How to set up a home bar – the beer side
We’ve seen some inspiring creativity in the world of home bars during the last few months and we’ve been asked to fit a few out or resolve some technical gremlins. Who knew that the humble pallet was so versatile?
Behind the bar though, people want beer and if you want beer on draught then it’s an extra level of commitment. What we are doing with this post is going through what that commitment will entail.
So, what do we need to get beer from our keg into our glass?
Well, gas will drive the beer from the keg (don’t need to know how do you? Thought not) but we want it cold don’t we? And we don’t want a glass of foam; cold or not.
The gas we use, typically, is CO2 and we can get CO2 in cylinders. The trouble is that CO2 cylinders run at 850psi or so and beer is dispensed at 12psi; give or take. Please don’t take a CO2 cylinder into your life without understanding its needs. In all honesty it’s pretty simple; make sure you buy food grade CO2 and for fuck’s sake don’t try and save ten quid by using a welding regulator.
I went to a job this week that genuinely scared me. He had a welding regulator wide open and the pressure into the keg was phenomenal. The beer was firing out of the tap like a damn fire hydrant and I felt like we were one step away from a very messy end, although it would have been a pretty rock’n’roll way to go. Take CO2 cylinders seriously; they can do some serious damage.
Regulators aren’t expensive, think £50 or so, and should be thought of as an absolute must; don’t cut corners there.
Okay, so we’re out of the keg without putting the man cave into orbit but we need the beer to be not only at non-lethal pressures but cool as well, not Fonzi cool neccessarily, but pretty damn cool. How are we going to make that happen? Well, one of these would be an excellent solution.
This is an under bar or flash cooler. This is what is going to sit between your room temperature keg of beer and the ice cold pint in your glass. This one is a typical ‘4 out’ Maxi, they work by passing the beer through a stainless coil which sits in a cold water bath. The two pipes that point upwards are connected to a water recirculation pump which can be used to keep beer lines cold between cooler and tap and also to cool the font on the bar. The ones that ‘sweat’ condensation? That’s from a water recirc pump chilling it.
Flow Controller 
Gas Regulator 
Sankey Keg Coupler
So the flow is CO2 from the regulator goes into the keg via the coupler at 12psi or so. This forces the beer out via the same coupler and into the ‘in’ side of the cooler. The beer is chilled and then exits the cooler on the ‘out’ side heading for the tap. Between the cooler and the tap we fit a flow controller, we use a flow controller to, erm, control the flow of the beer.
The enemy of a good pint is excessive foam (fobbing) and our number one weapon is the flow controller. They’re not expensive and should really be viewed as a must have piece of kit.
This isn’t particularly complex work, setting up a home bar to give you decent beer, but it can be tricky to get right and there’s not much more frustrating than a glass full of foam when you wanted a cold beer. If you want to do it yourself it isn’t beyond you; honestly. Just treat the C02 with respect, follow the flow logically, and give us a call if you get stuck.
Update
We are increasingly seeing continental style lagers in home bars and those don’t play very well with CO2; you can run into pretty bad fobbing problems. The answer is mixed gas, usually 60/40, and a different regulator setup. If you’re planning to dispense continental lagers then mixed gas is the way to go.
Steve