Hey, Rick Uzubell again from Cabaret
Design Group, talking today about
Long-Draw Draft Beer System Design.
Hello again everyone and welcome to
another edition of Design Buzz. Today
we're going to talk about Long-Draw Draft Beer
System design, and when we talk
about long-draw draft beer systems,
we're talking about systems
that operate remotely from the bar,
unlike a direct-draw cooler, which sits
below the bar top or directly behind the
bar, as we covered in two previous videos.
The long-draw systems basically operate
from a walk-in cooler, and at the
more basic level, the traditional concept
that was developed for long-draw
systems was the system known as an
air-cooled system, shown here in this
blue dotted line. We also have what's called a
glycol system, which we'll be
covering in a subsequent video. Now
with the air-cool systems, the process
begins in the walk-in cooler; now these
systems really basically work off of a
mechanical blower, which is relied on
totally to keep the integrity and the
temperature of the beer within its
operating range from the point where the
beer originates, in the walk-in cooler, to
the point where it's dispensed. Now the
air-cooled system, the heart of it is
not only the walk-in cooler,
but we also have what's known as a "beer
shaft." The shaft is really nothing more
than an aluminum conduit, several inches
in diameter, which houses a number of
small diameter PVC lines, each of which is
connected to a different brand of beer
inside the walk-in cooler.
In this particular arrangement, here we
see the device over here is our
blower motor, mounted to the inside wall
of the walk-in cooler; this blows the
cold air from the walk-in cooler along
the length of the beer shaft. Now we're
relying on the integrity of the
temperature of the beer to be maintained.
Walk-in coolers normally operate within
the range of 36 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit.
This is specified by the people
who manufacture (brew) the beer, and
this gives optimal flavor to the
beer, so it's generally
recommended that you maintain your
walk-in cooler within that range.
Air-cooled systems are generally
specified by the manufacturers of the
equipment to operate no more than
25 feet. The particular system,
designated here, is about 60 lineal feet,
as the crow flies, which is a little bit
more than 18 meters. Now, at this
juncture you would you could say
to yourself that this is not an application
for an air-cooled system -- this is true.
I'm showing you the idea as an
example because we're going to be
talking about the glycol systems next. We
could, alternatively, move the walk-in
cooler conceivably to the area where the
office is shown here, and if that's the
case, we would be within several feet of
the tower from the walk-in cooler, so
we're within striking range. Let's say if
this is 10 feet or 12 feet, whatever we
have, there are two constraints that
really dictate the success of an
air-cooled draft beer system. Number one,
every 90 degree turn that the beer shaft
takes,
once it leaves the walk-in cooler, you
lose five feet of functional length; the
longest normal length that you would
consider for such a system would be 25 feet,
so if you have one 90 degree turn,
that already bumps you down to 20 feet or
less.
Now, ordinarily these systems will be
delivered from the walk-in cooler either
overhead or below the floor and then if
that's the case, then your draft beer shaft would
be running below the floor; it will come
up directly below the tower and then you
would be delivering the beer. However,
the other problem, though, that's not
printed, is the design constraint that is
what will commonly can be experienced in an
air-cooled system, is that for every 90
degree turn you take with the shaft
you're going to gain two degrees
Fahrenheit in the temperature of the
product, which starts to create huge
problems, because we don't really have
many ways of adjusting this temperature.
You don't have anything else except for
the cooling of the walk-in cooler itself
and a crafty installer to try to make it
all work; even in a short distance it's a
challenge.
Ideally, an air-cooled system would be
installed this way: you would take your
walk-in cooler -- and let's say if this
bar is on the first floor and if you
had a basement in your building, the
walk-in cooler would ideally go directly
below the bar, so that you could run
your beer shaft -- and you're pushing the
air vertically through a column up to
the tower, where you then start to accumulate
warm air at the base of the tower;
so, you really have to also have a means
of recirculating that air and bring it back
into the walk-in cooler so that you
maintain a constant flow of chilled air
to the tower. Now, the towers for
air-cooled systems are different from
other the towers that we're using -- that you may
be seeing nowadays -- the very cool towers
that you see in most modern bars and
nightclubs and brew pubs and places
like that. You're not looking at an air-cooled tower,
most likely. The reason for that is that you
have to have a large diameter head on top of the tower
so that the air can recirculate. This is the
pronounced difference between air-cooled
towers and the glycol
towers, so you have, generally speaking,
a narrow range of tower selection for
air-cooled systems. Air-cooled systems are
basically entry-level systems, in my book.
I would say their
popularity is definitely
waning now that we have the glycol
systems at our disposal.
Although you can still get
into a system like this fairly
reasonably, there are many factors to consider.
If you're going to have to dispense eight
brands of beer you might be in the range
of several thousand dollars for an
installed system. The real solution
for a long-draw draft beer arrangement
is with a glycol system and we will be
covering that in the next video.