
A Two-Mile Beer Pipeline Carries Belgium’s Lifeblood to Be Bottled - jstreebin
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/world/europe/a-two-mile-beer-pipeline-carries-belgiums-lifeblood-to-be-bottled.html
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M_Grey
It's really hard not to immediately picture Homer Simpson with a hacksaw and
dreams of intercepting the flow. Then I thought... cartoons aside you could
probably tap and divert a very small portion of the beer. Then I wondered what
kind of threshold any monitoring systems might have which would be alerted to
a drop in pressure, and therefore how much beer one could swindle before
alerting the BierKops... mit their hops.

Sorry, I'm a little tired.

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benzofuran
Hot Tapping
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_tapping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_tapping))
is actually really easy on poly line - and given the non-hazardous nature of
beer I'm guessing they have little to no flow control on the line either. It
sounds like the line runs under public cobble streets though so that'd be
pretty tough to pull off. The usual hot tap for this sort would be just a
steel saddle with a pointed nipple on the inside that's applied with a few
U-bolts or similar - certainly something in the range of a backyard shop or
garage tinkerer. The amount of these on gas & gasoline lines in rural areas is
actually pretty surprising, and they usually aren't picked up unless there's
an incident or they cause a dip in corrosion potentials. Most flow control /
leak detection systems won't catch under a 1% difference.

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M_Grey
So while criminal, my thoughts were not exactly crazy. That's good to know,
thanks.

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toomanybeersies
Somewhat related, Carlsberg had a beer pipeline running into Neils Bohr's
house after he won the Nobel Prize:
[https://blog.adafruit.com/2012/11/11/niels-bohr-had-the-
best...](https://blog.adafruit.com/2012/11/11/niels-bohr-had-the-best-utility-
company-beer-pipeline-never-ending-supply-of-fresh-beer-on-tap/)

~~~
M_Grey
Didn't Carlsberg also make their special brew in honor of Winston Churchill?
Interesting company that I think I'd like to read more about.

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mschuster91
They're not the first. The Oktoberfest in Munich, which starts today, sports:

1) Winzerer Zelt: 250m ([http://www.abendzeitung-
muenchen.de/inhalt.oktoberfest-winze...](http://www.abendzeitung-
muenchen.de/inhalt.oktoberfest-winzerer-faehndl-die-erste-bierpipeline-der-
welt.6a8164f7-27ff-4537-9f72-eddbad90b524.html))

2) Bräurosl: 240m ([http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/inhalt.wiesn-bier-
pipeli...](http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/inhalt.wiesn-bier-pipeline-in-
der-braeurosl.fe073b32-5875-41dd-85b2-0266864acd25.html))

3) Hackerzelt: 250m ([http://www.oktoberfest-live.de/festzelte/bier-pipeline-
fuers...](http://www.oktoberfest-live.de/festzelte/bier-pipeline-fuers-
hackerzelt-2369164.html))

I believe that this year the workers installed more beer pipelines (kinda
makes sense, given the terrorism threat and the heavy restriction on vehicular
traffic), but can't find any numbers.

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0xdada
Won't these pipes get clogged over time by residue that beer leaves behind? I
imagine there'd be a lot more residue than with water.

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tnuc
Yes. But with pressure and chemicals they can pretty well be cleaned.

In much the same way they (or in some cases don't) clean the lines at your
local bar.

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p_eter_p
Now, if only we could get Brugse Zot in the states...

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kabes
I've come across it quite some times when visiting the states.

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Odenwaelder
It's not the first beer pipeline. Oettinger Bier in Germany has one for many
years.

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lucb1e
Trust it to the Germans to be the first to produce a beer pipeline.

And as a Dutchman living close to both borders, I'll say I'm not surprised
Belgium is second.

