Found a down side to too long a serving line

Found high carbonation levels require serving lines so long your first beer is flat. Never knew beer could go flat in the line. Beer is fine after first pour. Any options other than foamy pour or flat first pour?

it isnt the long line so much as the beer in the line is warmer than the beer in the keg. As it warms in the line, co2 is breaking out of solution. You can lessen this by trying to move air around so the lines stay colder. Also try to keep you lines coiled neatly without any big dips or drops that create pockets for co2 to collect in and make the matter worse.

Lines are coiled around keg on bottom of keezer. Lines are as cold as it gets in there.

That's odd. I have a 30' line that use for the occasional soda, and sometimes I'm too lazy to switch the line out and use it for a beer or cider. Right now I have a cider on that line, and the first pour has just as much carbonation as any subsequent pours.

I don't know how CO2 permeability varies between beer line types/manufacturers, but's the only way it would be physically possible to lose carbonation in just the lines.

JuanMoore said:

I don't know how CO2 permeability varies between beer line types/manufacturers, but's the only way it would be physically possible to lose carbonation in just the lines.

Click to expand...

Agreed. The line is under the same pressure as the rest of the keg, no driving force for CO2 to leave the liquid. I have 20 foot (accuflex) lines and I've never had this problem. Some bars have 30+ feet of tubing with no problem.

Some quick Google-fu regarding CO2 permeability suggests that even using thin walled vinyl lines and going a week between pours there shouldn't be significant change in carbonation in the lines. There's something else going on, like maybe an uncooled tower, warm shank, etc. Whatever it is, it's not the line length.