Kegging Hose Sizes (ID dia and length)

[Rob2010SS]

I know there’s quite a few people here who brew on larger setups. To anyone kegging full bbl or multiple bbl batches, what size hoses are you all using when transferring from tank to kegs? Took us 3.5 hours to fill 2 half bbls and a sixtel keg last night. I'm pretty sure all of you bigger guys aren't spending an hour per keg to fill them.

Last night we were transferring a wheat beer. Tank PSI was 13 and keg PSI was 10. Fill rate was about 3.5-4 min/gal. The tubing we were using was still from our smaller setup stuff - 3/16" ID tube. I just feel like it was really slow. At that rate, someone kegging a 15bbl tank, that would have taken them 30 hours to keg. Pretty sure that’s not happening in real life lol.

Thanks in advance.

 

[day_trippr]

You're definitely being throttled by line restriction.

The line resistance of 3/16" ID vinyl tubing is alleged to be 2.7 psi per foot; the line resistance of 3/8" tubing is claimed to be a mere 0.11 PSI. I use 3/8" ID tubing which fits over my SS racking cane at one end, and over the 1/4" MFL threaded stub on a ball lock beer QD at the other end, held by worm clamps at both ends. Beer flows pretty quickly but as I'm pushing out of a glass carboy I keep the pressure at 1 psi or below...

Cheers!

 

[Rob2010SS]

Kinda what I thought. Just heard from someone on IG they use 10ft x 1” ID line to fill. I definitely need to get some different tubing

 

[eric19312]

I'm not that big of batch but do fill half-barrel when I keg. I'm using 9.5 mm EVA barrier which has 6 mm ID which is just short of 1/4" but I believe has lower line resistance. Per Williams Brewing "This tubing has less than 1 pound of resistance per foot." I use about 2 feet to the keg.

I fill each corny keg in about 10 minutes using about 5 PSI.

 

[SanPancho]

i wouldnt use anything less than 3/8, but more likely 1/2 inch. silicone is fine if thats what you got. beer doesnt spend enough time in tubing to get oxidized. you can order different tubing that is high temp and better oxygen barrier from fisher scientific, maybe mcmaster carr, etc. cant recall the name of the "popular" one tho. but it aint cheap. almost as expensive as brewers hose. another option is draft line tubing with the oxygen barrier, like bev-seal ultra. that definitely comes in 3/8. not super flexible, but not especially hard to use either. we used that alot.

its also pretty easy to rig up a manifold to fill a few kegs at once, if you have extra sankes laying around.

** also- if you dont have one yet i would definitely recommend the cleaning/filling sanke. its the one with the full-bore in the body, no restriction. no point in having 1/2 tubing when the sanke restricts to 1/4 or 5/16.

 

[Rob2010SS]

i wouldnt use anything less than 3/8, but more likely 1/2 inch. silicone is fine if thats what you got. beer doesnt spend enough time in tubing to get oxidized. you can order different tubing that is high temp and better oxygen barrier from fisher scientific, maybe mcmaster carr, etc. cant recall the name of the "popular" one tho. but it aint cheap. almost as expensive as brewers hose. another option is draft line tubing with the oxygen barrier, like bev-seal ultra. that definitely comes in 3/8. not super flexible, but not especially hard to use either. we used that alot.

its also pretty easy to rig up a manifold to fill a few kegs at once, if you have extra sankes laying around.

** also- if you dont have one yet i would definitely recommend the cleaning/filling sanke. its the one with the full-bore in the body, no restriction. no point in having 1/2 tubing when the sanke restricts to 1/4 or 5/16.

I had someone else recommend half inch. I’ll probably go that route. I think I have some half inch braided that I can use.

I was worried about foaming but if I follow the same process of having the keg at 2-3 psi less than the tank and backfilling the tank to maintain, shouldn’t have foaming issues, correct?

And I did buy the pieces to setup our Sanke adapter to be full bore. So I think we’re good there.

 

[shoengine]

I thought all sanke taps were the same size. What is the biggest bore you can get for a sanke?

 

[SanPancho]

the cleaning/filling sanke is definitely different from your typical sanke. the bore size in the body is larger, its not designed to be used with the regular trap/ball, etc as far as i know. its its own thing.

its not the end of the world if you use a regular sanke without the ball/stop/etc. just puts a bit of restriction. as for the actual transfer, if coming straight off tank a few psi is usually plenty. so with a nice tubing choice you sound like you guys have it down for process.