Hose length

I posted a thread a few days ago about kegging....got great feedback. One of the feedbacks was that my hose may be too short, its about 3-4ft in length. I was given a length to help me determine the adequate length of my hose. I do not hook my corny keg up to my keggerator (its commercially fitted). Does the length of my delivery hose (the one with the spout on the end) have to be equally as long? Just wondering, I am assuming the answer is yes, but I don't want to leave anything to chance with this next keg.

Thanks

It's the pressure and length of your "delivery hose" that is the issue.

A friend of mine never balances his taps. The keg should already be carbonated so he just adjusts the pressure flow.

If you only have 3-4 ft of beer hose try this:

Turn off all pressure at the tank.
Dial pressure to zero.
Dump all pressure in the keg.
Put a glass or pitcher under the tap.
Open tap.
Open the tank pressure.
Slowly adjust the pressure (adjusting screw) and wait for the beer to flow.
Once beer flows nicely...stop.
Close tap.

Give it a try.

My commercial beer lines flow fine with delivering beer from commercial kegs. I was wondering if my home brew keg's delivery hose is too short. I don't think I have ever successfully kegged a beer...but it does pour foamy which Ive been told can be cured by determining the correct length of hose using a chart I was given. This keg can be inside or outside as I only store it in my keggerator but it can be moved anywhere. The line im referring to is the out line that I use to serve. I think that made it a little more clear.

Good reply tho ty

Turn off all pressure at the tank.
Dial pressure to zero.
Dump all pressure in the keg.
Put a glass or pitcher under the tap.
Open tap.
Open the tank pressure.
Slowly adjust the pressure (adjusting screw) and wait for the beer to flow.
Once beer flows nicely...stop.
Close tap.

When I first started brewing and got my kegerator I was experiencing the same issue. I got all wrapped up in hose length...some were telling me I need 10' of fluid delivery hose blah blah blah, some where telling me this and that. It made my head spin!
Dude it is only beer and it seems some get WAY TOO wrapped up in making it a complicated science....again it is only beer not cancer research

I said f**k it......did what this guy suggested and it works beautiful!

Good Luck

ok once again, my cornelius keg is NOT hooked up to a tap...it has a spout that is black and I press it with my thumb to deliver the beer. I will try the same method with this but was wondering if the LINE attatched to said SPOUT ***NOT TAP*** needed to be longer.

Thanks

(capitals for easier reading not sarcasm)

NorsemenRugby58 said:

ok once again, my cornelius keg is NOT hooked up to a tap...it has a spout that is black and I press it with my thumb to deliver the beer. I will try the same method with this but was wondering if the LINE attatched to said SPOUT ***NOT TAP*** needed to be longer.

Thanks

(capitals for easier reading not sarcasm)

Click to expand...

As long as you drink your entire keg in a few days then the reducing pressure works for dispensing. It IS important to understand a little of the science. If you left your beer at serving pressures of say 3-4 psi the beers carbonation level would balance there and you'd have undercarbonated flat beer eventually. Balancing your system to dispense at the proper CO2 level gives you both a correctly carbonated beer and a good pint. Line length isn't the only factor, but it helps. I think you are referring to a cobra tap or hand held tap. The line with beer in it is the only one that counts and yes if you are at 12PSI then you should be using around 6' of 3/16th inch line.

PS: Correctly speaking the cobra tap is a 'handheld faucet'. A tap is the connector to the keg, the faucet is what you open to dispense the beer.

As Ricand mentioned, the "spout" you're using is called a cobra faucet. The length and inside diameter of the line you're using effects the pour the same using a cobra faucet as it would using a mounted faucet. A longer/thinner line will help the pour be less foamy, and so will ILOVEBEER's suggestion to reduce the pressure. If you simply reduce the pressure, your beer will start to lose it's carbonation over time. As I see it you have 3 choices;
1) Do nothing and have a properly carbonated beer that pours a little foamy
2) Turn down the pressure and have a good pour with beer that slowly loses it's carbonation
3) Get longer/thinner beer line and have properly carbonated beer that pours nicely.

Choice is yours, but 10' of beer line is about $5, and it should only take a few minutes to swap out. Try it out and if it pours too slow cut off a foot at a time until you like the pour.

I was wondering the same thing. Not trying to hijack the OPs thread...

Regarding the line length I have an IPA that according to BeerSmith I should keep at about 15 PSI for my desired carbonation level. So I'd use 8 ft of line for this, right? So then if my next brew carbonates at 12 PSI, the extra two feet of line length will make pouring the new brew a little slower. At least that's what I've gotten from all the discussions here. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and let me know if I'm right?

DanPoch said:

I was wondering the same thing. Not trying to hijack the OPs thread...
Regarding the line length I have an IPA that according to BeerSmith I should keep at about 15 PSI for my desired carbonation level. So I'd use 8 ft of line for this, right? So then if my next brew carbonates at 12 PSI, the extra two feet of line length will make pouring the new brew a little slower. At least that's what I've gotten from all the discussions here. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and let me know if I'm right?

Click to expand...

You are probably right, but other factors like line resistance and height factor in as well, here is the formula.

P = L * R + H ÷ 2

P = Pressure in the keg in PSI
L = Line Run in feet
R = Resistance of the line per foot
H = Height from the middle of the keg to the tap/faucet in feet

The height above the keg accounts for gravity in the pressure equation. The resistance is unique to each hose, but at 3/16th inch line it's about 1.8 PSI per ft.

Thanks Ricand. I'm the only one who drinks at my house and I average a beer a day, so keg lasts a long time. When I have two or three I imagine each will last even longer. Think I'm going to have to ask Santa for a 20# CO2 tank.