Can beer lines be too long?

[lurker18]

I am having a hell of a time balancing my chest freezer keg. PSI set at 11 (older regulator, so that may be off), temp set at 4.5 C (40 F) with the temp probe hanging about middle of keg. The beer lines are about 8 feet long, and I am pretty sure they are 3/16, but may be 1/4. I am getting almost 3/4 glass of foam on a pretty quick pour, and the beer that does come out is fairly flat, no bubbles at all. I have been playing around with the PSI into the keg, burping the keg, but no real difference. How low could I go on the PSI? Right now I am filling a Sam Adams glass in about 3 seconds, so the flow might be a bit fast. The regulator PSI guage is not that fine scaled to get exact pressures, so the pressures may be off, are there any out there that have a very fine scale on the PSI guage. Are 8 foot lines too long? I see a lot of sites recommending 5 foot lines. Getting very frustrating pouring the beer and having to wait for the foam to go away.

 

[Pie_Man]

If the line is 1/4 of inch, that could be the problem.

Another issue could be your regulator. If it's not accurate, you really don't know what the pressure is, although I would start troubleshooting the line. 8 feet of line is generally not too much. This article may help, http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/

 

[ChuckO]

The difference between 3/16 and 1/4 for beer lines is very significant. You want beer lines to be long enough to reduce the pressure from the keg pressure to just barely above zero at the faucet. There are some very handy charts available to help determine line length based upon serving pressure and temperature. Eight feet is definitely too short if you have 1/4" lines. I use 3/16" line 11' long serving from 12psi @ 4.8 deg. C. and get about an 8 second pour with a good head.

You should be able to buy a low pressure gauge with either 30psi or 60psi full scale markings from some of the online sellers, or possibly a local retailer. Might even try a hardware store or water well supply company.

 

[JuanMoore]

The only potential issue with lines that are too long is a pour that's too slow. This is actually hard to do though, because the line resistance decreases as the flow rate decreases, so even doubling the line length typically only reduces the time it takes to fill a pint by a couple seconds. If you have 8' of line and you're filling a glass in 3 seconds, it's probably 1/4" ID line.

Your serving pressure needs to match the equilibrium pressure of the carbonation level and the temperature. If it's higher, the flow will be too fast and the beer will start to overcarb. If it's lower, CO2 will come out of solution as it sits, forming pockets of gas in the lines, and causing the first pour of each drinking session to be really foamy. Here's a chart that shows what your serving pressure should be-
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

How did you carb the beer, and to what carb level?

FWIW 8' of 3/16" line could potentially be too short since you're serving at 40°, depending on the carb level. Since you're serving beer warmer than commercial settings, ignore the advice in balancing articles like the one posted above. Articles and equations like that all assume commercial serving conditons (34-38° and carbed to ~2.7 vol), and therefore will only tell you the line length required to result in a flow rate of 1gal/min. The warmer the beer is, or the more highly carbed, the slower and gentler the pour needs to be to prevent excessive foaming. That means the advice and equations in articles like that are useless for temps over 38°.

 

[lurker18]

The beer was all carbed at serving pressure, and these kegs have been in there for a while, so carbing the beer is not the issue. The pour is really fast, so I may have been sold 1/4 beer lines, I have looked for sizing on the lines and can't find it printed anywhere. I need to get a new regulator with a 30 psi scale, the one I have now is pretty large, over 100 psi, so dialing in to a pressure is "close enough". Looks like an order for new line and regulator is in the near future.