Pressure question

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force33

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I am force carbing my question is the pressure the table tells me to set my regulator at for my desired vol of co2, is that the same pressure I have to push my beer to the tap with to maintain that vol of co2? Any help is appreciated
 
Yes.

You don't "have to" keep that pressure, but what will happen if you don't is that the lower psi level will eventually lower the carb level of your beer.

I know that some brewers have a "serving pressure" that they turn the beer down to to compensate for an unbalanced system and that could work in a pinch, but it's not ideal. You'd have to turn it down, purge the system, pour your beer, and turn it back up to keep it properly carbed.
 
If the serving pressure is lower than the keg pressure, then the pressure will only drop in the keg when you pour beer. It takes a few pours for it to be noticed.
 
The beer will eventually reach equilibrium with the serving pressure, so if you want to maintain your carbonation level, you need to use the serving pressure that matches your carb level based on the chart. If you have a serving pressure higher than the corresponding carb level, carbonation will immediately begin to increase and keep going up until it reaches the carb level corresponding with the higher pressure. If the serving pressure is lower, the carb level won't drop until you pour a beer and make room in the headpsace for the CO2 to come out of solution, but every time you pour a beer it will drop, until it reaches equilibrium with the lower pressure.
 
If you have a highly carbed beer, and want to prevent excessive foaming, while keeping the carb level constant, use long beer lines 8-10'.
 
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