Bubbles in My Beer Lines- Help!

[sparkeee277]

I have my wife's 40th birthday party this weekend, and there's like 75 people coming over. I'll have 2 kegs to share, but I'm worried because my beer lines have bubbles in them and all I get are glasses of foam with a little beer in the bottom. I have a full size fridge in the garage that I turned into a kegerator, with the faucets installed through the side wall. I'm running 10psi at about 37 degrees, with 6' of 1/4" hose on each keg that is inside the fridge coiled on top of the kegs. Sometimes I turn down the CO2 to 6 psi when I dispense because I try to slow the flow down. But at both psi levels, the bubbles still creep back into the lines. Does anybody have any ideas or advise?

 

[day_trippr]

"I'm running 10psi at about 37 degrees, with 6' of 1/4" hose on each keg"

There's your problem. To handle 10 psi with 1/4" ID tubing you'd need over 30 feet of line to provide adequate resistance.

There's time to lay your hands on 10-12 feet of 3/16" ID tubing per keg and get this fixed...

Cheers!

 

[aspiffymofo]

Edit: Day tripper beat me to it.

Most people recommend 10' of 3/16" line. You need to try smaller ID beer line, and increase the length.
10-12 feet of 3/16" is a good starting point for beers carbed at 12psi.
1/4" line doesn't give enough resistance per foot.

 

[sparkeee277]

So if I want to dispense my 12 psi beer with 4psi of pressure I use:
1 psi for faucet height (faucets are 2' above center of keg)
2 psi for the faucet
1 psi for the shank

So I need 8 psi of resistance in my line, right? 1/4" line has .8 psi of resistance per foot, so .8 x 8' = 6.4'. Am I doing this wrong?

 

[DrunkleJon]

We tend to find 10-12psi needs about 10-15 feet of 3/16 id lines to slow the pour down so it is not all foam
You mention bubbles forming in the beer out lines. This is usually caused by one of two things
1) Your system is not balanced. You ideally want your serving pressure to match the volumes of carbonation for your beer. Use a table like
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php to dial your system in. If you are not sure of your carbonation volumes/serving pressure, slowly up the pressure until you stop seeing bubbles forming.

2) Temperature stratification. Are the taps warm to the touch before a pour? if your taps/lines are warmer than the keg, the increased temperature can cause the CO2 to come out of solution. Add a small fan or something to even out the temperature and this should clear it up

TL;DR
Beer is overcarbed for serving pressure (either take keg off pressure, purge pressure on kegs over the course of a couple days and then put back on serving pressure from the table,usually 10-12 psi or so, let sit at that pressure for a few days and try again)
and/or put a fan in the kegerator to keep the temperature constant.

Let us know how it works out.

 

[sparkeee277]

Thanks guys for the input. On my lunch break today I'll go some new 3/16"lines and swap them out after work. Hopefully, that does the trick.....

Jon, the taps are at garage temp (hot, I'm in Cali) but the lines are in the fridge. That could be problem with the bubbles.....

 

[sparkeee277]

Hey, what do you guys think about this? From another thread.....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attach...ator-beer-line-length-pressure-calculator.zip

 

[DrunkleJon]

Most line length calculators are designed for commercial applications with long runs.
Line length is used to slow the beer down so that when you pour you dont knock all the co2 out of solution. I would work on the bubbles forming in the lines first as your lines may be fine unless the foamup is also coming from hard pours (think about pouring a beer from the bottle where everything is gentle and tipped verses a straight down the middle pour) That is what a too fast pour will do.

If the outside of the taps are warm to the touch, i suggest a small fan (a $2 target special couple inch desk fan works great) blowing on the back end of the shank to make it so it is cool to the touch will work wonders. Once that is ruled out I would look at carbonation pressure.

Where are the bubbles forming. Mid line? Close to the tap? Small bubbles coming out of the quick disconnects and collecting in the lines?
Mid line is probably line temperature, closer to the shank would be warm tap temperature and bubbles out of the QD is usually due to serving pressure being low with a higher carb level.

 

[day_trippr]

So if I want to dispense my 12 psi beer with 4psi of pressure[…]

Don't do that.

Cheers!

 

[sparkeee277]

The bubbles are mid line. I can see them crawling up towards the shank connection after a pour. I'm sure I have no leaks at the fittings.

Day Tripper, I know. I read 4 psi on the More Beer site, then kept looking and found the 1 psi rule. I'm basing my calculations on that. Thanks for your help......

 

[pdietert]

The beer lines also warm up every time you open the fridge door. Differences (even small) in temperature of the beer line and the beer flowing through will cause C02 to come out of solution. Long compressor cycle times and/or fridge door seal problems can also be a cause.

You can try this: Leave the door closed for a 30 minutes or so and then, without opening, the door, pour two pints. Does the second pint pour okay? If so your balance is fine and you have a problem with temperature difference (weather it be in the lines or taps or whatever).

If you do have a temperature difference problem, the best thing you can do is circulate air in the fridge with a computer fan.

I kept my excess liquid lines coiled and tied on the door to my fridge for a while. They would get quite a bit warmer than the beer and I would have a foaming problem. When I wrapped them around the keg, it helped a bit. A fan inside the fridge made a huge difference. My fridge (and kegerator) are technically out of balance but I have not had a problem since I put a fan in both.