Inn Doctor » Cooling

Beer Cellar Refrigeration

Stan — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:34:31 +0000

Beer cellar refrigeration is an important part of your beer dispensing system. In an ideal world all beer cellars would have cellar cooling, providing as it does a consistent controlled environment for all your beers.

For new businesses the initial installation costs of cellar refrigeration can be quite expensive. This in recent financially strapped times has seen some pubs and bars not bothering to have it installed. Long term this does not make economic sense as the benefits of cellar cooling are worth having for any businesses. An average cellar cooler installation may cost you between £2000 and £3000 pounds depending on the type and size of cellar you have. Long term this could be money well spent.

If you are lucky enough to have existing cellar cooling then you will already be aware of the benefits. Product consistency being the primary one. Most brewers recommend you have cooling whether it be for keg or cask beers. I would suggest that to guarantee quality cask beers you must have cellar cooling. Some pubs I know have no cooling but are blessed with deep stone or brick cellars and have a constant 52-53 Fahrenheit temperature through out the year, sadly most uncooled cellars are a lot warmer than that. An important but overlooked piece of kit in your cellar is a thermometer, without it how do you know how cold your cellar is. You should as a matter of course check your cellar temperature every day. If you haven’t got a thermometer then you need to get one.

With Spring now upon us this is a good time to have your existing cellar cooling checked over, avoiding possible breakdowns in Summer when you most need it. The cost of a service call could save you a lot of money. Check out our list of local refrigeration contractors for an engineer near you.

Extra Cold Beer Pods

P J — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:33:15 +0000

Something you will be able to tell your Grand Children…….

“I remember the Pods”.

No I don’t mean the escape pods from Star Trek or the ipod. I refer to the object that sends shudders down the backs of Landlords and sends bar staff scurrying for mops and buckets.

Away from the prying eyes of customers but in full view of everyone else we have the pods which seem to get bigger and take up more space every time you look at them, they would be more at home on the set of the Scorpion King.

I don’t mean those untidy things that used to fit so neatly into the bottom shelf, screaming at you to fill with water or change a fan motor or recirc pump.

How it is now

No I refer to this cutting edge stuff, these wonderful objects are so neat and compact they can be fitted in any position and tucked well out of the way, if only.

The problem with this type of pod as the picture shows an engineer can install one of these albeit very neatly, but then along comes another to install one or two around the initial installation; time is not allocated to move or reinstall the first one to a better position to make room, so the space under the bar then begins to look like a pigs breakfast.

The second generation or later pods are now hopefully well lagged, gone are the days when you expected to see Kevin Costner climb out with gills, webbed hands and feet, then it was condensation fonts above the bar, and “Water World” below.

The principal behind the pod was sound however the design has shown it to be flawed in practice, it has turned simple bar installs into a mess, the blame doesn’t really lie with anyone in particular, the sooner different sizes of the extra cold remote are introduced in some measure the better. Bars can then return to just fonts and pythons behind the bar. So the basic principal of no coolers at all behind the bar can be maintained. but this would mean more pythons to run from the cellar, but then that’s a story for another day.

Cask beer…I wish I had the space (Vertical Stillage)

My Keg Lagers and Beers are warm

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:19:42 +0000

If all your keg beers and lagers are serving warm you have a major problem.

If you have a large pub or hotel then you will probably have one or two remote coolers. These will often be located somewhere near your cellar. They are, a large box like machine with lots of pipes coming from the top.

Once you have located the machine make sure it is switched on. This is the only thing you can check. Even if the machine is running it may still be faulty.

Ring your local Tech Services right away

My keg beer undercounter cooler is leaking.

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:12:56 +0000

This is a problem you can fix yourself, every couple of weeks or so you should drain water from the cooler this can be done by removing the (usually it is red) cap from the overflow, which can be found under the pipe connections on the front of the cooler.

What has now happened is the water level has reached the point where it is running over the top of the tank.

If you take the cap off however and no water comes out. This means that ice has formed on the other side of the overflow, to remedy this; the cooler should be switched of whilst in use, until water does flow.

Then the cooler can then again be switched back on. Coolers should be drained or topped up regularly otherwise an ice bank will not form properly.

Water is coming out of the keg beer remote cooler

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:56:56 +0000

Looking at the keg beer remote cooler, firstly see if you can see where the water is coming from. If it is leaking generally from the bottom of the machine, you need to send for your local technician.

If however you see the water is running out of a tube, which is situated, on one of the sides of the machine near the top, then this is perfectly normal. This water is meant to escape from the machine as overflow, due to the continual cycling of the ice within the unit.

Also some small amounts of water on or around the top of the remote can be expected, and is the result of condensation on the python. If in doubt it is always best to send for your local technician.

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