Draft Beer Equipment Supplier
Providing your guests with high-quality draft beer is an excellent way to boost your bottom line. Rapids Wholesale offers all the necessary draft beer equipment for your establishment.
Depending on your location and setup, you can choose between an air-cooled system, a remote glycol cooled system, or a direct draw system. These systems keep beer at an optimum temperature from the walk-in cooler to the faucet.
Air Line
Rapids Wholesale is a leading draft beer equipment supplier that offers quality long-draw systems that help to provide ice-cold draft beer over long distances. These systems can be either forced air or glycol-cooled. Glycol-cooled systems help to keep beer at a consistent cold temperature from where the kegs are stored to the point of dispense. The system uses a glycol power pack to circulate a chilled mixture along with the beer lines to ensure that your beer stays cold from the walk-in cooler all the way to the tap. There are also direct draw and kegerator systems that use an air-cooled chiller to keep the beer at a cool, consistent temperature.
Beer Line
The beer line carries the liquid from the keg coupler to the draft faucet. It’s usually a clear vinyl hose that resists staining and keeps the beer at an ideal temperature for a great tasting pour. Beer lines should be cleaned regularly to remove any contaminants that might taint the taste of the beverage, such as beer stone, bacteria, or yeast.
Many commercial establishments use a pressurized cleaning kit that uses the CO2 pressure in the beer line to push the cleaning solution through the lines. This makes the process quicker and easier than pumping the solution by hand. It’s important to keep your beer and air lines unkinked so they don’t create an uneven flow that can affect the flavor of the beverage and cause foaming.
If you need to serve more than one type of beer equipment manufacturer at a time, consider using a multi-line beer dispensing system with a power pack. This will allow you to dispense any beer or beverage on tap with ease. The power pack will also maintain the proper temperature for each beverage in the beer trunk line and ice chest, which will reduce foaming.
Gas Blender
A gas blender is used to mix two or more technical gases for a variety of industries including welding technology, metal processing, food packaging in MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging) and beer dispensing systems. These devices are typically equipped with a primary regulator for C02 and Nitrogen. A high-pressure braided air line is typically used to connect the blender to cylinders or bulk tanks.
To make sure the system is working properly it is important to properly size and seal the air ducts and limit the number of 90-degree bends in the ducts. This will help minimize air loss and ensure the proper cooling is provided to the beer lines.
The next step is to decide what type of beer dispensing system you would like to use. There are three options: direct draw, kegerator, and long-draw glycol power pack. Each option is designed to keep your draft beer at a consistent, cold temperature from the walk-in cooler to the taps. If your kegs are more than 25 feet away from the beer tower, a long-draw glycol power pack is recommended.
Foam Insulation
In addition to food-grade vinyl lines, your draft beer system requires foam insulation to keep air and beer cold. This insulation is typically a half-inch larger than the tubing it covers and helps prevent heat from the keg’s pressure or air temperature from reaching the beer lines. It also helps keep beer from warming up, a common cause of foamy beer.
For any long-run draft beer line (usually 25 ft or more) from your walk-in cooler to your faucets, it’s important to use a glycol cooling solution. A glycol system uses a power pack to deliver a mixture of food-grade antifreeze and water that’s then powered through product lines that rest next to beer lines inside an insulated trunk line bundle.
These product lines help maintain a constant, perfectly chilled temperature from keg to tap. They also reduce the number of times you need to clean your beer lines, a costly procedure that can degrade a line’s metal tape cladding and potentially expose beer to oxygen, which can cause it to foam.
Shank
A draft beer shank is a piece of equipment that connects the keg to the beer line and then the faucet. It’s important that the shank is properly sized and designed to allow cold air to circulate throughout it and maintain its cold temperature. This is an essential component of a draft system that’s designed for long-draw dispensing, as it ensures the beer is served at a chilled and consistent temperature from the keg to the faucet.
Choose a keg shank from the industry’s leading manufacturer, Micro Matic. They produce a wide range of keg couplers, shanks and taps that help you serve great tasting, cold draft beer every time.
There are three types of draft systems available – remote glycol cooled, air-cooled and direct draw. To determine which one is right for your business, consider the size of your walk-in cooler and how far it is from the area where you’ll be storing and dispensing your beer. For example, if your walk-in is 25 feet or more away from the draft beer tower, you should go with a long-draw draft system with a glycol power pack.
