Flow Control Faucet for bottles/growlers

I like to fill bottles and growlers from the bottom up personally. For that, a beergun might be an option although you would probably have to dial your serving pressure down to about 7 psi for the best results. As for flow control faucets, the cheap ones (perlicks with the little handle on the side in the $60 range) suck since they try to restrict the flow from one side. The expensive ones (micromatics around $145 each) do a great job since they constrict the beer line from all sides at once.

 

I got a growler filler attachment for my perlick tap that does the same thing without purging the growler but I'm usually going to drink a growler within a short time anyway. I'm curious about the flow control taps too because I don't like purging the kegs I always feel like I'm losing aroma when I do

 

This. I like my flow controls for filling growlers but there is certainly a decent amount of foam/loss with a growler filler tube device. If I wanna bottle I still use the beer gun.

Those really expensive taps look bad ass and some commercial Brewers near me use them and don't even need a tube for filling growlers with basically no foam/loss. Just very very expensive.

 

I use Perlick 650 flow control faucets with full tube and love them. Use to fill 12 and 22oz bottles no problem, and of course growlers. No need to adjust my regulators or anything like that.

Oh, and having 2-3ft line length for anything regardless of carb level is nice too. No issues what-so-ever.

Most breweries I have been to lately use them, most popular faucet I see anymore.

 

I use them to fill everything with no problem, and no adjusting of tank pressure or keg purging is needed. I'm not sure what the post above means about one side restriction. Mine adjusts using holes on all sides inside the tap. Still a good idea to purge whatever you're filling with CO2 first.

 

In my opinion, having installed hundreds of faucets, the flow controls work ok for what you want to use them for. not great but ok.
As long as you don't expect them to be able to balance an otherwise unbalanced system, sure go ahead. The standard Perls are an excellent faucet, one of the best, and work great as regular faucets.

But expect to still need a growler filler. And some foam.
If you can install a beer gun do that instead as they work much better. Order of magnitude better.

Build a cheap and reliable growler filler that can be used for pints as well and the world will beat a path to your door.

These are the bad ass flow controls. The long shank allows for real restriction. That Made in Germany means European threads. Sorry. Not for us without real expense.

 

I use the Perlick growler filler adapter. However, I don't see any problem in jamming silicon tubing around the outside of the faucet either. I do that when I run my line cleaner back into the bucket with the pump that recirculates the cleaner.

 

A perlick flow control faucet plus a filler adapter makes growler fills a snap for me. If you do it right, especially with a cold growler, you can get very little foam.

Note that the filler adapter thing is a slightly different size for the flow control faucets than for the other perlicks.

Silicon tubing used over the outside of the faucet works too, but may be too wide for some 1L growler bottle openings. I haven't tried jamming silicon tubing inside a faucet, but I suspect it wouldn't fit uniformly.

 

Even with warm 12oz and 22oz bottles, I don't get much foam at all. The other day I did (3) 12oz and (3) 22oz bottles between three different taps and my "overflow bowl" had maybe a 1/2 cup at most between all of them, mainly from capping on foam which I allowed it to spill some over. Only the very high carbed ones may give an issue, at or around 3vol's or more.

I can't recommend those faucets enough! Especially when paired with John Guest fittings and Bev-Seal Ultra tubing.

 

I can't support this statement enough! They are amazing faucets. I don't even use a filler. I contact sanitize the end of the faucet and tilt at 45 degree angle for bottles and growlers. If temp is right, no foam.

 

Flow control faucets are great, I've filled many bottles and growlers with them. It's also great not having to work with different length of beer lines. That having been said: I have nothing nice to say about Perlick. I needed new gaskets for my flow control faucet, and they couldn't sell them to me. I was refereed to one business who wouldn't sell them to me unless I was buying in bulk. Then I was referred to another place that only sold bulk. Then I was referred to a place that only had some of the o-rings, but not all of them. Then, finally I was referred to a 4th place that had them all. Honestly at this point, I want to junk my Perlick and replace it with an inter-tap because they have good customer service and replacement parts are readily available though retailers that sell the faucet. Also Inter tap faucets are cheaper, and have more accessories. That may or may not be worth it to you.

 

Can you buy some blank gasket material and cut out your own?

 

@corbmoster

Interesting, I bought a bunch of replacement O-rings / gaskets along with spare parts for the faucet online with no issue (ordered from kegworks.com).

 

@invertalon
At the time, I found several companies that had the orings for just the flow control, or just for the rest of the assembly for the 650ss. I can't remember if Kegworks was amungst the companies I talked to or not. I think they were sold out of one or more of the rings I needed.

 

Good point...however, it will fit most (all?) 600 series Perlick faucets. I have 4 different Perlicks and must use 2 different growler fillers.