Draft beer control systems installation overview

The installation of a draft beer control system involves flow meters (one for each tap) and a metering system. The choice of the metering system depends on how many flow meters will be connected to it.

The flow meters get mounted in the beer tubing, usually on the wall, right above the beer kegs. Our flow meters come with a 7.65 M / 25 ft. cable. Each flow meter will be wired to a collector box that will be mounted inside the cooler within reach of the flow meters we intend to connect to it. There is no power source; no current and the wires can be short circuited without any risk of damaging the flow meter.

This part of the installation can be handled by the people who take care of your draft beer system. In fact, it is preferable that they be involved as they know your beer system better than anyone and will take great care to make sure everything is installed in the right place and all wires are solidly attached to the tubing. We coordinate the installation with them using pictures, a web cam and training videos.

The metering system usually goes in the manager’s office near the computer where the software will run. For those who want to use softtware, the metering system will connect to the computer using a USB port or it can be connected directly to your computer network.

In between the flow meter collector box inside the beer cooler and the metering system, there is a Cat 5 network cable. This cable will link the collector box to the metering system. Cat 5 cables are the same cables you have for your computer and POS network. There are no shortage of companies who can install network cables and test them. Again, when needed, we will find and coordinate the installation of the network cables with them. If on the other hand the run is short easy, we can provide the ready to use cable to be installed by your handy man.

Once the cable is connected and the power is turned on, there is a calibration to do. Calibrating involves serving 1 litre or 20 Oz. of beer measured in a graduated cylinder (provided) to insure the best accuracy possible. The graduated cylinder is also used to verify your measurements an the accuracy of the flow meter. This procedure takes a few minutes only and does not have to be re-done unless there is drastic change in the beer measured.

The software installation is done on-line by us. We need Internet on the computer and Teamviewer to log in your computer. Teamviewer is free for you and takes a few minutes to install. Using Teamviewer, we install the software, train you to use it and service it should we need to. You will possibly want to use it as well to login yourself from your home to check things out.

We will interface the POS system and the beer meters. The POS part of the interface is simple but will require that we ask your POS vendor to login at the same time. We will explain what we need and test the interface as we speak on the phone. We usually have everything running in less than an hour.