New to kegging. Does this sound right?

So I have everything set up and was doing a once over everything before I put the beer in the kegs and start carbing it. I have 5 feet of 3/16 tubing for serving I was going to serve at about 38 to 40 degrees and don't plan on serving beer with carbonation greater then 2.5. Do I need longer serving length? Opinions seemed to very and 5 feet seemed reasonable to me. Also with poor planning on my part I have a Xmas party this coming Saturday and need to force carb the beer. Does anyone have a suggestion on how much gas I should have the beer sit on. I am going to fill the kegs tonight. TIA

Check out Bobby's force carbing thread. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/keg-force-carbing-methods-illustrated-73328/ As far as line length... I use 5 feet of 3/16 at 38F and don't have any problems... Some guys do. So you'll probably just have to see how it works. If you haven't cut the serving line length, another poster suggested starting at 10' and cutting back from there until you reach a length that works well for you.

So about 12psi serving pressure? Five feet might work just fine. I would NOT recommend burst carbing by rolling or shaking your keg. The forum is FULL of failed attempts at this and you don't want to be pouring foam all night on Saturday.

I'm certainly not an expert, but something like 30psi, 20 psi, 12 psi with 24-36 hours in between might get you to a decent carb level by Saturday. You'll have to purge some gas from the keg to get accurate readings when dropping the psi.

I serve successfully at 12-14psi with 6', 3/16" lines with one epoxy stirrer in each dip tube.

Thanks for the info. I think I should be good. With respect to the purging of the kegs. Should I turn the gas to 12 psi then turn my manifold off, purge the kegs then turn my manifold on to get the 12 psi that I am looking for?

slomo said:

Thanks for the info. I think I should be good. With respect to the purging of the kegs. Should I turn the gas to 12 psi then turn my manifold off, purge the kegs then turn my manifold on to get the 12 psi that I am looking for?

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Turn the gas off to the keg, keep it off, and purge the keg. Turn down the regulator, almost all the way, then open the gas. Then adjust the pressure up to 12 psi. Does that make sense? You want to get to 0 in the keg, and on the regulator (or close to it) and then turn it UP, not down, to get where you want to be.

I force carb from time to time with no probls as long as you let the beer settle prior to serving. Same as with a commercial keg

I force carb with about 30 PSI and shake the crap out of it for about 10 minutes. Then tun it dowm to 12 PSI for about 2 days at room temperature as it assists in CO2 absorption. I serve at about 8 PSI through 10' lines.

Oops, didn't mean to send that.

You can force carb one day, put the keg in whatever refrigeration environment you use and tap the next day. Naturally you wouldn't open a shaken can or bottle right away but overnight settling will solve the problem.

As for line length, I did all the calculations and came to the conclusion that experimentation works best. The problem with most of the formulae is that they use widely varying guesstimations if the line resistance. I have a three tap system where the beer is chilled in my mini-walkin and is dispensed through faucets mounted on a kitchen wall. Started with five foot lines and had foamy beer at reasonable pressures. Ended up taking ten foot lines and backing down to the length that worked for my set-up which is 8.5 feet (3/16 ID).

I quick carb'd my first keg last night and it couldn't have worked more perfectly

Chilled keg to serving temp
Hooked up Co2 to 30 PSI
Layed keg on it's side and gently rocked it for 2 mins
Reduce PSI to 6, puraged excess from keg
First glass to the end of the keg 6 hours later was well, perfect

Oh yeah, I use about 14" of 3/16 line with a picnic tap :rockin:
Toy4Rick

My method is to set regulator to 30 psi and let sit at 38 degrees for 3 days. Turn off gas and purge the keg. Turn regulator back at serving pressure, in my case usually 5 to 8 psi, let sit for an additional 2 days. Always spot on and ready. FWIW, i have 5ft lines and Perlick flow control faucets.

Set pressure at 30 lbs for 36 hours then serving pressure at 8 lbs. Works everytime. That is in the fridge.

Thank you to all for the advice. I went with 8ft of serving line per tap. I checked for co2 leaks and hooked everything up. Beer is being forced carved at 30psi.