LOVE the Beverage-air kegerator we bought for our bar ages ago. Great having beer on tap and no recycling bins full of bottles, etc. Anyway, I could Google this, but thought I'd get advice from the good folks on this board. Any gadget/meter that I can install to gauge how much beer is left in the tap? Right now, I'm relying on picking up the keg and estimating from the weight and that doesn't work too well. Just need a warning before I pull back the tap and get that depressing blast of CO2! THANKS!
Not so much for homeowners. They used to sell stick on strips that could tell the level based on temp but they never worked that well. Bars use FOB systems that stop the flow when foam is detected.
There are some fancy gizmo's that sort of kind of maybe work, a bit. I'll cut to the chase and just say the best way to figure out how much beer is left in your keg is to pick it up and guess. You can't install a typical FOB in your kegerator, no room. You can look for this product, it will add a few inches above the coupler, which is space you probably don't have. A FOB must be installed vertically. You also need a spill over for venting. It's just not worth it IMO. And these are over $100 each. It is a basic FOB that can be attached directly to the coupler. Never used one. Never even seen it, but it is available from our supplier. Truth is we have no need for it. FOBs are needed to save beer on long draw systems, not for kegerators. This is a Perlick product. Look for Foam Preventer, Keg Change. Commercial systems use two different technologies to determine how much beer remains in a keg. One way measures the flow of beer, and it allows for the manager to determine how much beer has been poured. The other systems uses a scale to determine how much beer remains in the keg. Both are software dependent, with all that entails. *Begin rant* Both suck. Flow meters are installed at major commercial joints because management is located a thousand miles away, bartender turnover is extraordinary, and everyone is certain the new guy is giving it away (think TGIF McFunsters etc.) This coupled with the fact that weird electronic shit between the keg and the glass only creates problems... it's a system where corporate spends $500,000 to "upgrade" 180 locations, spends another $10,000 a year to maintain, and maybe saves a few bucks at a dozen locations. Bottom line, if your restaurant is giving away free beer, you have a bartender problem not a draft beer problem. And if the system is pouring lots of foam (which the flow meter is partially to blame) then the total flow is useless because beer is going down the drain before it goes in the glass anyway. The keg weight system is a bit better. Just a scale the keg is placed on when full. The software is reset to full keg and, voila. We have some clients with these systems and they use them mostly to get a grasp on what is moving, what is stagnant and what needs to go on special. The thing is not 100% accurate but clients seem to like the system. Seems like lazy to me but there you go. *End Rant* Finally, if you pull out a cold keg and spray the side with water there will be a condensation line at the beer line. But if you are doing that you may as well be estimating the remaining beer anyway. There you have it. Cheers
I just use pennies and two cups. Start off with as many pennies as draft pours you expect out of your keg based on keg size and average pour size. After every pour you move a penny into the second cup. When you've got only a few pennies left you know you are close. Accuracy depends obviously on how close you get to the correct pour size, if you ever do half pours, and if you forget or have guests who don't follow protocol . I'm coming up on 6 years having my kegerator and I found it works pretty well but I am generally the only one drinking from my keg and I rarely forget. That being said I've virtually never had a situation where the keg kicks on the last penny. Its accurate within about +/- 6 beers which is enough for me to plan. More often than not I have pennies left over. When my wife was drinking beer and she had her own keg the penny method was less effective for her keg. This usually resulted in me drinking a bunch of her beer the night before I was planning to pick up her keg so mileage will vary.
Thanks so much for all the great ideas! Appreciate the input. Looks like I'll keep resorting to picking up the keg & estimating by weight how much is left. We only drink on the weekends, so when it gets light, I bottles to last until a fresh keg is "in the chute", as my Brother-in law terms it. The penny thing is a neat idea, but there are 4 of us using it and we all use different size glasses. The girls use small glasses, while my son & I use those monster size plastic mugs you get at festivals.
So my rhythm is when it starts getting low, order the keg. The store will hold it for you. If it is really low coming in to a gathering or weekend, pour off what is left into a growler and swap the keg. If you are using logs you can likely also fit the on deck keg into the Bev Air.
Yeah, similar drill here. We have an awesome store here that sells wine & liquor at rock-bottom prices. No kegs, though, as it's a small outfit, so I used to get wine & liquor there, then have to go somewhere else for the keg. A few years ago, their beer distributor told me he could special order kegs for me, so now I do that. They get them on Tuesdays and Fridays and hold them for me. Guy's a riot; when the keg is in, he texts me "The Eagle has Landed" ! Daughter turns 21 next week, so we're going to have a bunch of her friends camping out in the yard. Don't want them tramping in and out of my bar, so they'll be getting a keg with the pump thing.
I hope that doesn't mean what it sounds like, everyone will be happier if you drag your CO2 tank out in the yard. Teach those youngsters good kegging techniques . . .
