Using the Force Carbonation Chart

Thanks to who posted this link
Force Carbonation Link
I am kegging a witbier tonight (which I want highly carbonated). My fridge is cold 34-35 degrees. According to this chart I could set the PSI to 20 to get it nice and semi-heavily carbonated. After a week, do I set the PSI lower (serving pressure)? If there's a step by step link on the process I promise to stop asking dumb questions

Yes I'd like to know the same. Just started kegging a week n half ago and going through some trail and error. Lost a 5lb tank to a leak some where, replaced all 0-rings and still seems like slowly loosing pressure daily on the regulator.

You don't ever deviate from the PSI that coincides with your desired volumes CO2. That being said, 20 psi is pretty high for pushing beer out of a keg, unless you account for that by adjusting the length of your beer lines, you may be pouring foam (though I've never personally gone this high).

There's lots of good data out there for how to tune your beer dispensing system based on beer-line diameter, faucet height, and carbonation level. The idea is to balance out the pressure from the keg to the faucet. A 3/16 inside diameter beer line has 3.0 PSI/ft resistance. For faucet height, use 0.5 PSI/ft resistance. There is 3 PSI resistance from the shank and faucet.

Assuming your faucets are about 12 inches above the kegs, you have 3.5 PSI/ft resistance from the height, shanks and faucets. If your keg is going to be at 20 PSI, you need to make up for the additional 16.5 PSI with beer line. 16.5/3 = 5.5 ft.

You will find conflicting data/opinions of the 3.0 PSI figure for 3/16 beer line resistance. A large part of this is trying various lengths until you're pouring well and successfully tuning your system.

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I go the cheap + easy route:

If I carbonated a hefeweizen @ 17 PSI, I will turn the pressure down to 10 PSI while serving, and when I'm done for the night (or the day or the afternoon ) I will turn the pressure back up to 17 PSI. It's not perfect, but it's worked OK for me.

JP

Invest in a tap with the flow control lever.. No messing around with line lengths and pressure.. Just set your regulator to the desired pressure for the style or preference and adjust the flow.. You will never look back!

edmanster said:

Invest in a tap with the flow control lever.. No messing around with line lengths and pressure.. Just set your regulator to the desired pressure for the style or preference and adjust the flow.. You will never look back!

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Link for one of these? Cheapest I've seen is NB @ $93

LooyvilleLarry said:

Link for one of these? Cheapest I've seen is NB @ $93

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That's where I got mine.. My other taps are the soda style with the pressure adjustment screw but I'm trying to convert all of them over.. Maybe 1 a year so it's gonna take me 6 years but I think it's worth it for me...

I always carb mine whatever I need 17psi, 20psi whatever. Turn of CO2 supply and serve till CO2 runs out then turn it back on at something like 4 or 5psi. I'm sure there are better ways but it works for right now. The first couple pours are always pure foam though so leaving it at 17psi seems like a bad idea to me, since it means constant foam always. Once again I'm no pro but it works for now. I'm willing to change up my style though if it gets rid of that first couple foam brews

Full pours of foam doesn't sound like "works for me". Chart pressure always and adjust the pour speed with appropriate serving line length.

I always go by the exact charts. I use beer smith to find the proper CO2 amount, then put that PSI amount in. When I first started I kept it at the original PSI (like 17psi for a heff) and that came out foamy every time. As I said I'm open to learn a better way

bmbigda said:

Assuming your faucets are about 12 inches above the kegs, you have 3.5 PSI/ft resistance from the height, shanks and faucets. If your keg is going to be at 20 PSI, you need to make up for the additional 16.5 PSI with beer line. 16.5/3 = 5.5 ft.

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is the goal to be at '0' coming out of the faucet?