear off.
I use QDs with swivel nuts in my keezer. I have found that I have to leave about 1/8" gap between the end of the hose and the nut because the Otiker clamp will compress and stretch the beer line into the nut! Then you can't turn the nut independent of the hose. IOW be careful not to get them TOO tight!

awesome! thanks for the insight...now I gotta find someplace that carries them locally vs paying $5 to ship $1 worth of clamps =p

I get them at Lowes, as well as my LHBS
Beer line takes the 13.3mm size. I don't know what your line will require. Better take some with you...
The cool part about these clamps, is that they put even pressure 360 degrees around the fitting, if you get the stepless ones. That's why they seal so well. I had to cut clamps off Pepsi premix machine keg lines that were easily 5 years old (Yea... yuk) and not leaking. And they were moved around every time the keg was changed.

I have 1/4" ID poly with a 1/16" wall - so 5/16" but I will def bring a small clip of it with me to ensure a snug fit.

Thanks again for all the input/help - hopefully with this fix I can start to drain the SA Noble Pils keg I have in there this weekend while my buddy and I do my first AG brew.

Hey...
Congrats on your 100th post too!

Mr. Bobby, thanks for this great idea and the photos. I am going to try this. The parts are incredibly cheap, $3 for 25' poly hose 1/4"OD from most local hardware stores, $3 for four clamps from the local auto parts store.

I looked at buying 10 feet of 1/8" ID Tygon Silver and some barbed reducers. That is about $20, but the shipping was $17. I assume not a lot of people are using your idea, which surprises me. Seems it would benefit many people here.

So many advantages compared to using more than 6' of 3/16" vinyl. Much less length to wrangle with. Much less plastic surface area touching the beer and leeching plasticizers, much less volume of beer in the tube. And the polyethylene leeches much less than the vinyl so the taste is kept good.

Thanks. Has yours been holding up?

I tried it. I used 6.5 feet. Keg is at 14 psi. Works very good with my party faucet.

Where the 3/16 bev tube is over this 0.17 tube I used worm gear clamps. It was difficult to determine how much to tighten. I over-tightened initially and caused lots of foam. I loosened it a bit, now it pours the correct amount of foam and does not leak. The worm gear clamps also did a little bit of cutting/gouging of the bev tube.

Suggestion: use Oetiker clamps if you can. I may get some later.

I have to handle the tubing every time I pour, since it use a party faucet. The 0.17 tube is stiffer than the typical 3/16 vinyl beer tubing but sufficiently easy to handle. I am much happier with this than with 12 feet of 3/16 bev tube. Thanks to BobbyM.