Can changing the size of my beer line actually affect the taste of beer?

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GLWIII

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Maybe I am answering my own question here, but am I going nuts or can changing the size of my beer line actually affect the taste of beer?

A little background. I made a Pliny the Elder clone two months ago. Brew process and fermentation went fine, dry hopped, kegged, waited 10 days and finally tried it. The beer had a strange odor that I attributed to something funky going on either with the dry hopping process or something else with the yeast. I pulled it out of the fridge and let it sit for another two weeks. Re-tapped it with new clean lines. Same thing – no improvement. At the time I had been using ¼” ID vinyl line because my LHBS didn’t carry anything else at the time. The pours were slightly heavy on the foam, but not horrible, and a little lighter on carbonation than I like, but still passable. I knew things were out of balance, but was making due because other brews I made were turning out pretty good with this system.

Anyway, I invested too much in this Pliny to let it go to waste and dump it and on a whim I finally changed over to 3/16” line and, I kid you not, literally overnight the beer now pours and tastes perfect. Exactly what I was hoping for. Can the line adjustment have possibly been the magic bullet that made all well with this brew?
 
May have been the brand/type of beer line. Some brands you have to pull several ounces and dump because of the plastic taste. I had the exact same problem.......and it was the taste from the beer sitting in the lines.
 
If you had excess foam, you were dropping CO2 out of solution with the 1/4" line. Going to the 3/16" line will preserve more of your carbonation, so perhaps it's just the extra bit of carbonation that's making the beer taste that extra bit better.
 
Well, you changed the line and the problem went away. Not 100% proof, but the smaller diameter line also reduces the amount of contact time.
 
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