Is there a good reason the gas dip tube in my corny is so long?
The long dip tube is actually supposed to be used for liquid dispense, not gas.
Remember that cornelius kegs were originally used by Coke (pin lock) and Pepsi (ball lock) for dispensing soda at major chains like McDonald’s and Burger King, among many other places that sold soda. They would fill them with syrup, not soda. If you ever got one that still had some syrup in it, as I’ve done many times , you’d know what a chore they are to clean and you have to replace every gasket because they hold the soda flavor.
The syrup from the kegs was mixed at dispensing time with carbonated water that came from another container. They got more servings out of each keg that way so the kegs didn’t have to be changed frequently. Some of those places could go through 5 gallons of soda in 15 minutes. 5 gallons of syrup would probably make at least several hundred, if not a thousand servings I’m guessing.
As an aside, I remember being prescribed Coke syrup by my doctor as a child.
The syrup did not have to be carbonated, and would be more expensive to produce. So of course, they wanted to try to use every last drop. If you look at the bottom of the keg you will also see a small well that the dip tube even sits inside of at the very bottom. Soda syrup didn’t have any yeast or waste at the bottom.
We are using the kegs for something they were not designed for and many are now switching around the parts and using them in ways they were not designed to be used.
You can cut your dip tubes, but then you will not be able to fully drain your keg and you will be left with beer at the bottom of each keg you can’t dispense. You can make them shorter but once you do, remember that you won’t be able to make them longer again unless you buy new dip tubes.
And I’m going to tell you that these kegs are no longer in use by most of the major chains. They have switched to bag in a box systems. These kegs and parts for them are going to become increasingly more difficult and expensive to buy in coming years.
I just bought some floating dip tubes for my kegs. They have a flexible tube attached to a floating ball to always draw off the top. Many of the online shops have them.