Few things are as satisfying and exciting as drawing the first drops of home-brewed beer. When choosing kegs over bottles, it's clear you need a way to get the beer out. After carbonating and chilling it, there are several ways to dispense it. Tap faucets, draft towers or Lindr? Let's explore the myriad of methods for getting beer out of the keg!
Picnic tap and foam-reducing line
Most people starting with kegs invest in a keg package with a Cornelius keg, which contains everything you need to get started. These packages also include a dispensing line with a picnic tap. This is by far the simplest and cheapest way to dispense beer from a keg.
The beer line comes in two variants: a regular hose and a "foam-reducing" hose. The main difference is that the hose kit with a foam-reducing hose has a smaller diameter, providing more resistance. This resistance helps to prevent foaming when dispensing beer and is almost mandatory if you like heavily carbonated beer. It also eliminates the need to reduce pressure before tapping to avoid foam, and you won't have to increase pressure after tapping to prevent the beer from losing its carbonation level. Therefore, we always recommend a beer line with foam reduction.
Picnic Tap 2.1
A new and good alternative to a beer line set with a picnic tap and foam-reducing hose is the Picnic Tap 2.0 from Homebrewer LAB in California. This innovative tap connects directly to the Cornelius keg and has built-in flow control that reduces foam formation. Another advantage of the Picnic Tap 2.1 is that it prevents dripping from the tap after dispensing.
Draft towers, shanks, and faucets
Picnic taps are practical and convenient, but sooner or later, many want a draft tower. The selection is vast, and the choice depends on how many faucets you want, where the tower will be mounted, and perhaps most importantly: what you find aesthetically pleasing.
If you choose a DIY solution with a tap faucet without a draft tower, you will also need a shank. Simply put, this is a connector where you attach one end to the tap faucet and connect the beer line to the keg at the other end. Shanks also come in various lengths, allowing you to mount it wherever you want; for example, through a refrigerator door or wall.
Some draft towers include faucets, while others let you choose. Perlick and Ultratap are affordable options that work very well and produce little foam. These are also "forward sealing" faucets, which are closed at the front, unlike vented faucets. When the faucet is closed at the front, it prevents the mechanism from becoming sticky and, in the worst case, completely locking up, making cleaning much easier.
If foam still proves to be an issue with these faucets, there are faucets with "flow control," such as the excellent Intertap Flow Master, which allows you to adjust the speed at which the beer flows out of the faucet, thereby reducing foam formation.
The faucets come in different colors and finishes, so you can choose what you think looks best. Feel free to spruce them up with fresh handles in chameleon paint, chrome, chalkboards, or use traditional handles if you prefer.
Remember to use a drip tray under the faucet to save yourself some cleaning. You might also consider getting a cover for the tap faucet, which you put on when the faucet is not in use, to avoid fruit flies and similar nuisances.
With a draft tower, or a shank and faucets, you rely on the beer being cold. Fortunately, there are many clever solutions for chilling beer!
Kegerator – complete refrigerator for beer kegs
A kegerator (keg + refrigerator) is a refrigerator with space for one or more Cornelius kegs, holes for hoses, and a tap faucet. It's up to you as the brewer how you want to assemble it all. Some choose to bolt a draft tower to the top of the refrigerator, or build the refrigerator into a bar counter or similar. Another solution is to drill holes in the refrigerator door and install shanks with tap faucets on the front. If you are a bit handy and creative, there are endless possibilities for how you can integrate a kegerator.
To make it completely simple, there are also pre-made kegerators with space for several Cornelius kegs, where everything you need is included. This means everything from matching draft towers to faucets, shanks, hoses, and CO2 regulators. In other words, all you need is kegs, CO2, and last but not least, beer. We carry high-quality Kegmaster Series XL kegerators from Keg King in Australia, which come with beer and CO2 lines pre-assembled, including ball lock quick disconnects.
Keezer and Inkbird
A keezer (keg + freezer) is exactly the same as a kegerator, but as the name suggests, a chest freezer is used instead. Freezers often have more space, which means room for several kegs at once.
Freezers are designed for significantly lower temperatures than a refrigerator, so we need to do something with the thermostat. Unless you have a professional background, we recommend not tampering with the thermostat yourself. It is better to use a temperature controller such as the Inkbird ITC 308 with Wi-Fi.
You plug the Inkbird into the freezer's power outlet and place the temperature probe inside the box. You set the temperature on the Inkbird or via the app, and it controls the temperature by starting and stopping the freezer. It can also be a good idea to place the probe in a container of water so that it maintains a stable temperature and avoids large temperature fluctuations when you open the freezer.
Lindr – compact draft towers with cooling
Not everyone has space for a large refrigerator, but there are smaller and more compact solutions. Lindr draft towers are mobile, stylish, and highly efficient. The built-in cooling chills the beer on its way from the keg to the tap.
Lindr draft towers come in several variants, which at first glance can be a bit difficult to distinguish. Here, it's important to pay attention to the number stated in the name. The number in the name indicates the capacity and tells you how many liters the cooler can handle per hour. So, a Lindr 40, in other words, will be able to cool 40 liters of cold beer per hour.
For a homebrewer, small Lindr towers with 25-liter capacity and one or two faucets will usually suffice. There are also larger coolers that can cool multiple lines simultaneously and handle larger quantities; these are primarily aimed at breweries, pubs, and bars.
Do I need a Lindr with an air compressor?
Some Lindr draft towers also come with an air compressor. For homebrewers using Cornelius kegs or similar, a compressor will not be particularly beneficial, as air and beer are a bad combination. Unless you plan to empty the entire keg the same evening, CO2 is a much better solution for pushing beer out of the keg.
PolyKeg and KeyKeg are single-use PET plastic kegs primarily aimed at breweries with larger quantities than homebrewers typically produce. It is for such kegs that a compressor is a good solution. These kegs have the beer in an internal bag that is compressed with air pressure to push the beer out, so the beer itself never comes into contact with air. If you want the option to tap from kegs that you can buy directly from breweries, then having a Lindr with a compressor is handy.
Foam problems
Sometimes you can get a bit too much foam from a tap, but fortunately, there's often a simple solution.
1. Too much pressure in the keg. When carbonating beer, you can often have high pressure, but when serving, you should reduce the pressure slightly and pull the safety valve to lower the pressure in the keg. Around 0.8 BAR will work on most systems.
2. Flow control. Some tap faucets come with flow control, a small lever on the faucet that allows you to adjust the flow rate. Experiment to find the perfect setting for your beer. There are also inline flow controls that can be placed directly on the hose and adjusted from there.
3. Hoses that are too short or too large. Thinner and longer hoses create more resistance in the hose, and this resistance reduces foam formation. While it may be tempting to use short hoses to make it look neat in your refrigerator, at least 1.5-2 meters of hose will work wonders. We recommend 3/16” outer diameter LDPE hose for best results. This is the same one we use in our beer hose kit with foam dampener.
4. Too high temperature. Make sure your keg is well chilled before tapping. If your faucets are in a very warm room, or you are tapping beer on the hottest summer days, the faucet itself can also get warm. In that case, it can often be solved by tapping off a small amount to cool down the faucet for you.
5. The dip tube is blocked. If you've transferred a lot of hops and sediment when racking from the fermenter to the keg, the thin dip tube can become blocked. You can easily solve this by moving the gas quick disconnect to the beer out valve and blowing the dip tube clear with gas. To avoid getting a lot of sediment when transferring to the keg, we recommend a Bouncer Inline Beer Filter that you place on the hose between the fermenter and the keg.
6. The beer may simply be overcarbonated. This can make it more difficult to tap foam-free. Try the tips mentioned above, or significantly reduce the pressure in the keg. If that doesn't help, disconnect the gas and pull the safety valve located in the lid of the keg until all pressure is gone. Shake the keg a bit so the beer releases CO2. Wait a while for the foam to settle, and release the pressure again. This may need to be repeated until you get the carbonation level you desire, and it can take some time.
Please read our blog on carbonating beer in kegs to learn more about this.
Cleaning faucets and draft lines
Over time, both tap faucets and hoses will benefit from a good cleaning. If not cleaned often enough, you will see residue and discoloration in the hoses, or in the worst case, get unpleasant flavors in your beer. A good routine is to clean your dispensing system every time you change a keg.
Faucets can be disassembled and cleaned in warm water and PBW or similar. Use a small brush to reach all the nooks and crannies where old beer can accumulate, and let it soak in the PBW solution for a while. Rinse thoroughly with clean water, and let it dry. Also, check that the gaskets are intact and fine, and replace them if necessary.
For hoses and draft lines, we recommend Ansep BLC from Ecolab, a very effective cleaning agent specifically designed for hoses and draft lines. Ansep BCL also has a unique property, in that it changes color during use.
How to clean the draft line:
1. Fill a keg or similar with lukewarm water and Ansep BLC according to the instructions on the bottle.
2. Pump diluted Ansep BLC through the draft line until purple liquid comes out of the faucet. Let this stand for five minutes, then pump liquid through again until it turns purple again. What comes out first will now have changed color from purple to grayish-green.
3. Let the liquid sit for another five minutes, then repeat the process until it no longer changes color. Rinse through with a few liters of clean water to remove all detergent, and your draft lines are ready for use again.
4. Ansep BLC can be used on all dispensing hoses and faucets, including Lindr draft towers.
5. Star San or other acid-based cleaning agents should be avoided, as plastic parts like John Guest quick disconnects can become brittle and, in the worst case, break upon contact with acid. The result can be messy if the quick disconnects for the beer line itself are damaged. If you still want to use Star San, we recommend rinsing with water afterward.
If you are missing anything, you will find everything you need for cleaning your brewing equipment in our assortment.
