'standard' corny setup - hose lengths?

Hey you helpful and friendly homebrewers!

So I lu cked into a very common (I'm guessing) keg setup with a 5 lb tank, regulator with gages for the tank and the brew, some ball-lock cornies, and a picnic faucet. Standard 'kit' setup that I'm hoping many of you have or have used. I have mine set up in a standard fridge with the CO2 tank setting right next to the keg with their bases on the bottom of the fridge. My gas line is about 3' and my beer line is 2'. I'm guessing this is the 'way it comes' if you ordered a kit. I've seen the tap ht. hose length calculators and these seem to apply more to custom setups/bars, etc. I dispense my brew a few inches higher than the top of the keg - like most. I'm having trouble with carbing. I'm getting ready to keg/carb (slow carb, not force shaking) my 4th brew and am wondering if I should lengthen the beer hose a bit - so far my heads have been highly variable set on 12 psi for ipas. Also, it seems like not much CO2 is actually dissolved in the beer.

any suggestions I wouldn't have read about yet????????


mm

I am not sure I fully understand your problem. Are you saying that you are getting too much head and no carb, or no head and no carb, no head but good carb?

Also, you mention 12psi, how long have you had the kegs attached?

The other question is how cold are you keeping the kegs at that 12psi?

kegs at 12 psi to provide ~ 2.5ish volumes for ipa. Right now keg is empty, these are from past ipas. I too am confused about the carb issue - seems like too much in the foam on the head and not enough dissolved in the beer? Does this make sense.

mm

edit: 38 degrees in fridge

The short beer lines are the problem. The abrupt pressure drop causes foaming leaving very little CO2 in the brew. If you install 10 ft of 3/16ths hose, your problems will go away. Exact balancing is all well and good, if you are looking for a timed pour AND don't change serving pressures. A ten foot line will serve a bit slower at lower pressures, but it's good for just about everything.

Minimum 6' of 3/16ths hose.
Serving PSI for a picnic tap at 7-8.
When you start your serving session, always toss the first ½ Oz.
Never “partially” squeeze a tap…you’ll just inject more CO2 and cause excessive foaming and loss of CO2 in the beer.

My vote is for 10' of 3/16" line. If you find it pours a little too slow, go ahead and cut off a foot and try again. If it still pours too slow, you're way too impatient for brewing anyway.

Wow! thanks guys. 10', huh? I hope you're not sh%(ing me. I can't wait to see how it works.


mm

I can tell you that I have about 5 feet on my lines, and can't dispense at 10-12psi without blowing off most of the carbonation (lots of head, but no tickles on the tongue)

No, I promise I'm not kidding. 10 feet each faucet. You'll love it.

BierMuncher said:

Never “partially” squeeze a tap…you’ll just inject more CO2 and cause excessive foaming and loss of CO2 in the beer.

Click to expand...

This is so true, you've got to treat the tap as an on/off switch, not a variable valve. It's either open or it's shut, anything in between = foam. Whenever friends come over and try to pour themselves a pint, at the first sign of foam they "feather" the tap...which of course generates MORE foam.

I use about six feet of line on my picnic taps. If it starts to foam up, I just raise the glass and tap higher in the air to add resistance.

I use 6 feet of line on my picnic taps, but I plan on going with 10' when I eventually get taps. The pressure is too much on my 6' so I bleed the pressure on the keg before pouring a pint. This is a bit of a PITA and definitely a waste of some perfectly good CO2. But that is what is working for me at the moment.

I use 9' of 3/16" line. Works like a charm at 8-12 psi.

OK, got the 10' 3/16 ID hose and am trying to put it on the mfl picnic tap- WTF? Is there a trick or is it just elbow grease? 'preciatecha

mm

i figured it out - boiling water on the hose end and some muscle

Bought some longer lines today and split my gas in into two so I can have two kegs going.

Hooked everything up, not sure why I wasn't getting any gas out of it (brand new tank) when it dawned on me... I "purged" the kegs, each of which took about half a second... Damn leaky kegs.