Winterizing Commercial Tap Lines

Hey there @Liquorwizard welcome to BA. I'm not a beer line guru, but another BAer will be with you in a jif.....hang tight

 

@billandsuz right up your alley, beer lines in cold weather!

Wizard you are correct to be sad about beer sitting in the lines, that's ugly for sure.

 

What is the coldest expected winter temperature in your area?
When you say the lines are split you mean 1 keg goes to one faucet inside and one faucet outside, correct?

Glycol is chilled to about 28F. Any exposed trunk line will not gain heat if the ambient temps fall below 28. That is to say if your glycol is 28 and your beer is at the target 38, and the ambient is at 0, then the beer will creep below 38 in that exposed trunk line. Because it has no way to get warmer. Cold is after all not a unit of energy. Heat is. "Cold" is a measurement of the lack of heat. The 28 degree glycol is good for maintaining beer at walk in cooler temps, right around 38.

If you can keep the line packed with beer and the entire loop on, do that. Clean the faucets and plug them. Beer is antifreeze and does not usually freeze until it is in the high 20s. Lower for bigger ABV beers. Drain and aggressive line clean in the Spring.

Because both lines are branched, there is no way to drain one trunk and keep the other trunk open unless you have shut offs for each line installed in the walk in cooler. Look to see, there may be valves. If so, shut off the valves to the outside lines and drain the outside lines by gravity. Clean and plug the faucets.

Do an aggressive line cleaning in the Spring. Do not allow any water or cleaning solution to reside in the lines. 1. the glycol loop will freeze it, 2. you'll need to turn off the entire system, both trunks, for a day or more, while you defrost the line.

Let us know how it works out.
Good luck.

 

What Bill said.

When a system is ‘mirrored’ like yours, cleaning just 1/2 the lines isn’t a possibility, so hit it with an aggressive cleaning prior to reopening the outside bar.