Picture this: you’re a guest at a summer wedding in New England. As you begin your walk to the ceremony, your shoes scrape the gravel road while a droplet of sweat leaves the tip of your nose. It hits the ground in slow motion as you look towards the hill and see a mobile bar. Not only do you see ice cold bottled water next to a hydrangea flowers, but the draft beer is already being poured. In fact, it’s Sam Summer and local Citrus IPA. “Hallelujah!” you audibly scream. The guests in seats turn with smiles.
If you’re a mobile bar business and bringing your trailer to an event, draft beer is a massive value builder. Heck, even if you’re a mobile bartender with a portable setup, you can serve draft beer or cocktails on tap. I’m not sure if there’s anything better than a cold, seasonal beer at a summer wedding.
Bringing draft beer to your event is a massive value builder for your clients, but to your business as well. You can save money on your expenses for drinks poured and still have great profit margins. Using Cornelius Keg, or a “corny” keg, also allows you to batch up your mixed cocktails and bring them to the event. Here is some of our favorite equipment we bought off Amazon and a few other sources online.
KEG COOLERS & JACKETS
The Super Cooler
These are what we use inside of our mobile bar, We don’t use the hand pump on top unless it is set up at a satellite bar. You can’t find these on Amazon, but they’re often sold used on Facebook Marketplace or can get them new in multiple online stores.
CoolKeg Keg Jacket
These are what we use inside of our mobile bar, We don’t use the hand pump on top unless it is set up at a satellite bar. You can’t find these on Amazon, but they’re often sold used on Facebook Marketplace or can get them new in multiple online stores.
KEG TAP TOWERS & FAUCETS
Full Draft System Kit
You’ll save some money if you get it all at once. This kit has essentially everything besides the CO2 tank. You can also choose between the one tower system or two tower system.
Keg Tower Hand Pump
What’s a keg if you can’t tap it? The keg coupler is the hardware which attaches to the top of the keg. This allows you to input CO2 and successfully send your fresh brew to the tap. Simply put, you need one of these bad boys.
One Tap Draft Beer Tower
We believe each beer we offer on draft in our mobile bar should have their own space. I didn’t like sharing a room with my sibling growing up, neither does your beautiful IPA on draft.
Two Tap Draft Beer Tower
Can’t go wrong with having a compact space for draft beer. Whether you have a mobile bar trailer or simply are bringing your draft beer with your portable bar, the two tap tower is a staple.
Four Tap Draft Beer Tower
I bet you thought this was going to be a three tap tower. No sir, we skipped right to four and got serious. My vision for this tower is two beautiful, seasonal beers matched with two mixed cocktails of the season.
KEG SYSTEM HARDWARE
Kegco Keg Coupler
What’s a keg if you can’t tap it? The keg coupler is the hardware which attaches to the top of the keg. This allows you to input CO2 and successfully send your fresh brew to the tap. Simply put, you need one of these bad boys.
Keg Tap Hand Pump
You don’t look great if you’re using one of these to tap a keg. These are made mainly for fraternities. But, you look worse if your CO2 tanks break in transit and the wedding has no beer to drink. For emergency use only.
Simple Gaskets
Gaskets will come in handy when you are connecting your CO2 tank to your equipment. This will help keep things air tight and a steady flow of beer to your patrons. Most kits come with the gaskets but I like to have these handy at events, just in case.
Beer Lines
Now, the more important lines. Well, they’re both important but these lines carry the beer. A slightly different size than the CO2 lines, these lines will do just fine.
CO2 EQUIPMENT
20 lb CO2 Tank for Draft Beer
This is a good size for serving 2 draft beers or more through your splitter. Heck, it’s good for 1 draft beer. It’ll prevent you from having to go fill it up.
10 lb CO2 Tank for Draft Beer
This is all you’ll need if you only have 1 tap. It works with 2 taps as well but the 20 lb tank produces better flow. We carry the 10 lb tank as a back up or 1 keg occasions.
CO2 Draft Beer Regulator
You need this. In order to control the CO2 being fed to your keg, you need a regulator. There are plenty of options but they all are the same. Readers for pressure, release valve and connections.
CO2 Splitter & Distributor
If you’ll be serving multiple styles of beer, the CO2 needs to be delivered to both, or all, kegs. This splitter allows you to split to two kegs. There are other options from this seller to add 3, 4, 5 lines and more.
CO2 Lines
CO2 lines and beer lines are a different size. The good news is that it’s very cheap. This set also comes with the hardware to tighten the ends to your equipment. Air tight means good flow means good beer.
KEGERATORS
Kegerator
This is a great and simple option. It allows you to tap a half barrel OR you can store two smaller kegs, like 1/6 logs, and offer two types of beer on draft.
Two Door, Four Tap Keg Cooler and Kegerator
We almost invested in something like this. It’s a big value builder for your mobile bar. It also allows you to store much more than kegs and save on ice expenses. A good option for the long run.
BEER LINE SANITIZING
Keg Cleaning Kit
A must have. This is a great tool to clean your beer lines and keep things fresh. It’s easy to lose your lines with your mobile bar, especially in the summer. We replace them often but this is a cheaper solution.
