The craft beer movement looks to be here to stay, or at the very least, it'll be here for long enough to warrant owners and allied hospitality fit out trades to get around the equipment involved.
Let's talk beer glass rinsers. They aren't new by any stretch, but their installation is causing conniptions left and right. I'll let you in on what I know to save you from a decent migraine.
A beer glass rinser is essentially a coffee jug rinser with a chilled water feed, whose purpose is to wet the inside of a clean beer glass to improve the pour (depending on your nearest beer aficionado's school of thought), and to chill the glass down from ambient temperature without requiring refrigeration.
Though simple in principal, this plumbing fixture impacts regulatory requirements concerning plumbing, namely the prevention of contaminating mains water through back-flow.
Typical water outlets exhaust water downward, meaning the contaminated water stream runs to the waste outlet. However, Beer glass rinsers and coffee milk jug rinsers, shoot a jet of water upward which rinses the inverted glass or jug. The contamination risk (although seemingly slight) is that the tainted water can enter back through the outlet valve, and enter mains water.
The back-flow can be eliminated by installing a back-flow prevention device between the water chiller, and the rinsing unit. It's also a good idea to offset the taps from the rinser jet to further lessen the risk.
Beer glass rinsing systems should be designed and detailed with the preliminary hydraulics design to ensure your hydraulics engineer and plumbing inspector are aware of your plans to include them in your fit-out.
Make sure you allow sufficient under-counter space for the the installation of back-flow prevention devices, then, talk to your hydraulics designer to make sure they're across what you want to achieve.
As with any design; early planning and communication will ensure a smoother service, eliminating unwanted problems coming to a head… Oh snap - I went there.
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