Beer line too long?

Would having the beer line too long decarb beer as it pours out? My beer doesn't seem to be as carb as I would think for sitting on CO2 at 12psi for a month.

If your serving pressure matches your carbonation pressure, a longer-than-needed beer line length should just result in slow pours.

Is the entire beer line being held at the same temp as the keg? Do you see gas breakout in the beer line before it hits the faucet? And what does the pour look like?

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

If your serving pressure matches your carbonation pressure, a longer-than-needed beer line length should just result in slow pours.

Click to expand...

+1.

The lower carbonation that you taste can either come from the fact that you are used to higher level of carbonation (if you drink a lot of belgium beer for example), or from your setup: make sure that the probe of your temperature controller is not sitting on a cooling line, or too low in your fridge/freezer. Even though I do not use one, a fan could help having a consistent temperature in your fridge. Once you have tried this, you can try increasing the pressure, and see if after a week or two it corresponds more to your taste. Just make sure you have enough beer line to balance this pressure.

12psi is completely arbitrary if you don't consider the temperature of the beer.

Another thing is that people equate carbonation with a foamy head sometimes. A longer line will make it so that most of the CO2 stays in solution for the whole pour. I control (create) the head by dropping the glass lower for the last 1/4 of the pour.

I am installing a fan this week to keep the temp constant. The probe is probably half way down the cooler so it picks up an average temp.

I do the same thing with my glass. If I want more head I just lower the glass towards the end of the pour. The carbonation im talking about is the actually carbonation when you drink the beer. Maybe im just used to colder commercial beers with high carb. My beer isn't bad, just doesn't seem as carbed