A Carbonation Puzzle

I have not been kegging for very long and there are a few things I still do not understand. For instance, I learned today that when you set a regulator that is sitting in your refrigerator, the pressure can creep up a couple of psi over a few hours until it hits equalibrium. I thought I just had a faulty regulatory. Here's something I still cannot figure out:

What happens if the pressure you carbonate at is different than the pressure you use to serve? For instance, let's say I have a keg of bitter in a fridge set to 45F and set the psi at 9. The beer should get carbed to 2 units. Now say I want to serve at 15 psi. I bleed the pressure and reset to 15 psi. Won't my bitter be carbed in the next few days to an unacceptable 2.5 units? How would I avoid this without disconnecting the gas everyday?

What about the opposite? Lets say I carb at 15 psi and serve at 9 psi. Wouldn't the beer eventually go from 2.5 units to 2?

Yes. And to avoid the confusion learn about direct draw balancing so that you can set it and forget it.

I'm new to keging but why would you serve at a different pressure? for a faster pour? ,
according to the charts the desired carbonation volumes - should be reached at the (x) temp at (x) amount of co2 pressure.

I have been following this and i get good carbonation but my beer is all foam from the tap... so i bleed off excess co2 from the keg and it pours perfect?

I think your pouring pressure should be the same as your target volumes of co2 according to the charts.

Here is 1 carbonation chart http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/ForceCarbonation.html

Here is 1 link for the:Direct Draw Draft Beer System

GilaMinumBeer said:

Yes. And to avoid the confusion learn about direct draw balancing so that you can set it and forget it.

Click to expand...

I suppose some part of me was hoping not to have to change the liquid tube length just to serve different types of beer. I guess I have to choose between connecting and disconnecting or getting various lengths of tubing.

They make quick disconnects for the beer line, I bet you could make a few "whips" at different lengths to change the restriction...

Then you could add or subtract a few feet of line without messing with the shanks and all that.