First Kegging - Sanity Check...

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PitsPale

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So I kegged my first batch yesterday. Not being in a rush, I decided not to "force" carbonate but to let it carbonate for about a week on CO2.

Here's my setup -
Amber American Ale in a 5 gallon corny with 6 feet of 3/16" ID beverage tubing with plastic cobra tap (I wanted to get everything set up and working before I started hacking the Sanyo... one thing at a time). I have a 5# CO2 bottle with a dual gauge reggy and 3 feet of 5/16ID gas rated tubing with a check valve. All metal-metal fittings are teflon taped (1-2 wraps).


Here's what I did -
I purged the headspace (hit it with 20 PSI and released the pressure 3 times then set it at about 13-13.5 PSI and put it in the refrigerator (future full on kegerator) at about 37-40 degrees. The gas line is on the "IN" side.

Before going into the fridge it got the soapy water test... no leaks found.

Does this about right? I figure by Saturday it will be ready to try.

Thoughts?
 
Yeah, looks good. You're still force carbing vs. natural but I know what you're trying to say. You're not "rush" force carbing. I guess there's no real proper term for it. You may find that 6' of bev tubing is still a little short. I know it is for me and my faucets are about 8" higher than the top of the keg. You'll be able to tell if you get a good pour by holding the picnic faucet at various heights relative to the keg.
 
You can get two corny's and a 10 pound CO2 tank in that 'frigerator by removing the door moulding. One thing, the 13 psi setting is going to come out foamy, period. What I do is carb for a week after conditioning at about that psi setting, then when ready to serve via cobra tap, drop the pressure down to 5 or 6 and hold the cobra tap up high when pouring. Make sure that the tap in is closed before connecting to the keg. I know, sounds stupid, but it happened to me and it was no fun cleaning that up.
 
Ol' Grog said:
You can get two corny's and a 10 pound CO2 tank in that 'frigerator by removing the door moulding. One thing, the 13 psi setting is going to come out foamy, period. What I do is carb for a week after conditioning at about that psi setting, then when ready to serve via cobra tap, drop the pressure down to 5 or 6 and hold the cobra tap up high when pouring. Make sure that the tap in is closed before connecting to the keg. I know, sounds stupid, but it happened to me and it was no fun cleaning that up.

I think you might be overgeneralizing. 13 psi would be foamy without enough beer line resistance, which is why I said 6 feet will be short. I think changing pressures every time you want to pour takes a lot of the convenience of kegging off the table. If his goal is to get the system into a kegger with installed tower/faucet, figuring out the beer line length is essential. The tubing is cheap enough to buy more than enough, say 12' per faucet and slowly cutting back if necessary. Holding the faucet up high is about the same as adding a couple feet of line.
 
Bobby_M said:
I think you might be overgeneralizing. 13 psi would be foamy without enough beer line resistance, which is why I said 6 feet will be short. I think changing pressures every time you want to pour takes a lot of the convenience of kegging off the table. If his goal is to get the system into a kegger with installed tower/faucet, figuring out the beer line length is essential. The tubing is cheap enough to buy more than enough, say 12' per faucet and slowly cutting back if necessary. Holding the faucet up high is about the same as adding a couple feet of line.

Question about that...

3/16" ID is "advertised" at a ~2 PSI drop per foot. At 13 PSI over 6 feet...

13-(6*2)=1 which is the "optimal" faucet pressure according to what I've read.

I'm not arguing by any means as I'm a rookie, but does that "conventional" knowledge not work? Still foamy? Should I drop to a serving pressure of about 10 PSI if I'm getting alot of foam at 13?


And a 10# bottle in the 4912? Really?
Andy
 
No, I think a 10lb bottle is too tall as the ones I've seen are nearly the same height as a corny (or 20lb tank either way). The 5lb is the shorter tank. Then again, I don't have a 10lb tank or a Sanyo fridge so don't take my word for it.

I know what the math looks like but for some reason, experience shows otherwise on the pressure drop topic. I'm running 11psi on all my kegs which is giving me a carbonation that I like. I run through 5.5 feet of 3/16 line to Perlick faucets that sit 6-8" above the tops of my kegs and I get too much foam. I'm going to buy more hose and start with 10 feet per faucet. I don't want to have to buy hose a 3rd time. Keep in mind, I just assumed 5.5 feet would work because it did when I used a picnic tap held 4 feet above the keg. I forgot to factor in faucet height.
 
Bobby_M said:
No, I think a 10lb bottle is too tall as the ones I've seen are nearly the same height as a corny (or 20lb tank either way). The 5lb is the shorter tank. Then again, I don't have a 10lb tank or a Sanyo fridge so don't take my word for it.

I know what the math looks like but for some reason, experience shows otherwise on the pressure drop topic. I'm running 11psi on all my kegs which is giving me a carbonation that I like. I run through 5.5 feet of 3/16 line to Perlick faucets that sit 6-8" above the tops of my kegs and I get too much foam. I'm going to buy more hose and start with 10 feet per faucet. I don't want to have to buy hose a 3rd time.

Good enough - that's what I was looking for. We'll see how it goes.

Andy
 
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