Every draft tower we build at Fût Mauricie is either glycol-cooled or air-cooled — and choosing wrong is one of the most expensive mistakes a bar can make. Foam, warm first pours, and wasted beer almost always trace back to a cooling method that doesn't match the installation. Here's how to get it right the first time.
The rule of thumb: distance decides
Air-cooled systems work by blowing cold air from the keg cooler up through the tower shaft. They're simple, cheap to run, and reliable — but only over short distances. As a practical rule, if your keg cooler sits directly below or within about 5 feet of the tower (a direct-draw setup or kegerator-style installation), air-cooled is usually the right call.
Glycol-cooled systems circulate a chilled glycol-water mix through insulated trunk lines that run alongside your beer lines, keeping the beer at serving temperature from cooler to faucet. If your walk-in is in the basement, behind the kitchen, or anywhere more than a few feet from the bar — glycol is not optional, it's required. Long-draw systems commonly run 25 to 300+ feet.
What each choice means day-to-day
Air-cooled
- Lower cost — no power pack, no trunk line, no glycol maintenance
- Simple service — fewer components that can fail
- Limitation: the tower must sit on or next to the cooler; the first pour after a slow period can be warmer if the tower isn't well ventilated
Glycol-cooled
- Perfect serving temperature at any distance — the beer arrives at the faucet already chilled
- Frost-free towers, no sweating when the tower is properly insulated for the environment
- Considerations: a glycol power pack to maintain, trunk-line insulation quality matters enormously, and the tower itself must be built with a proper glycol loop
Where the tower build makes the difference
Two towers can look identical and perform completely differently. The details that matter:
- Insulation matched to your environment. A tower on a hot patio needs a different insulation spec than one in an air-conditioned taproom. We adjust insulation per order — it's one of the most common custom requests we get.
- Cooling-line placement. A glycol loop that doesn't reach close enough to the faucets leaves the last few inches of beer warm — that's where first-pour foam comes from.
- Future-proofing. Planning to expand? We regularly build air-cooled towers with a copper loop already installed, so you can switch to glycol later without replacing the tower.
- Mixed-temperature service. Serving wine or cocktails on tap next to ice-cold beer? The tower can be built with separated circuits.
Quick decision guide
- Keg cooler directly below the bar → air-cooled
- Walk-in more than ~5 ft away → glycol-cooled
- Not sure yet, or building in phases → air-cooled with a copper loop, glycol-ready
- High-volume venue, 8+ taps → glycol, almost always
Spec it once, spec it right
Every Fût Mauricie tower — standard configurations or fully custom — is built to order in our Trois-Rivières shop in 5–15 business days, with a lifetime warranty on welds and a 2-year warranty on glycol circuits. Tell us your cooler location, run length, and tap count, and we'll send back a free 3D rendering and spec in 24 business hours — with the right cooling method for your room, not a guess.
Installers and draft-service companies: ask about our trade program — volume pricing from 16% to 30%.
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