Tailpiece question

[jaydog2314]

I started kegging and I will be expanding from 1 tap to 2 by xmas and then to a third after the 1st of the year. I had a question about tailpieces for the faucet shank.

I have a Perlick 525 and plan on buying those again. They have 3/16 bore and the first one I bought came with a 3/16 tailpiece.

My question/thought was to buy these 1/4 MFL stainless tailpieces for my faucets/shanks:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/1-4-stainless-mfl-tail-piece.html

And then put the barb swivel nuts on the beer lines to hook up to the tailpiece. That way I could swap out lines and/or take them off to clean/sanitize.

I wasn't sure though if having the beer travel thru 3/16 ID tubing then thru a 1/4 tailpiece back thru a 3/16 shank would create lots of foam or issues with the difference in sizes(even though it's pretty small).

I could be WAY over thinking this too. Like I said I'm new to kegging but want to hook it up right and not have to spend more $ in a few months or a year when I could have gotten it right from the start.

Thanks.

 

[prandlesc]

The change in size shouldn't make a difference since the beer will be under enough pressure to keep the CO2 in place. I'm a little more concerned about using 3/16" tubing to shanks at all. You should read a little about sizing draft lines, and here are a couple of references - http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/0...our-kegged-beer-co2-line-length-and-pressure/; http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/;

And I don't think you're over thinking it - having a bad draft set up can be very frustrating and end up costing time and money as you ahve to end up replacing lines, etc - I know from personal experience, I ahd to adjust my lines to get better pours.

Best of luck!

 

[zachattack]

One user on here (I forget who it was, sorry!) reported that MFL fittings on their shanks resulted in a slight increase in foaming. So it might be that you run into some problems. Personally I don't see what you'd want MFLs on the shanks themselves, I get a lot of use out of mine on the keg end of the gas/bev lines since I run commercial kegs sometimes but I've never wanted to remove the line from the shank.

I've always cleaned my lines through the shank. It's also very easy and fast to remove a tailpiece from a shank, so if I really want to take them off I can do it pretty easily. If you're going to be swapping lines a lot (and I'm not sure why) it might be easiest/safest just to buy a couple extra tailpieces and the nuts.

Most of us just run nice long lines (10-12' of standard 3/16" ID), if you want the carb level a little lower for a certain batch the only downside is you wait a second or two longer for a beer.

 

[jaydog2314]

Thanks for the info. I forget where I read it but I thought it made sense but now that you mention just removing the 3/16 tailpiece that makes more sense and costs less. Thanks. Like I said I had an idea I might have been over thinking it.

 

[tenbricks]

I use that 1/4 MFL tailpiece on my taps. No noticeable difference between them and the standard barbed tailpiece.