Verify CO2 gauge and other CO2 woes

Anyone have any ideas on how to verify if a CO2 gauge is reading correctly? I have a sneaky suspicion that mine is reading low and causing me to continually overcarb my beer.
Thought it was line length. Nope. I'm at 10' of 3/16" and still foamy, flat tasting.
Thought it was temp difference between faucet and beer lines. Beer lines are inside the kegerator and I cooled the faucet with ice before the next test. Still foamy and flat tasting.
I burped the keg a few times, dropped the pressure to about 3psi and VERY SLOWLY came a nicely (although highly) carbonated beer with 1/2" head.
On a side note, I do notice that bubbles form in the line after I pull a beer.

A secondary question - how many volumes would you say it takes to go from "highly carbonated" (good pour, lots of carbonation bite) to "overcarbonated" (nothing but foam)? I've checked the temp/psi chart and from what I can see, there is not much of a window to play with between highly carbonated and overcarbonated.

A final question (for the moment), is how to get a faster pour without increasing the psi and overcarbonating the beer again? Or so I simply pull out the keg, burp it for a few days and start over?

Any thoughts on any or all of the above?

You can get a manifold and run a new gauge on the manifold with the old gauge to see if its working, but at that point you might as well just replace the old gauge with a new one, lol.

How are you carbonating the beer?

Forced carb. Set it and forget it.

stardard Bourdon-type gauges are very inaccurate, especially the cheap ones usually used for homebrew equipment. I wouldn't trust them past +/- 20%.

BetterSense said:

stardard Bourdon-type gauges are very inaccurate, especially the cheap ones usually used for homebrew equipment. I wouldn't trust them past +/- 20%.

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I also think that if you put the whole setup in a fridge (like i did) that also affects the gauge and the regulator. I usually just go by what the gauge says... i havent seen a noticable difference +/- whatever the gauge is saying.

As for the faster pours... why? I enjoy watching my beer fill up the glass. And for the "foam" or head i'd make sure you dont have any leaks or kinks in the line. I had a faulty keg ball lock on my keg the plastic pin that pushes the ball down was bent or chiped or soething that allowed just enough air in to cause havoc on a steady flow... be careful when your pushing those in they should go on nice and easy if your using any real force then it isnt lined up.

The pour rate isn't solely for speed. It will take me at least a minute to draw a pint of beer at the psi I have it on to keep the CO2 in the beer.

Would the +/- 20% (at 12 psi) be enough to continually overcarb?

And I found no kinks or leaks either. About at the point of going to natural carbing.

Hi

The easiest "home meathod" to calibrate a gauge is a water column. Each foot of water in the tube is 0.433 pounds. 27.7 inches gives you 1 psi. You run up a lot of feet to get to 10 psi. It's cheaper to just buy another gauge and compare them...

Bob

you say you have 10 feet of Beer line? i just saw that.. have you tried reducing that... I have started at 5 feet of beer line.

Dr1nkBeer said:

you say you have 10 feet of Beer line? i just saw that.. have you tried reducing that... I have started at 5 feet of beer line.

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Hi

Not real clear how shortenig the line will help a foam problem. I'm running 20 foot lines with no problems at all.

Bob

I started out with 5', then increased to 10'. Really no change that I could notice.

Yep, the only potential negative from lines that are too long is a slower pour.

I wonder if your check valve is sticking or has a really high cracking pressure?

carlisle_bob said:

Hi

Not real clear how shortenig the line will help a foam problem. I'm running 20 foot lines with no problems at all.

Bob

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Is 20' unusually long? I've heard of 10-12' solving the foaming problem, but never anyone going as far as 20'. Was that out of necessity or by choice?

So you carb at 12psi in the fridge, cold, the entire time, right? If you warm the keg up at all the pressure will jump, I had two kegs overcarbed as a result of this...fridge was freezing the lines, turned temp up, raised 10* or so, kegs were carbing, overcarbed. Now I burst carb everything, 30PSI, shake like hell for 20-30 seconds, rest, shake again, put in fridge and leave gas on 25psi for 24 hours, turn off gas, bleed off completely, set to 10PSI, pour off first pint, serve mostly-carbed pint.

Yep. Put the keg in the fridge for a few days before applying CO2. Can't figure it out for the life of me.

At this point I'd suggest carbing at lower PSI than you want to and see if it helps. If so, your guages are inaccurate. Adjust accordingly and move-on with life. Also, when you burp keg you're letting all the gas out, right?

UPDATE
Picnic taps came in today. I've got a good pour rate, good beer to head ratio, so now I just need to wait for the beer to re-carb. I'm trying about 8 psi and will bump it up periodically based on taste testing. I guess it was the taps in the door.
The Kegerator is in the garage, so I suppose they were just too hot to keep the CO2 from rushing out.
Sucks that I now have to open the door every time I want a beer, but that's better than dealing with undrinkable beer and the past headaches.
Thanks to all for the advice! I'll raise a glass to you all in a few weeks.

DonNowlin said:

UPDATE
Picnic taps came in today. I've got a good pour rate, good beer to head ratio, so now I just need to wait for the beer to re-carb. I'm trying about 8 psi and will bump it up periodically based on taste testing. I guess it was the taps in the door.
The Kegerator is in the garage, so I suppose they were just too hot to keep the CO2 from rushing out.
Sucks that I now have to open the door every time I want a beer, but that's better than dealing with undrinkable beer and the past headaches.
Thanks to all for the advice! I'll raise a glass to you all in a few weeks.

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Thats good. My reasoning around the long lines is that if the temps are different along the way I think it could cause the foaming... Depending on how your Kegerator is setup. Are your lines rolled up nice and contacting eachother?.. or are they all over the place. I imagine that if you keep them close together in a coil the temp will be the same all the way through.

There is nothing like pouring your beer through a tap. What do you got to loose by cutting one of those lines in half and giving it a go?

Dr1nkBeer said:

Thats good. My reasoning around the long lines is that if the temps are different along the way I think it could cause the foaming... Depending on how your Kegerator is setup. Are your lines rolled up nice and contacting eachother?.. or are they all over the place. I imagine that if you keep them close together in a coil the temp will be the same all the way through.

There is nothing like pouring your beer through a tap. What do you got to loose by cutting one of those lines in half and giving it a go?

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Temps should be the same. The lines are tightly coiled and zip stripped to keep them from coming loose, plus they are entirely in the fridge since the taps go through the door and not into a tower.
I think I'll just keep it as is for a few weeks until I check in the carbonation.

DonNowlin said:

Is 20' unusually long? I've heard of 10-12' solving the foaming problem, but never anyone going as far as 20'. Was that out of necessity or by choice?

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Hi

Yes indeed they are a bit long. Many others have gone equaly long. My thinking is that I can always cut them back but making them longer is a pain. Also beer line is cheap enough that the extra maybe 5 feet isn't going to break the bank.

I do indeed like some beer when it has a lot of bubbles. That gets me up into the "over 20 psi" range from time to time. That's still not going to demand a 20' line, but it will likely rule out a ten footer.

Bob

You've already mentioned the easiest solution, turn the pressure down until you find the carb level that you like. I like to carb at 12 psi set it and forget it for a week. Then I reduce the pressure to between 8-10 psi for dispensing and leave it there utnil the keg kicks. If I decide it needs more carbonation at some point, I'll bump it back up for a day or two then drop it back down. If I leave it at 12psi for too long I get overcarbed faomy beer.

Hi

Different beers are "best" at different carb levels. There also are people who like more or less carb in the beer. For some things 18 psi to 20 psi is a pretty good serving pressure. With the right lines and pour technique it does not have to have any more head on it than a 10 psi beer.

Bob