In need of a draft beer system for your bar or restaurant but have limited space? Discover a unique kegerator draft beer system with a stylish remote beer tower.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE TRADITIONAL KEGERATOR
Some hotel, bar and restaurant owners have turned to the kegerator draft beer system as an alternative to the glycol system. When it comes to kegerators, not much has changed over the years – but that’s becoming a problem, in light of the emergence of craft beer. Although this style of bar equipment is reliable, it hasn’t been good for commercial bar design because traditional kegerators are 29” deep – which doesn’t conform to the world of 24” underbar bar equipment. The other problem is that they don’t have fashionable, multiple-faucet beer towers. Not to worry, because I have a work-around for you!
BUILDING CONSTRAINTS CAN BE AN OBSTACLE FOR GLYCOL DRAFT BEER SYSTEMS
Consider the following design example of a hotel bar. Although I believe glycol draft beer systems are the best investment of any draft beer system (ref. to my earlier post, listed below), they sometimes don’t prove to be the best. For some applications, these aren’t most cost-effective solutions. In some existing facilities, there are limited locations for walk-in coolers. Extremely long trunklines and physical obstacles can also pose limitations.
A KEGERATOR DRAFT BEER SYSTEM FOR CRAFT BEER
Some bar owners wish to serve 8-10 varieties of craft beer and desire stylish draft beer towers, but don’t want to invest in a glycol draft beer system. Consider a little-known bar design secret – converting a standard built-in backbar cooler into a kegerator draft beer system. This type of cooler is 24” deep, can house eight (or more) brands of beer and is readily available. For this application I used the following bar equipment:
- Glastender BB84 back bar coolers.
- Glastender LGT8, 8-faucet beer towers.
BAR DESIGN TIP:
It’s very important to note that the beer tower used for this application needs to be designed for air-cooled draft beer systems; glycol towers will not work for this.
Also needed are the tubing, pressure regulators and other hardware for connecting eight brands of beer and a CO2 gas cylinder – the same as any draft beer system. Our client chose to have the draft beer towers remotely-mounted to the front bar top; this means that the kegerators shown here act as remote air-cooled draft beer systems. This is feasible, given that the beer towers are only five feet from each kegerator (ref. to my earlier post, listed below); to achieve this, some 4” schedule 40 PVC will be necessary to act as the “shaft”.
PRO’S & CON’S OF KEGERATOR SYSTEMS
There are practical limitations to kegerators. U.S. domestic draft beer is only packaged in half-barrels. On the other hand, most craft beer is offered in sixtels and half-barrels. When kegerators are designed for more than four brands, in practical terms the bar owner is limited to sixtel (1/6 barrel) products. Because of the large footprint of U.S. domestics, I normally recommend clients who desire kegerators to serve craft beer exclusively. This approach maximizes the number of products and yields the greatest profit potential.
The only drawback with sixtels is the potential to constantly tap kegs on busy days. Let’s also remember to have plenty of ready (cold) backup, which needs to be stored in a walk-in cooler. The kegerator enables an owner an inexpensive ticket into serving draft beer, but it does have its limitations. For bar owners seeking to make solid money from draft beer, my recommendation is always for a glycol system.
KEGERATOR DRAFT BEER SYSTEMS CAN REQUIRE SOME CUSTOMIZATION
Although no companies are currently marketing the idea of “off-the-shelf” built-in kegerators with remote towers, you can purchase anybody’s built-in back bar cooler and incorporate the above concept (Krowne, Perlick and Beverage Air manufacture similar coolers and those cut sheets can be found at the end of this post). You won’t find a ready-made solution on any retail website for this (such as Web Restaurant Store). We can assist you in completing the design.
DOWNLOADS FOR THIS POST:
BEVERAGE_AIR_BACKBAR_COOLER_CUT_SHEET.pdf
Glastender_Backbar_Coolers_Cut_Sheet.pdf
GLASTENDER_LIONS_GATE_DRAFT_BEER_TOWER.pdf
PERLICK_BBS_BACKBAR_COOLER_CUT_SHEET.pdf
PERLICK_DDS-Series-Self-Contained-Direct-Draw_Coolers.pdf
POPULAR DOWNLOADS:
UNIVERSAL_BAR_CLEARANCES_WITH_ADA.pdf
BAR_AND_RESTAURANT_SEATING_GUIDELINES.pdf
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