Many people consider draft beer a better alternative to canned and bottled beer, and for a good reason. First, whereas beer bottles are made from glass that exposes the product to sunlight, draft beer mostly comes in kegs or casks, which prevent exposure. That is why it tastes better and fresher. If you are a bar owner, you can turn a tidy profit from selling draft beer to your clientele. However, you will need proper dispensing systems to pump out the beer. This piece will introduce you to draft beer dispensing systems and how to pick a suitable one.
What are Draft Beer Dispensing Systems?
A draft beer system facilitates the propulsion of draft beer from the keg or the cask to the tap, ready for serving. To execute that task, it needs various components, including a carbon dioxide (CO2) tank, primary regulator, draft beer tower, and draft beer faucet. In a nutshell, pressurized CO2 pushes draft beer out of the container, into the beer line. But, because the gas has tremendous pressure and you don't want to serve it foamy to your customers, you use the primary regulator to control it. The pumped beer goes up the beer lines in the draft beer tower, ready for dispensing from the draft beer faucet.
Types of Draft Beer Dispensing System
There are several types of draft beer systems, including:
1. Direct draw system
One of the most common direct draw systems is the kegerator, used to dispense draft beer from a keg. This system is ideal in settings where the draft beer keg is close to the draft beer faucet. Beer propulsion in direct draw systems relies on CO2 or a CO2 and nitrogen mixture. These dispensing systems are quick to set up, simple to use, and can work with most draft beer brands available today.
2. Air-cooled system
The air-cooled draft beer system uses air ducts and an electric fan to maintain the beer temperature as it travels from the keg to the draft beer faucet. One of the critical components in air-cooled systems is the forced air blower. This component pushes chilly air from the cooler through the ducts and the beer line into the tower. Note that the air-cooled draft beer dispensing system is only effective in systems that are 25 feet long or less.
3. Glycol cooled system
The glycol-cooled system's working principle relies on the recirculation of Propylene Glycol using a glycol cooler and polyethylene tubing. The tubes are covered by an insulated housing known as a trunk line. If your setting doesn't allow you to refrigerate kegs close to the draft beer tower and faucets, a long draw glycol cooled system is the ideal draft beer dispensing solution.
At first, you might think that drinking alcoholic beverages was just a pastime. But when you really dig into it, you realize it is so much more than that. There is a real art to how alcoholic beverages are created. There's an art to making beer, and there's also an art to making cocktails. There's also a lot of science involved. Beer makes, wine makers, and distillers definitely use a lot of chemistry and biology to ensure their products turn out the way they prefer.
On this blog, we will be addressing alcoholic beverages from all of these angles, and then some.