Beer Tap Accessories

While there are many ways to serve beer, one of the most common ways that beer is stored, transported and served is through kegs or large casks. Often known as draft beer, in many restaurants and pubs beer is served in kegs through taps that regulate the flow of the beer. To go one step further, kegerators are used to serve chilled beer. These are refrigeration devices used to maintain the cool temperature of a keg of beer constantly.

Let's take a quick look at the various types of beer taps that are used for the dispensing of beer from kegs, casks or kegerators. Some of the different types of beer tap accessories are:

• Pressure-dispense Bar Taps
• Portable Keg Taps
• Cask Beer Taps
• Kegerator Taps

Pressure-dispense and Kegerator Beer Tap Accessories

As mentioned earlier, almost all over the world today beer is transported and supplied in bulk in kegs. External pressure is then used to serve beer stored in this manner. Normally, a cylinder of Carbon Dioxide is used to create the pressure, which is then able to force the beer to come out of the keg and travel up a narrow tube. Once it gets to the end of the tube, it reaches a valve which is nothing but the beer tap. When the beer tap is opened, the beer is pushed by the pressure of the gas, and it thereby flows into the beer mug. These beer tap accessories using carbon dioxide are common in the US, while in the UK, nitrogen is more widely used.

A kegerator beer tap works more-or-less on the same principle. These beer tap accessories come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and the options are endless.

Portable Keg Beer Tap Accessories

Also known as picnic taps, such beer tap accessories are useful where beer kegs need to be transported often, such as in outdoor use for a party or a picnic. In such a case, the beer tap is required to allow the serving of the beer directly from the keg itself. Hence, the portable beer taps make use of a hand pump in order to force air into the keg, instead of having gas cylinders. This might cause the beer to spoil at a faster rate, but if consumed quickly, it is quite acceptable. Sometimes, portable beer taps can be found that come with small gas cylinder attachments.

Cask Beer Tap Accessories

The other, more traditional way to store and serve beer is in casks. Also known as cask ale, this type of beer is brewed without the process of pasteurization and hence does not make use of artificial gas for dispensing purposes. The yeast in the beer is still alive which means it should be maintained at a certain temperature level. To serve beer directly from a cask, the beer tap accessories used are valves with a simple on-off functionality, fitted on to the end of the cask.

Beer tap accessories can be purchased online from several websites, and also from retail or wholesale local stores. Keep in mind your requirements before you make the right choice of beer taps for you.