Resistive Gate - Draft Beer Flow Control
I hate foam. Luckily, I found a d-i-y project for those of you who keg your homebrew. If you are like me, you have noticed that beers with higher carbonation levels tend to be foamy from your taps. Even worse are those short cobra lines that you take to parties or use in your home kegging setup…too much foam, not enuf beer.
Well, there is a new product on the market called the Flo-gate, manufactured by Ventmatic. The design adds tiny plastic discs in the line and results in a resistive load on the beer. This makes it appear that the beer is flowing through much longer lines, thus reducing foaming The Ventmatic product retails for $35.
Fortunately a do-it-yourselfer can build one for a fraction of that cost. The following parts list details what you need:
- 3/16” Beer line (length that you need for your setup) $.30/foot
- ¼” beer line, about 8” $.20/foot
- epoxy nozzle tip, McMaster Carr #74695A12 $1.00
- 2 pcs ¼” to 3/16” SS adapter, Tavern Services $1.00 each
- 4pcs SS hose clamps $.60 each
Cut the end off of the epoxy nozzle and remove the plastic mixing disc from the device, Insert this disc into the ¼” beer line.
Push the ¼” end of the adapter into each end of the hose.
Clamp into place with two SS hose clamps.
Attach 3/16” hose to each end of the subassembly.
Install a SS hose clamp on each side. The hose on the keg end should be relatively short 4” to 8”. The serving end should be as long as you require for your setup.
There you have it, for the total investment of about nine bucks you have the…. Resistive-Gate.