Ale on tap.....

After a summer of some very good and busy events at the Hillbilly garden kitchen (see previous blog) I felt there was something missing. The question was how easy would it be to add a beer tap?

A lot of the craft ale bars that I have been to offer their cask and keg ales by the growler, this didn't really meet my need and whilst I could buy bottles of ale I still wanted a better solution

After a bit of research I found a really helpful chap (Neil) from Naked Keg, you can find him via his ebay shop (link here) or his web site (link here)

After much conversation we (Neil and myself) decided on a single tap with a 5 litre keg/growler and a sodastream CO2 bottle (more volume than CO2 mini bottles and easy to refill), this gives me the option to add a splitter to the gas bottle to add another tap and keg, but also be able to add more kegs to the single tap at busy events, I have now also added smaller 2 litre keg for every day use (I'm not a big drinker and I'd rather top up often than have beer get old)



I had a space on the bar top, I wanted to leave the larger area for food and decided to set the tap to one side, this gives me space for a second tap (although I might change the single tap tower to a double) and also a good area for other drinks and glasses etc. Rather than mount the drip tray on the counter top, I made a slot under the counter for it to slide in to, again gave me more bar space.




















I added a shelf for the kegs which I would put inside a large bucket (to fill with ice) and mounted the CO2 bottle in a small piece of drain pipe (it works better if upright), this also made sure I could keep the beer line as short as possible (for efficiency)



Mounting the tap was simple, drilling a hole for the beer line and then securely bolting the tower to the bar top, the drip tray slides into the slot, the lines connect to the keg via a valve, a really nice unit that the beer line and gas line plug onto with a gas release valve (which can be used to vent gas before disconnecting or for purging the oxygen from the keg). The gas bottle has it's own regulator so you can manage the gas pressure (the keg is rated 60 psi although it works fine at around 15 psi)

And finally I need a good source of ale to keep the kegs topped up,  my new friends at Fallen Acorn Brewing (a five minute walk from home) provided that piece of the puzzle with their Expedition IPA, a slightly bitter citrus IPA and at 5.5% a reasonable strength



All in all a very nice set up and easy to implement, the advice from Neil at Naked Keg was invaluable and having a local brewery like Fallen Acorn nearby, an added bonus.



















All the links are in the text in green, if you are thinking of something similar, I can recomend Naked Keg (for both equipment and advice)