anyone familiar with the Compact Chrome Faucet

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wyobouldering

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Does anyone one here have any experience with the compact chrome faucets that attach from directly to the beer out with a quick disconnect? I would guess you might have some problems with foaming, however, this seems to be a pretty nice mobile setup. If anyone can shed any light, I'd appreciate it.

compact-chrome-facuet.jpg
 
I would bet that you will end up with a nice, beautiful glass of foam using a setup like this.

A disclaimer though: I've never used it and don't have any experience with it. My statement comes from the fact that by attaching the faucet directly to the keg, your line restrictions aren't in place anymore, meaning you have an unbalanced pressure differential - resulting in excessive foaming.

Good luck and let us know how it works!
 
I have used one of these. It's very nice and sort of a novelty. The trick is to turn the pressure down in the keg to almost the same as you would for a picnic tap (1 - 2 psi) to avoid foaming. At these lower pressures, you will get flow out of the faucet just like at the pub with just the right amount of head.

For a mobile set-up, I use a picnic tap on a very short (maybe 6 inches) line and a very low keg pressure along with one of those compact CO2 injectors to gas up the keg when necessary.
 
tnlandsailor said:
I have used one of these. It's very nice and sort of a novelty. The trick is to turn the pressure down in the keg to almost the same as you would for a picnic tap (1 - 2 psi) to avoid foaming. At these lower pressures, you will get flow out of the faucet just like at the pub with just the right amount of head.

For a mobile set-up, I use a picnic tap on a very short (maybe 6 inches) line and a very low keg pressure along with one of those compact CO2 injectors to gas up the keg when necessary.

I use a picnic tap on my kegs at home. Strangely enough, I don't only run 1-2 psi in the keg while using it; in fact it would be very detrimental to do so! I carbonate at 12 PSI. If after I carbonated the beer I dialed down to 1 or 2 psi, the beer will slowly go flat as the CO2 in the solution begins to dissolve out. Gas will seek equilibrium.

I run my picnic tap on about 9 feet of line, and run the kegs at 12 psi. I have never had a problem with foaming.
 
tnlandsailor is right...you need to turn down the pressure to just barely pushing at all to get a nice pour out of one of these. bikebryan is right too...your beer will go flat if you do so for very long at all.

Just about the only way to use one of these successfully is if you plan to kill the keg fast. Like if you're drinking it at a party and can kill the keg before it goes flat. It's definitely not ideal.

FWIW, my favorite mobile keg solution is a jockey box.

bikebryan knows his stuff kegging-wise more than just about anyone around these parts. I bet his solution works great too. Cheers! :D
 
Janx said:
tnlandsailor is right...you need to turn down the pressure to just barely pushing at all to get a nice pour out of one of these. bikebryan is right too...your beer will go flat if you do so for very long at all.

Just about the only way to use one of these successfully is if you plan to kill the keg fast. Like if you're drinking it at a party and can kill the keg before it goes flat. It's definitely not ideal.

FWIW, my favorite mobile keg solution is a jockey box.

bikebryan knows his stuff kegging-wise more than just about anyone around these parts. I bet his solution works great too. Cheers! :D

Ah geeze, now I'm blushing :)

I just got into kegging in February of this year, but I went to many different sites and read a few books on the subject. Kegging and force carbonating is certainly easy to do, but there are ways to make it better in terms of consistency. Although the up-front costs were high, I've never regretted it.
 
Good info on the tubing length, can you verify the diameter? That's important to know. Any person out there using picnic taps should take note, extra tubing is a heck of lot more convenient than the pressure yo-yo of dialing down for serving, then back up to store.

I'm surprised you can run a picnic tap at 12 PSI with any length of tubing. I guess it's the 3/16" ID stuff? I'll have to update my kegging article if that's the case. I've never tried a tube that long to see if it could actually be done. I'll take your word for it.:)

You are absolutely right, keeping a keg constantly at 1 or 2 psi will mean flat beer over time. That's why I've always felt pinic taps are such a pain, having to do the pressure yo-yo thing. Can't beat 'em for cost and convenience, but the pressure thing is a real bother.

As an aside, you could probably keep beer at 1 or 2 psi for 8 or 10 hours and not notice a loss in carbonation. I think the less beer there is in the keg, the more you would notice, but I'm not sure about that.

Prost,
 
tnlandsailor said:
Good info on the tubing length, can you verify the diameter? That's important to know. Any person out there using picnic taps should take note, extra tubing is a heck of lot more convenient than the pressure yo-yo of dialing down for serving, then back up to store.

I'm surprised you can run a picnic tap at 12 PSI with any length of tubing. I guess it's the 3/16" ID stuff? I'll have to update my kegging article if that's the case. I've never tried a tube that long to see if it could actually be done. I'll take your word for it.:)

You are absolutely right, keeping a keg constantly at 1 or 2 psi will mean flat beer over time. That's why I've always felt pinic taps are such a pain, having to do the pressure yo-yo thing. Can't beat 'em for cost and convenience, but the pressure thing is a real bother.

As an aside, you could probably keep beer at 1 or 2 psi for 8 or 10 hours and not notice a loss in carbonation. I think the less beer there is in the keg, the more you would notice, but I'm not sure about that.

Prost,

It is 3/16" ID beverage tubing, with a pressure restriction of somewhere between 1.5 to 2 lbs per foot, IIRC. It's about 8 to 9 feet long per keg and works great at 12 PSI with the picnic taps. I've never done the pressure yo-yo; To quote Ron Popeil talking about his rotisserie ovens - I just "set it and forget it" with the CO2 pressure.
 
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