Losing flavour in my beer lines.

[fursey]

I've recently purchased a new kegarater I used what was sold as food grade silicone hoses as my beer lines. All worked perfectly well until the beer had rested in the beer lines for a few hours. When I tasted the beer, there was no bitterness as if the hop oil had been absorbed.

So I scrapped those lines and purchased new hoses, I purchased food grade silicone hoses again but from a different supplier. I fitted all these yesterday, poured a few pints and it was perfect. I went out for the evening, came home and decided to try the beer to see if the problem had been resolved, alas it was the same effect as with the previous hoses, no bitterness.

I used over 200g of hop pellets so the bitterness is quite high. If I let the beer flow through the taps, once the beer in the lines has been replaced, the hopped beer is back so I know its not my beer.

I'm now going to replace my hoses with PVC beverage tube but am curious if anyone else has experienced the phenomenon and what the actual cause is.

Thanks.

 

[Robert65]

Oxidation. Heavy oxidation. Silicone is the most oxygen permeable material you could get. PVC is not a whole lot better. You want EVA barrier tubing. The oxygen is getting into the beer in the line, where you first notice it, but from there it is slowly permeating the beer in your kegs, so that stale in fairly short order as well. Oxygen is getting in through the gas lines as well of they are not EVA barrier or hard piped.

 

[Iseneye]

I dont have EVA Barrier tubing. My keg lines are disconnected and I only connect them for a pour. I dump whatever has been sitting in the line. The colour difference between the beer sitting in the line and the beer from the keg is drastic and is horribly oxidized.

 

[Ridenour64]

So normal vinyl tubing off say amazon or from Lowe’s are oxidizing my beer?

 

[Robert65]

Yep.

 

[Bobby_M]

So normal vinyl tubing off say amazon or from Lowe’s are oxidizing my beer?

Without debate absolutely.

 

[Ridenour64]

Had no idea. Learn something new every day. So just to make sure, this is what I’m looking for?


https://www.morebeer.com/products/eva-beer-line-tubing-316-5-mm-id.html

 

[day_trippr]

Yup, that's what I switched to. I used 4mm for the beer lines and 5mm for gas, along with a crapton of push-to-connect fittings.
Totally worth it

Cheers!

 

[Robert65]

I used 4mm for both beer and gas to keep it simple. I think I remember @day_trippr was using the 5mm on gas to accommodate some existing manifold barbs (I could be wrong?) but if you're building from the ground up with PTC fittings you can go all the same gauge. Happy New Year! Here's to fresher beer!

 

[Robert65]

a crapton of push-to-connect fittings.

This stuff all comes in SI measurements. That's a metric crap ton. [emoji6] Happy New Year!

 

[day_trippr]

Lol! Well, tbh, I used a mix of metric and imperial PTC fittings from JG, Duotight and DMfit - and 5/16" OD is near 'nuff to 8mm. So a mixed crapton

Yes, I used 5mm for the gas lines because I had this 6-way manifold in my keezer that I was not going to replace for this upgrade. Plus, as it turned out, my beer gas regulator has a frickin' 3/8" barb on the output which was a bit of a challenge for the 5mm ID line as it was...

Cheers! (and Happy 2020 to all! )

 

[Ridenour64]

Are you guys using the double walled EVA or does that not matter? I see it says 8mm thickness but I can’t see what mm the standard EVA is.

For those of you that are using conical or unitanks, are you using this tubing on the blow off as well? Seems like that wouldn’t matter seeing that the gaskets are all silicone anyways.

 

[day_trippr]

afaik, EVAbarrier is a coaxial dual layer barrier line that is being sold in 4mm ID and 5mm ID, both 8mm OD. I haven't seen any other type line sold under that branding/trademark/whatever...

Cheers!

 

[Robert65]

^^^^ What he said. Not aware of any large size of this. But if you want a gas barrier blowoff (and can replace that silicone gasket) there's all manner of PTFE stuff available, if you're made of money.

 

[Ridenour64]

https://www.morebeer.com/products/eva-beer-line-tubing-316-5-mm-id.html

VS.


https://www.morebeer.com/products/e...tubing-1364-5-mm-id-516-8-od-placeholder.html

This is what I’m looking at. Maybe just an oversight on their end.

One says double and specifies it’s 8mm. The other one does not say double and has no specifications, however, one of the commenters does say it’s 8mm. But then I wonder why it’s under 2 different listings and not just different length options.

 

[Robert65]

This stuff all comes in SI measurements. That's a metric crap ton. [emoji6] Happy New Year!

Correction. Having recovered from the holiday spirit, I realize that a crap ton is, in fact, 0.90718474 metric crap ton. There, I feel better having set that straight. [emoji851]

 

[day_trippr]

That's the first time I've seen anything "EVA" that wasn't a barrier tubing. The other link is the type we're referring to here - although note that one is 5mm ID, which is actually slightly larger bore than 3/16" hence at least as much length will be required as solid PVC 3/16" ID tubing.

Anyway, when you go to the Morebeer tubing page, there are three listings for EVABarrier tubing - 4mm ID, 5mm ID (both 8mm OD) - and 6mm ID/9.5mm OD (hadn't seen that one before)...

Cheers!

 

[RPh_Guy]

But if you want a gas barrier blowoff (and can replace that silicone gasket) there's all manner of PTFE stuff available,

Or stainless steel.

https://www.amazon.com/Coldbreak-Brewing-Equipment-Bucket-Stainless/dp/B073V229LX/