The Custom Draft Beer Tower And Everything You Need to Know

A custom draft beer tower is the perfect way to enhance the look and feel of your bar or restaurant. With a wide range of imagination design options and materials to choose from. You can create a draft beer tower that matches the style and atmosphere of your business. Whether it's for one faucet or 100.

Create a one-of-a-kind awesome tower that is both functional and visually stunning. Use only the highest quality materials, so your custom tower will last for years to come.

In this post, we will talk about creating the perfect tower with multiple configurations. While including some important parts that will help the tower and dispensing capability... Dream it and Let's go!

Draft Beer Towers Options 

There are many specialty options available. Some are made with brushed stainless steel. Some are double pedestal towers. Others have very unique body styles. So it's important to understand the differences before making a decision. But let's start with the two types of tower design you will pick and that is:

Direct Draw Tower vs Glycol Chilled Towers

Custom direct draw beer towers typically mount on kegerators refrigerators, or on the wall of a beer walk-in cooler. Very common at restaurants. Air is blown through one end and exits out the other. Air-cooled towers are nice, but they aren't the best. The problem lies in the cooler and if the tower is getting the right amount of air pushed through. If not you won't have a cold beer.

These are cost-effective. However, I believe you won't get as good of a production run, as you would with a glycol chilled beer tower for draft beer.

Another option is the glycol beer tower. This type of tower circulates glycol through the tower to keep the beer cold. This tower is part of what's called a "remote system". It allows the beer to be dispensed a long way from the beer cooler. Hundreds of feet or multiple stories up. The remote beer system is king when it comes to draft beer dispensing.

When choosing a custom beer tower, it's important to consider the material that it's made from. The most common materials are stainless steel. Rightfully so. Stainless steel towers are more durable, and they will last. All of these towers shown are made with stainless steel. Some have been powder coated and can be colored to fit any color scheme you can think of.

Typical, Pipe Bridge towers come with a 4" or 6" O.D Pipe. 8,10 and 12" are less common but out there. The size of the pipe will also determine the number of taps that you want to include on the tower. 6" dominates the industry. I believe it just looks cooler than a smaller 4" tower.

There are many different ways to customize the look of your beer tower. As you can see from these pictures. You can choose from a variety of colors, materials, and finishes for sale. You can also add custom graphics or logos to personalize the look of your tower such as the hydro graphics below.

Hydrographic tower

Hydrographic tower

Be sure to consider all your options before making a decision. Choose stainless steel that will be durable. Pick a size that will accommodate the number of taps that you want to include. And don't forget to personalize the look of your tower with custom graphics or logos. 

Custom Draft Beer Towers Absolute Needs

Once you have an idea about what the tower is going to look like. You need to keep in mind that the tower should have these other pieces of equipment included:

Stainless Steel Faucets

Only use stainless steel faucets to dispense beer. There are many different types from regular faucets to flow control ones. The most important thing is that it's stainless and 304 stainless. This way you can dispense products other than beer from your faucet.

Stainless Steel Shanks

Again this is extremely important. The beer shank I would recommend all 304 stainless steel shanks. Not only will this equipment last longer. But you will be able to pour a large variety of products other than beer. This connects to your beer faucet inside the tower.

Stainless Steel Hard Piping Inside The Tower

Recommend this to all of my customers. Vinyl inside of beer towers will go bad and give the tower an off taste. Using all hard piping 304 stainless steel. Will allow proper cleaning of the system and the capability to dispense other products.

Custom Drip Tray to Match Custom Tower

It's recommended to get a custom drip tray with your custom draft beer towers. Usually, the draft beer towers will want a custom tray to match. The drip trays will come with 2 rinsers on either end and have a larger depth of 8" style than other off-the-shelf drip trays. Overall they match the beer tower and look like they belong. 

Draft Towers Tie Draft Beer System Together

A custom draft beer tower is the perfect way to tie your draft beer system together. The tower is the centerpiece of the system, and it should be custom-designed to fit your specific needs. Whether you're looking for a stylish way to display your draught beer or you need a durable and functional solution for dispensing beer, a custom draft beer tower is the way to go.

How to Install A Custom Draft Beer Tower

Installing custom draft beer towers can be a challenging task, but it's definitely worth the effort. Here are the steps that you need to follow: 

• Determine the location of the beer tap tower. 
• Remove the old beer tower (if applicable) 
• Clean the area if it's a remodel. 
• Mark on the countertop where the tower will sit. If it's on the wall. Mark the outside beer cooler. Notice we want to have our faucets hit the center of our custom drip tray. Typically, we like our drip trays to be 8" in depth. So we want to aim for that centerline at 4". Measure twice. Also nice to use a laser if you need your penetration points to be level.
• Once the beer tap tower is marked on the countertop it's good to have the bar top guys cut out the holes needed. You can also do this yourself. If you do make sure you use a diamond carbide bid and know how to cut through tile, granite and stone before you do it.  
• Remember you will need a hole about 3" for the hard piping and insulation to run through, and holes cut from 1/4"-3/8" for the bolt holes to hold the tower down to the countertop. I'll use nuts and bolts for these depending on the thickness of the bar. It's a better hold but if you are in tight quarters you can screw Stainless Steel screw into the 3/4" plywood under the bar top. 
• After you mount the tower. Make sure to mount the drip tray to the counter top. After the drip tray is mounted and set. Use silicone around the edge of the drip tray. Go slow create a nice fluid beed. This will keep beer and water getting under our drip tray.
• Hook up the beer lines to the hard piped stainless steel hose fittings coming out of the tower. These hoses can be 3/8" ID, 1/4" ID or 3/16" ID It just depends on the amount of restriction required for the system. So make sure you have 140, 133, 123 oetikers as well as 162 and 17 for other beer connections.
• After all your hook-ups. Pressure test each line from the beer lines in the cooler to the dispensing tower. Test for 2 things: One we are hooked up to the right line. Two, checking for leaks in the line. Nice to use an air compressor with a gauge.
• After the lines are air tested and good. It's now time to wrap the beer lines with plastic wrap, foil tape, beer line insulation, and black beer tape. 
• Turn on the Glycol System. If it's a glycol tower before you pump beer. 
• Pump beer into the system by tapping the kegs. The beer will come out foamy. This is ok all we want to do is pack all the beer lines with beer. We will let the lines sit overnight and calibrate the next day.

Conclusion

I hope you learned a few things about custom draft beer towers. What they can be assembled out of, and what parts are important for your tower. Like stainless steel faucets, stainless steel shanks, and the hard piping inside the tower. With the assistance of other dispensing equipment like fobs, secondary regulators, and beer pumps. These pieces only enhance custom beer towers by delivering a perfect pour every time.

Beer custom towers add their own flare and touch to the property. And more and more people are coming up with amazing designs. If you have any other questions and would like your own custom beer tower feel free to contact me here. I look forward to talking with you if you do have any further questions. 

In the meantime check out the rest of my blog here. It's updated with current market information. Talk with you soon.

Cheers!