Draft v. Home Brew?

Question

My client at www.kegkits.com has given me this exact topic to write about:

"Serving Draft Beer from Your Homebrew Keg Coupler"

What do you think he means? Is there a difference? I'd like to try and figure it out myself before asking him directly...Any points of reference?

Answer 1

Draft v. Home Brew?

In comparing tap systems? The beers that are commonly served from tap? (well any)

The majority of beers with the descriptor "draft," are the bright (very clear) beers from the large brewers. It really just means-'nothing.' It is/was used as a marketing term. The people that drink such beers assumed it was better in flavor or quality then the beers without the term. Perhaps it is not pasteurized. Some think it is brewed special for bar tap systems compared to the bottle versions. It means none of these things but that it is served from a tap and not a bottle or can. Later it was used again for the bottle and can packages to infer that the beers are as fresh as a tap-poured beer. Again this is false.

Homebrewed beers are truly draft beers in terms of what the large brewers fans think of a tap served beer. They are more flavorful, not pasteurized-(live product), and at times brewed to be in a keg-{not really that but homebrewers can do their own marketing too}.

The actual tap systems are based on the same principles of a pressurized liquid and a mechanical force to dispense it. The mechanical force most commonly used is the gas CO2 or carbon dioxide. Old English pubs use a 'Beer Engine," which uses a natural low pressure piston siphon to draw the beer to glass. The large draft beers are racked into a keg using highly technically engineered equipment. The homebrewed draft beer is hand racked in 5 gallon old soda-syrup kegs called cornelius kegs. Most bar taps have decorated handles sporting the beers logo mounted to the bar. Whereas the homebrewed system is a plain hand held tap.

The principle of draft beer service is the same. Hold a glass to the tap and open it. The beer flows into the glass. Enjoy the beer.

Some examples of keg draft systems are given above and here.

http://www.homebrewadventures.com/shoppi...

http://www.beer-brewing.com/apex/kegging...

http://www.customdraftsystems.com/PriceC...

Paint♥Pa...

I hope you are not hooking up CO (carbon Monoxide) to your kegs. That will kill ya. Bad host, bad host.

Answer 2

Draft beer is just beer on tap, it's irrelevant to homebrew since any kind of beer can be served on tap.  I would assume whatever this is about is in regards to how to set up 5 gallon (corny) kegs for a draft system since that's the most common keg for homebrew.

Right on their website they have this...

http://www.kegkits.com/kegerator1.htm

... which is what I'd assume the guy wants you to write about.