Kegerator Pressure Balancing

Hey all,

Just got my kegerator set up and running. I plan on having a pretty big party at the house on New Years and home brew will be the main beverage of choice. I have everything timed out so that 20 gallons should be ready and properly conditioned by Christmas (Merry Christmas to me...) but before all that happens, I want to make sure I do not pull crazy foamy beers.

I have three cornys with soda pop forcing carbing in there right now for the kids to enjoy while it is still a little warm outside. My question is if I take the time to balance the system using the soda pop (screwing with the line length, the twisty things that drop into the dip tubes, etc), will those results work for my beer as well? Should the time it takes to pull a pint of soda and not have it foam up be the same as pullng a beer?

Any advice is always appreciated!

Thanks!

Dean

Soda and beer have much different carbonation ratios. Soda being on the higher end. I would certainly think if you can dispense a chilled soda without foaming off the head then in theory you should be able to pull a beer. I recommend the carbonation chart in Home Brewing For Dummies, it sounds elementary, but it is a great reference for some quick info. It also has line length to pressure guide. I added 10 feet of length to my keg to keep the beer from flowing out so fast and I keep my keg at 10-15 psi for maintaing the carbonation for the 43 degrees I like my beer.

I would think that beer's tendency to make foamy head might mean that soda is not going to tell the whole story.

I would carb your beers using whatever method you prefer and then shoot for the lower range of your preferred carb scale. It's easier to add 1-2 psi each few days then to bleed it off if you're overcarbed.