Help with keg pressures

[Gymrat]

I wouldn't want my lines any shorter than 5 feet. With 3 ft lines by the time you get good carbonation pressure the pressure is too high for serving.

[MadBrewer]

3 ft works for me with 2.5 vol co2 at 12 psi around 40*.

If he is getting a lousy pour now...why would longer lines make it better?

[ScrewyBrewer]

3 ft works for me with 2.5 vol co2 at 12 psi around 40*.

If he is getting a lousy pour now...why would longer lines make it better?

It takes more pressure to force beer through a longer line, which keeps the Co2 in the beer, which helps reduce foaming while preserving the carbonation level.

When using a 3/16 inch inside diameter beer line, with just 3 feet of beer line, the beer will gush out of the tap when using a serving pressure of 10-12psi. When that happens a lot of the beer's carbonation is lost due to the force of the pour. Real 'Beer Nirvana' is having a balanced system, one where the same psi is used for both force carbonating and serving.

brn n imp-cali-sml.jpg (48.16 KiB) Viewed 1869 times

[MadBrewer]

I understand the balancing needed...we just talked about that.

I dont get a gushing pour with my setup. If I did...I would use longer lines. What im saying is if the OP is getting a lousy pour, adding beer line (restriction) doesnt seem like it would help. Hes not having gushing issues...his problem is quite the opposite as stated in his first post.

A lot of this will vary. Everyone has different taps and setups. My suggestion if you are getting a weak, lousy pour try going shorter before you go longer. A slight bump in co2 pressure might help too but not so much that you need excessive pressure to compensate for such long lines.

His problems sound like mine when I first started with my taps so im trying to help with what I did. I had to use less and less line until I got the pour I wanted.

[Beer-lord]

I use the Accuflex tubing which I love, though it's rigid and not very easy to work with. I did a lot of research on this last year before I went thru the trouble of changing my tubing in a tri tower tap (even my small fingers had problems) but I feel it was worth it.
Everything I read said that since it DOES NOT cause as much restriction as regular tubing, most people use 15-20 feet. I spoke to someone at Birdman Brewing who asked me questions about my setup and said I should start at 15 and cut when it poured well. I worked with it on and off for a few days and 13' worked best for me.
The bottom line is, everyone will be a little different and the info mentioned here are just guidelines. I've even read that different regulators make a difference in line pressure and if you add a manifold or two, that might change things for you as well.

[MadBrewer]

Hey Jim how long are the shanks on the back of your faucets? Mine are really long maybe the longest they make. If yours are also very long that adds resistance to your system already. Your picnic tap has very little (.5) psi resistance so that is why a standard 4 or 5 ft beer line length works with that. Try hooking up a picnic tap to the keg you feel is lacking from the tap. See how the pour and the beer is with the picnic tap. That will help pinpoint a beer line balance problem or maybe something to do with a leak or carbonation problem with that keg alone. Its has happened.

[JimH]

Thanks for all the responses guys!

As for the length of the beer lines, that is what the LHBS sold me, so I never really looked into longer lines.

As far as the pour, it seems to come out OK, but very little head on the beer, and not very well carbed up. I haven't had any foaming issues with the setup, or since I cranked up the pressure. I have the longer shanks, 4" I think.

[Whamolagan]

Lower your temp, and raise the PSI by 2-3

[JimH]

DSCF2616.JPG (45 KiB) Viewed 1855 times

And here is a pour I just pulled off.

DSCF2613.JPG (76.9 KiB) Viewed 1855 times

This is my basic setup.

[Whamolagan]

Looks like the pressure is too low and the temps too high. When was having problems I read this, and it answered all of my questions.
https://www.brewersassociation.org/educ ... t-quality/

Isuggest anyone who kegs should read this. It is free, my favorite price

[ScrewyBrewer]

Looks like the pressure is too low and the temps too high. When was having problems I read this, and it answered all of my questions.
https://www.brewersassociation.org/educ ... t-quality/

Isuggest anyone who kegs should read this. It is free, my favorite price

Great draft beer reference, it won't play on this old Kindle Fire but it will over coffee on my pc in the morning. Thanks you for sharing the link!

[bpgreen]

One possibility (and it may have been mentioned) is that your gauge could be off. I'm pretty sure that one of my gauges is off (and it's my fault, since I let the CO2 canister fall over once). It's on the canister that's outside of the kegerator, so it's at room temperature, but if I carbonate to 10-12 PSI, it's always really overcabonated (to the point where I need to vent repeatedly and pour lots of foam for a few days), but 10-12 on the one inside the kegerator seems to work pretty well. That's pretty much the opposite of the way it should work, so I think it's a bad gauge.

[MadBrewer]

Lower your temp, and raise the PSI by 2-3

I like to keep beers like a Porter or Stout around at least 40*. You don't want an ice cold Chocolate Stout. If he lowers the temp AND raises the psi, wouldn't he just have cold, over carbonated beer, making that style kinda bland and watery?

Do you have extra beer line Jim? Try going a little shorter, as weird as it sounds try using shorter line at your 40* and 12 psi...see what you get then, it's worth a try. This is of course you do not have another problem like a leak or bad regulator as mentioned. But, you say you get a good pour of a picnic tap, so I don't see that as the case.

[Whamolagan]

I guess I missed the chocolate part. I found that I like my stouts carbed at 12 psi. And I personally don't like any beer that is warm. Sort of a preference thing I guess. I haven't evolved that much I guess

[MadBrewer]

Yeah, it's preference but temp plays a role in how the flavors come out especially something like that. It's a weird scenario but it sounds like exactly what I went through which is why for a long time I didn't even bother using my faucets. I've had the faucets I finally put through my fridge for years, but been using picnic taps all this time because the pours were better.