Refrigerated Beer Lines?

[OhAodha]

I could use some help figuring this out. I have a keg fridge with an insulated beer line out the top with a 5-6 foot unrefrigerated but insulated run to a tower faucet. As the temperature gets warmer the foam in my keg increases. I have narrowed to cause down to the line as the first beer I pull is foamy and if I pull a second immediately after, it is not. Let the keg sit for 10 minutes and you get 3-4 inches of foam again. All this tells me that I need to refrigerate my lines.

I have looked on this site for ideas on how to do this but when I built my bar I made the tolerances very tight so anything I do must fit in a small space. The beer line runs out the top of the kegerator and makes a 90 degree turn, follows a channel to the edge of the kegerator, through an opening, across about 3 ft undercounter, then up to the tower though an opening in my bar. Because of these turns the copper pipe idea will not work.

So, I am looking for suggestions and ideas of how to accomplish this feat. Someone once suggested an aquarium pump in a chamber in the fridge with glycol alcohol running through flexible tubing on either side of the line. This could work as I could switch it on and off as needed. Has anyone done this? Can you give me any specifications for pump and tubing types? Would the container need to be glass or will plastic do?

If anyone has an idea on this all brainstorms are welcome.

Thanks

[PsychoBrew]

When My wife and I owned a bar we had this problem due to the taps being about 6 feet away from the keg cooler - we moved the taps so that they sat right above the cooler making it possible for the lines to stay inside the keg cooler (except for the few inches that went into the tower.)
I think you could use copper and put 90 degree corner fittings on it. then if the problem persisted it would be very easy to cool the copper.
I think one option would be a pump that ran water through a copper line right next to the lines you already have - this would probably be the least expensive approach without having to modify much of your bar.

That's my $0.02

[OhAodha]

Thanks Psycho,
What I decided to try is I got a tall glass vase that I am going to put in the refrig filled with a solution of Glycol Alcohol. In the bottom I am putting a small submersible pond fountain pump with enough lift for the 4 feet of lift it will need. I am running 3/8" poly tubing alongside the beerline with the return attached to the other side. The pump will pump the glycol up into the tower and back down. I will be setting up the system and testing it this weekend.

The problem with copper is the number of bends I would need to make and the tight fits. I apreciate the advice but I think any hard tubing will not work in my situation. I am hoping if I use the thinwall 3/8"id tubing for my refrigerant line and insulate it, it will transfer its temperature enough to the beer line to work. If not I may have to jury rig a combination copper and poly line system. The test this weekend will tell the tale

Thanks for the advice.

[PsychoBrew]

Wow - sounds like you got it planed out - I think one our distributors tried that alcohol trick in our bar, but the temp was just too warm and the lines traveled too far for it to really affect the line temp, we had a restaurant hooked to the bar and the kitchen generated a great deal of heat that passed into the bar area. Like I said before this was a bit different from your situation
I hope it works for your situation - Let us know how it turns out.
Good luck and cool lines :-)