Silicone tubing for beer line?

[eelgerg]

Hey,

Does anyone have any experience with using silicone tubing for beer line? I have a whack of 3/16" master flex tubing and am currently trying to serve my first keg of beer, but the beer comes out as 1/2 foam and 1/2 beer. Is it suitable for low-pressure (10-20 psi) CO2 beer?

I can get the PVC tubing, but the silicone stuff is very available.

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[doug293cz]

Silicone tubing can blow up like a balloon under pressure. There is a thread on HBT somewhere (sorry, I didn't book mark it) that shows a picture of someone's beer line ballooned up. Thicker walled tubing might be ok at beer pressures, but I have no experience with this, and I don't think the post with the balloon line said what the wall thickness was. You can get braid reinforced silicon tubing, but it is gawd awful expensive.

Brew on

 

[Hoppity]

Don't use the cheap pvc from Homie's either, it leaches bad flavors on the 1st pour. 3/16" lined PE is the way to go.

 

[eelgerg]

I would only use the Braided vinyl tubing (kuri-tec). Bought 20' of is for. $6 in case the silicone does not work out. But so far the silicone tubing is working well. Am going to take my chances.

I would think the bulging issues are only very rare. Not sure that CO2 in the beer could cause that kind of issues .

 

[eelgerg]

Ps I should say that the silicone tubing has a decent thickness - it's not flimsy by any means. It is master flex tubing. Not sure what the OD is (I'm at the ski hill right now enjoying a bottle of my first AG nut brown ale ).

Life is grand !

 

[Psych]

I would think the bulging issues are only very rare. Not sure that CO2 in the beer could cause that kind of issues .

10psi or so on your lines is enough to bulge lines that aren't made for this amount of pressure - like flexible silicon lines for instance.

Try holding your thumb over the end of a line at 10psi for a while. Fine at first, but after a while it starts to get difficult. Same goes for lines not rated for pressure.