Am I misunderstanding the functionality of a kegarator?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CiderScot

Active Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
32
Reaction score
1
I just converted my cider fridge into a kegarator. My major motivation in doing this was my inconsistant results with trying for a light carbonation of my ciders.

I've found that when I pressurize the two kegs I have to between 10-12 PSI as instructed by the manual, my taps pour my ciders fine but there is little to no carbonation.

Am I doing something wrong or does the cider have to have the carbonation in place before I transfer them to kegs?

Thanks in advance.
 
How long do you wait between pressurizing and pouring? The carbonation won't be instant, but will take a week or two for the liquid to absorb the CO2, thus leading to bubbles!
 
The cider should be cold to take the CO2. Then put your 10-12 psi on and wait. In about a week you should start noticing decent carbonation Might be 10-12 days until you hit the peak carbonation for that pressure. The colder it is, the easier it takes carbonation.
 
Yep, CO2 takes time to get into solution. You must wait, grasshopper.
 
Also you have to balance your lines, and adjust your psi to your i.d. of your line and length of your run. Once you have the carbonation to where you want it you have to keep it there by balancing your lines. There are a lot of resources for the calculations out there.

-G
 
Also you have to balance your lines, and adjust your psi to your i.d. of your line and length of your run. Once you have the carbonation to where you want it you have to keep it there by balancing your lines. There are a lot of resources for the calculations out there.

-G

Sounds like it makes sense but I'm not sure how I would balance my lines. What's that about?
 
CiderScot said:
Sounds like it makes sense but I'm not sure how I would balance my lines. What's that about?

Figuring out the right pressure to keep carbonation in your beer, based on the lines, and also to serve it proprely
 
Cider is very different than beer. You will need quite a but more carbonation than beer for it to feel "carbonated". At least that is my experience. I needed about 20 psi to feel and taste right.
 
tre9er said:
Figuring out the right pressure to keep carbonation in your beer, based on the lines, and also to serve it proprely

So is it better to have shorter lines? I could and probably should shorten mine quite a bit. It would definitely make for less clutter.
 
JRems said:
Cider is very different than beer. You will need quite a but more carbonation than beer for it to feel "carbonated". At least that is my experience. I needed about 20 psi to feel and taste right.

Great, thanks again for all the advice guys. Looking forward to tasting the results in a week or two.
 
There is two parts to this.

The first part is getting the keg temp and pressure set to get a certain level of carbonation.
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

The second part is getting the line length and type right to get non-foamy pours.
http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/kegbalance.shtml

In a perfect scenario you want to figure out a temp and psi to carb the beer at lets say 10psi, then adjust the line length to the correct length to give a good pour at that pressure. Thay way you carbonate and serve at the same pressure, and there is less fiddling that you have to do.
 
Line length balancing is nowhere near as critical with cider. The reason being is cider will not foam up the way beer will if the lines are too short. I have run cider at 16-18 psi through an 8' line with no problem at all. It pours a bit fast, but the fizz settles almost immediately as cider does not have the heavy foam forming proteins that most beers have. If you are only serving cider out of this keg then don't worry too much about balancing your line length.
 
You can speed up the process by cranking the psi to 30 for a couple of days. This works best once cider is cold. Just don't forget to turn it back before serving.
 
Back
Top