IPA For Christmas. Keg not Co-operating.

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VTbrewer89

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I have kegged a pretty tasty IPA with homegrown hops of 3 varieties.

I am giving out growlers of it for Christmas. I have foam and little to no pressure. Has been in keg for 2 weeks. at 11 PSI until 2 days ago when I turned it to 5 PSI. Line length is 7 ft. I just put a thermometer in kegerator, but it is cold cold in there. It is one of the mini fridge using the freezer part to cool the entire fridge. Everything was cleaned before putting this together....

I am using what I think is 1/2" OD 3/8" ID I measured it but may be slightly stretched.

I am enjoying drinking my failed pours though....

A little help would be great. I have exactly 36 hours to fix this. :)
 
Your line diameter is waaaaay oversized. You really need 3/16" line unless you're running 50-100' of line to the far side of a bar or something. The line resistance needs to slow the beer down enough so that the CO2 doesn't get forced out of solution from the fast and violent exit into the glass. Using 3/8" line you'd need ~193' to get the same line resistance as 7' of 3/16" line.
 
Awesome. I was hoping for a fundamental problem. :) I can easily get tubing tomorrow. Do we see anything else I can do tonight so that this pours like a champ tomorrow?

Thanks!
 
Awesome. I was hoping for a fundamental problem. :) I can easily get tubing tomorrow. Do we see anything else I can do tonight so that this pours like a champ tomorrow?

Thanks!

What's the beer temp? If it's over ~39° you'll probably want the beer line to be 10-12'. If it's under 38°, you'll probably be fine with the same 7' length, but the correct inner diameter. Also, make sure you're opening the faucet all the way when you pour. Opening it part way will create a restriction and cause foaming.

For filling growlers, you're going to want to reduce the serving pressure down to a couple PSI, vent the keg, and then fill chilled growlers (put them in the freezer for a while before filling). Find some tubing that fits tightly inside or over the faucet spout and cut it so that it's long enough to reach the bottom of the growler so that you can fill them from the bottom up.
 
Awesome. I do have tubing in the faucet to bottom fill and am not clutching the faucet at all.

Thank you for the advice! I am looking forward to a nice pour.
 
I drain almost all pressure out of the keg to bottle and just bottle or growler fill right out of the tap. Growlers and bottles don't last long enough to worry about oxidation or infection
 
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