Mobile Party tap for corny kegs

[crofty83]

Bonjour.

I've purchased a corny from Norm (currently at a depot in Oldbury) and its coming with a Mobile Party tap like the one below

Anyways, I have now found some information that leads me to believe that these mobile party taps come with about a foot of tube attached and as a result are no good for largers as the pressure is to high through the tap and it just spits out troth.

What is your experience with these mobile taps?

I also read the pressure can be dropped by replacing the foot long tube for a longer thinner line. I don't want to do this though if the info I've read is wrong.

Cheers folks,
Cr0fty

 

[Dieseljockey]

This is a quote from a guy I've had my bits for my cornies off.

Foam can be caused by many things but there's always a solution.

You're right about reducing the pipe size to the tap and your tap connection is 3/8".
The beer needs to slow down if it's pouring too fast, 6-8 second pour is usually about right.

I would go for 3/16" personally, most pubs have this as the final run to the tap.Other factors to consider are:
Temperature - do you have a cooler? Is the keg in a cool/cold place? The colder the beer the better it holds carbonation.
No kinks in tube.
Pressure - it may be too low, this can cause foam just as easily as when the pressure's too high.
If it's lager you're dispensing I would start at around 10psi.
In pubs with the beer in a cool cellar lager is often set up at anywhere between 18-25psi on CO2 and 35-40psi with mixed gas.
Cool glasses, cool and wet glasses even better and tilt them on pouring.
Be brave with the tap, open fully or closed fully, trying to control the speed with the tap will make foaming worse.
It's really important too that the pipe and tap is kept very clean.
I know it's only a short run but insulating the beer line may help a little too, 3 metres of 3/8" is about 1/3 of a pint between your keg and tap.

Hope this helps?
It can take a little trial and error to get it just right, just a process of elimination.

The beer line on your tap is short,I hope this helps you.. :thumb:

 

[The Goatreich]

Not meaning to thread hijack, but I'm very interested in the opinions on these party taps too. I've not kegged anything yet, just bottles all the way, but I'd like to get some kegs on the go too, as I'm running low on space for bottles. I don't have space for a kegerator or any mounted taps, so these taps look good for me.
I am concerned about not being able to control temperature, I've heard this can be a pain with producing froth.

 

[Dave1970]

I'm just waiting for one of these from Norm as well, but because of this issue I asked him to change it:

For an extra £4 it's coming with 1 metre of beer line attached instead of the short wide tubing pictured ...hoping that this will keep the foam down

 

[crofty83]

Just read this

Another factor when serving beer is line restriction. A simple way of calculating restriction is with tubing. Typical beer line is 3/16" I.D. tubing with a wall thickness of about 1/8". This tubing will give you roughly 2 PSI of restriction per linear foot used. You can also factor in some restriction from the beer going through the quick disconnect on the keg and the faucet itself. So, if you were to use five feet of typical 3/16" beverage line this would give you roughly 10 PSI so you would serve at 10–12 PSI to balance the restriction to maintain a balanced pour.

I believe the line on the mobile tap is 3/8" so if I was to change this for 5 feet of 3/16" as suggested above this should work.

I'm keen to hear from someone who has done this conversion and how they did it. Would I need some JG 3/8" to 3/16" fittings to attatch the new pipe of would heating the 3/16" pipe in hot water do the trick?

I've also seen flow control fittings on eBay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beer-pipe-Lin ... 43adf48498
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beer-pipe-Lin ... 43ae538b34

and wonder if the addition of one of these would be an option too?

 

[Rwilts]

This is what i received from Norm last week with my two cornies.

 

[Dieseljockey]

Would I need some JG 3/8" to 3/16" fittings to attatch the new pipe of would heating the 3/16" pipe in hot water do the trick?

As I understand it, yes you will need 2 to fix 3/16 line, you can get a adapter to fix 3/16 line to your tap if your tap is 3/8.
No I don't think the hot water trick would work.

 

[Dave1970]

This is how Norm does it...got my £20 version today

So 2 JG fittings, a reducer at the tap end to go down from 3/8" to 3/16" and at the disconnect end a flare to 3/16"

 

[crofty83]

This is how Norm does it...got my £20 version today

So 2 JG fittings, a reducer at the tap end to go down from 3/8" to 3/16" and at the disconnect end a flare to 3/16"

A flare to 3/16". What's that lol

Thanks for the pic. I've already ordered 3m of 3/16" tube off eBay so here I come to order some more bits when I find out what this flare is

 

[Dave1970]

I think that a flare is the screw fitting type disconnect that's designed to connect to a JG fitting, the alternative being a barb that push fits straight onto a hose

as in this site

 

[crofty83]

Ah I see. The one I will get will have a barb on it because the pipe will be pushed into it. I'll have to order a new disconnect and change it over so I can connect the JG speed fit fitting to it

 

[crofty83]

How long is your hose Dave if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Darcey]

Has anyone considered buying a flow controller? Fitting it to the line? They work a treat IMO... better that having several meters of beer sat in the line... again... IMO...

 

[Mark1964]

It wont hurt the ale sat in the beer line, after all pubs do the same dont they? we have 4 metres of beer line from keg to tap and the beer in the line is ok (as long as its not left for weeks etc)

 

[crofty83]

Has anyone considered buying a flow controller? Fitting it to the line? They work a treat IMO... better that having several meters of beer sat in the line... again... IMO...

Do you mean one of these?

http://bit.ly/JwZGxe
http://bit.ly/K5x2aZ

 

[Dave1970]

How long is your hose Dave if you don't mind me asking?

About 2.5 metres, I asked for 2 so might cut it down a bit...haven't used it yet & won't do for another 2 weeks when I'm away with family & taking a corny of Effin Erdinger with me. Will try it at full length & then cut down if needed.

 

[crofty83]

I've purchased a 3m length of 3/16" tubing and two 3/8" to 3/16" JG fittings so I'll see how that goes first. I may get a flow control valve for experimental purposes too :-)

 

[Dieseljockey]

If you use search there are a number of posts. I can remember maybe a year back there was a good post that ran for a while all about beer lines & taps, that's the one that helped me a lot.