Alternative to long beer lines

Hi,

I have roughly 10-ft beer lines and they work great.

But I only really need 2-ish feet of line, so I have these huge coils of beer line that are really unwieldy and get in the way a lot.

Is there any alternative to having such long lines? Has anyone experimented with alternate means of providing flow resistance - like a flow control clamp?

Alternatively, have you come up with a great way of managing your excess beer line?

 

Don't those european style faucets allow for this?

Edit: Like these, http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...wNw&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=linkshare

 

I thought I'd find advice on how to avoid the long lines at beer festivals... Guess I have to keep looking!



Anyway, not sure if this will help but I only have a picnic tap on my 5' line and I can sorta regulate the amount of foam by the amount of pressure I apply. But maybe that's not what you're asking at all!

 

There are helicial things you can put in the dip tube to mimic a longer line. Bought some from McMaster-Carr, but never bothered to try them. There's an old thread somewhere on HBT.

 

^ Yep, epoxy mixer sticks that fit into the liquid diptube. Here's the original thread. The perlick flow control faucets work pretty well too, but are kinda pricey.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-your-short-hose-troubles-100151/

As far as line management goes, I have 18' lines in my keezer, and simply tied them all into one neat and tidy coil with zip-ties. I've also seen a lot of people who use zip ties to make a coil for each line that fits neatly on top of it's respective keg between the handles.

 

I was thinking more along the lines of this:


Lots of people use them for racking flow control already... just thought it might work for foam control as well. But I'm going to guess someone has tried this and for whatever reason it doesn't work. Otherwise I guess everyone would be doing it already.

 

A non-conical restriction in the line followed by a sudden return to full diameter is going to create a pressure drop in the line, which depending on how severe it is may or may not lead to CO2 coming out of solution and creating more foam. Wouldn't hurt to try it though. I'd think you'd want it as close to the keg as possible to allow the turbulence created to diminish before it reaches the faucet.

Or you could just use the cheap epoxy sticks that are proven to work.

 

Foxx equipment sells flow restrictors that fit into shank behind the faucet. On catalog pg. 151 at this link: http://www.foxxequipment.com/FoxxCatalog2013.pdf They cost$13.69 a piece in my 2014 catalog. Never tried them before.

 

Seems similar in principle to the epoxy mixers that people are putting in their dip tubes. I wonder if you could put them in the shank instead like the InstaBalance inserts?

 

My 10' lines are coiled & zip tied and fit nicely on top of each keg.
I usually do a loose zip tie on each keg handle as well to hold them there.
Only about 3' or so running from the top of the keg to the door.

 

12 footers on each keg (Bevlex-200 3/16" ID x 7/16" OD).

If they were Bev-Seal Ultra Series 235 tubing and thus closer to 20' each, it'd add a few loops to each keg - and I still wouldn't see a problem...

Cheers!