If you are the owner of a large brewery, bar, or restaurant, you can not do without a quality cooling system that will maintain the correct temperature of beverages at the storage and dispensing points. Such a unit will keep the beer fresh, fragrant, and delicious!
One of the key components of the system is beer trunk lines – special piping that connects the kegs in the kegerator with the corresponding taps of the beer tower.
To protect the beer from heating during the transportation process, the system is equipped with main lines – sealed cooling lines going from the power supply unit to the beer tower in the form of a continuous circuit.
After reading our article, you will learn more about what glycol trunk line is, how it works, and how many of them you need to buy.
What is a Glycol Draft System?
Understanding glycol draft systems will help you to figure out whether the equipment is suitable for your establishment, and will also give you the basic knowledge to help you with the choice.
The glycol draft system is a popular cooling system using a mixture of glycol and water as refrigerant.
In addition to glycol, there is also an air cooling system. However, it is suitable only for establishments where the kegs are near the dispensing point.
In turn, a glycol beer chiller system is used for long-draw systems (usually 25 feet or more). It is the optimal solution for large breweries, bars, and restaurants storing kegs at a considerable distance from the bar.
How is Beer Kept Cold in a Glycol Draft System?
It is impossible to overestimate the role of glycol in beer cooling. It is an essential component of the draft beer system that protects the quality and taste of beverages.
As we have already mentioned, the glycol draft system uses a mixture of glycol (food-grade antifreeze) and water known for its excellent cooling properties.
This mixture circulates through the glycol beer chiller system, maintaining a constant and uniform temperature wherever required.
The beer tap cooling system consists of many various components, but the main of them are:
- Glycol power pack
- Mainline
- Beer tower
The glycol power pack is a unit responsible for the circulation of glycol through the system, thus maintaining the required temperature.
The beer tower is the only visible part of the system, a tank equipped with draft faucets and designed for beer dispensing.
What are Beer Trunk Lines?
Beer trunk lines are pipelines connecting the kegs to other components of the draft beer system, in particular the beer tower, where the beer is supplied for dispensing.
Insulated beer lines minimize heat flow and help maintain a constant temperature even when environmental conditions change. When choosing this type of chiller line, it is necessary to take into account the material, diameter, and length of beer lines.
Should You Clean or Replace Beer Lines?
To keep your beer clean (without wild yeast, mold, bacteria, and beer stone, which may affect its taste as well as purity), regularly maintaining the beer line hygiene is very important.
Regular cleaning of the entire system will save you the trouble of having to deal with glycol beer system troubleshooting.
Such cleaning of beer trunk hose lines should be carried out every 2 weeks with a special alkaline solution. The solution will remove all the films and proteins that have accumulated inside the system.
One alkaline cleaning is not enough: once a quarter it is necessary to make acid cleaning of draft beer trunk lines. It is used to remove beer stones, mineral deposits, and other inorganic compounds.
To make it easier for you to find suitable beer trunk lines for your system, we recommend you contact UBC Group USA. The brand specializes in beer equipment and can help you with the selection of draft beer system components.
Also, the representatives of UBC Group USA can assist with the cleaning of beer lines, so you will always produce and pour quality delicious beer.
