Question about pressure and hose length

Hey guys. i am currently carbing a Dead Guy Ale clone with the set it and forget it method at 48F. According to a calculator online, it says i should set the pressure at 16 psi. Is that high for serving pressure? can i turn down the pressure to like 8 psi when i serve? or will i need a longer hose for serving?. the hose lenth I have is 5 ft., 3/16th. It seems seems like a lot of pressure for serving. thanks! first time kegging.

I always go 30 PSI for twenty four hours then 10 PSI for three days, done. I serve at 10 PSI. You are going to love only having to bottle when you want to.

yea its soooo much easier than bottling. but is 16 psi too much pressure for serving, considering my hose length and temp?

also my keg has been carbing at 16 psi for about 4 hours already. if i do decide to force carb now instead of set it and forget it, is it too late to dial up the pressure to 30 psi.?

I may be wrong, but I don't think it matters. It should IMO push just as fast down 5 foot of hose as it would down twenty.

My set up is a small office fridge kegerator. My bottle has 3-4 feet to the "Y" then 3 feet to the keg. My "Out" lines are 5 foot long to a tower. So we must be similar in that respect. Once it is going you can play with it. I was always told 8 PSI to serve, but I like the 10 PSI better.

oh im not worried about it pushing the beer down, i'm just worried that it will be all foamy.

I'm going to guess that it will pour mostly foam with only 5' of line at that temp/pressure combination. You could try it and find out for sure. Turning the pressure down, venting the excess pressure, serving, and then turning the pressure back up will probably work, but it's a lot to go through every time you want a beer. If you really want that serving temp and carb level you might want look at some longer line, or using those epoxy mixing things in the diptube.

Line balancing fomula-
https://www.kegman.net/balance.html

Edit:
Here's the epoxy mixers I mentioned-
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-your-short-hose-troubles-100151/

My experience, which IS limited (have kegged right around a year) that as long as I bleed off excess pressure I am good.

30 psi for twenty four hours (room temp keg, placed in the refrigerator)

10 psi for three days (bleed off with the pull ring and set pressure to make sure it is 10 psi or lower)



After the three days you are golden.

10 PSI at 48F will give you an undercarbonated Dead Guy, (way to go OP for using the calculator!). 16 PSI at 48F sounds right, (I shoot for 10-11 PSI at 37F, for reference, on most of my ales), and you are correct, you DO want to serve at 16 PSI so you don't lose carbonation over time! You can certainly do Stuntmantoo's version of carbonation, which for you would be 30 PSI for 24 hrs, then down to 16, but that's riskier than the "set and forget" method. Personally, I DO use a similar method to Stuntmantoo....I do 48 hrs at 34 PSI, (with the keg starting at room temp and cooling in the fridge during those same 48 hrs), then down to 10 PSI to serve...but my fridge is colder, hence the 10 vs. 16 PSI.

Your biggest problem is, as you guessed, line length. I like about 1 ft 3/16" line per PSI. I have 10' 3/16" for my 10-11 PSI setup, and 35' 3/16" for my 35 PSI setup (soda), and I get great pours. They pour a bit slow, (yes, the longer the line, the slower it pours!), but you have exact control over foam. At the end, if I don't have enough head in my glass, I just half close the tap, which causes the last few tablesspoons of beer to shoot out and form a nice head.

tl;dr: Get longer line! 10 feet at least.