The cure for your short hose troubles

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SWMBO just got home from work and called me to tell me package is already there! Wow, that's crazy fast, I just ordered them yesterday afternoon!
 
This is probably a dumb question, but where guys buying ethanol or isopropanol to use since you can't use StarSan to sanitize them? Is there a specific product I should get? Just got mine in but want to make sure i use the right stuff to sanitize them.
 
Or just boil 'em in a small saucepan! Seems like everyone forgets this easy approach to sanitizing small parts.
 
Just a word of caution for you folks with less severe "short hose problems": These things REALLY restrict the flow of beer. Like a lot.

I have a commercial Summit kegerator that I bought in 2000. It balances almost perfectly at 11 psi with its 5 feet of 3/16 hose and dual tap tower that is about 3 feet above the center of the kegs. That gets me 2.4-2.5 volumes of Co2 at 38F.

I do mostly wheat beers and wanted to increase the carbonation level to a more suitable level for that style so I added two of the sticks to each of my kegs before my last kegging session. That was a couple of weeks ago.

Today I finally get around to hooking one up and it is barely flowing at 11psi. Remembering the sticks, I crank the pressure up to 15 psi, then 20 psi, then 25 psi (which is the very upper edge of carbonation sanity, even for a wheat beer), and it is still pretty slow. On the plus side, it doesn't seem to increase the foam from turbulence or anything like that. If you are using a picnic tap, these things might just be the best thing since... well, the last really cool thing.

Now I have to figure out how to get one of the sticks out of each of several full kegs... Any ideas?
 
Unscrew the beverage side fitting, then try turning on the gas quick and they might pop out under pressure? I would recommend doing this outside as it might be a little messy. Hopefully you don't lose much beer. Or just pull out the diptube, and they'll come out with it or drop out into the beer, either way you're good to go. Nice to know how much they reduce flow rate, they should be perfect for my Heff, which I plan to carb "at the upper edge of carbonation sanity" as you put it!
 
they wont go into the beer cause of the bend in the diptube. Just take out the diptube, invert and they should slide out. Spray with some starsans and pop it back in. Word of caution, unscrew the pressure relief valve a little so after you bleed the pressure it wont build back up and give you a spray to the face (thats what she said)
 
ekjohns said:
they wont go into the beer cause of the bend in the diptube. Just take out the diptube, invert and they should slide out. Spray with some starsans and pop it back in. Word of caution, unscrew the pressure relief valve a little so after you bleed the pressure it wont build back up and give you a spray to the face (thats what she said)
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I use pin lock kegs and most of them appear to have completely straight dip tubes. I only mention this because I had the same logic of removing, but when I removed the dip tube I found it was empty... Upon testing one of the sticks with the dip tube out of the keg, sure enough it fell straight through. Not a huge problem, but not what I had expected originally either.
 
I just kegged for the first time a couple of weeks ago. One the beer was carbonated, I had foam issues (5' lines from kegconnection kit). I popped in two of the mixer inserts this weekend and the foam issues instantly went away. It takes me about 20 seconds to pull at pint at 12 psi and 38 degrees.

Thanks for posting this fix!
 
Eight second pour is what you're shooting for. I wondering if you cut the 2nd mixer in half or just use one you'd get a faster pour and still no foam. I've been kegging since Jan but haven't set up my keezer yet, just been using a picnic tap.
 
Well I may have responded too soon. Last night, i consistently pulled fairly foamy pints even though I have two mixers in the dip tube. Any thoughts on what I should try now?
 
Lines and shanks cooled all the way up to the faucet? I just put together a blower to pull cold air from the bottom of the keezer and blow it up into my tower to keep lines/shanks cold. Warmer lines/shanks supposedly result in a foamy pour until enough cold beer flows through them to bring them down to the temp of the beer in the keg.
 
I have about 6 extra mixer nozzle from mcmaster. If anyone is interested and you just need a cpl to try, I can send some out to you. PM me if interested I can let you know how much to send them out.

For all interested all the extra nozzles I have are gone.

Sorry
 
crfdvm said:
I have about 6 extra mixer nozzle from mcmaster. If anyone is interested and you just need a cpl to try, I can send some out to you. PM me if interested I can let you know how much to send them out.
Click to expand...

I would like four of them from you. I tried to return your pm, but your inbox in full....
 
Just got the chance to use these mixers. Don't have a beer ready to serve from the keg yet, so I tested them on carbonated water I make for SWMBO. Dropped three of them in the diptube. I have a faucet threaded directly onto a quick disconnect by way of an adaptor for that purpose. Even though pressure is 30 psi, the seltzer flows very nicely from the faucet, opened fully. I imagine this is going to work beautifully in my Hef. I boiled the mixers in a small saucepan a few minutes to sanitize. They rested on a spoon to keep them off the bottom of the pot, as they sink, and I didn't want them in direct contact with the heat.
 
Just wanted to bump this thread for anyone having foam issues. The mixers worked like a charm. Sanitized them, dropped them in, problem solved. Genius.
 
I just got mine today.. I never needed them before, I have 6' lines and carbonate most beers to 12 psi. I made a Saison and wanted to carb to 3 vols. Of course, I couldn't serve it at that pressure no matter how hard I tried. Lowering the pressure from the CO2 still gave me half a glass of foam. Dropped 2 of these in there and now I'm still getting some foaming, but mostly beer so I'm very pleased. I didn't re-read the entire thread, what's the metric for feet of line per mixing stick? Or psi restriction per stick? Anybody know?
 
I can hazard a guess based on the one beer I'm using this on. I have a Saison carbonated to about 20psi with everything else at about 12psi. With 2 sticks in there it's still a little foamy but at least pourable - based on that I'd guess it's about 3psi for each stick. I wonder how many I could fit in a single keg diptube.
 
I had two issues, beer was pouring too much foam and the beer was basically flat after about a minute. This fixed my issues :), great idea and thanks to the OP. I have pin locks some with straight tubes and some curved and I had no problems installing them.
 
Curious why you would need one for the stout tap, or want one. You need the high pressure to go through the diffuser plate (unless you are planning to use it without the plate as a regular faucet.) I am currently running my stout at 25 psi on beer gas, only five feet of hose. Perfect pours.
 
Interesting - I was always under the impression that you needed a lot of hose for that high of a pressure, regardless of the diffuser. I'll have to give it a shot when I get my N2 tank refilled.
 
just to add to this, are people trying this method having problems with Perlicks foaming even after the initial first pour (warm beer in line, warm faucet etc.)?

I am running a PC fan constantly (just a naked fan, blowing air around with no tubing/piping set up) 5' keg connection 3/16ID beer line at 10-12 psi into perlick 525's and get a serious 3" head on all first pours, but subsequent pours are perfect. Given the conflicting reports, would trying this given my system be fixing something that ain't broke?
 
duckmanco said:
just to add to this, are people trying this method having problems with Perlicks foaming even after the initial first pour (warm beer in line, warm faucet etc.)?

I am running a PC fan constantly (just a naked fan, blowing air around with no tubing/piping set up) 5' keg connection 3/16ID beer line at 10-12 psi into perlick 525's and get a serious 3" head on all first pours, but subsequent pours are perfect. Given the conflicting reports, would trying this given my system be fixing something that ain't broke?
Click to expand...

I think you are set as you are. The first pour will almost always be foamy as as the beer sits in the lines overnight, some CO2 will come out of solution and give you some bubbles in your lines. This is what gives that first pour all of it's foam. My routine for the first beer, is to open the tap until that bit that has been in the lines overnight has comes out. For me it is only about 2 oz, if that. I drink that, and then pour a proper pint.
 
Did anyone order the 10 pack and have some extra that would be willing to mail? I've got a foaming problem I've been wanting to address for a while here.
Thanks!
 
My foaming issues seem to be the opposite of everybody else. I never have any problems with my picnic taps but my Perlicks all are foamy. Both my fridge and chest freezer kegerator are set at 38F and 12 psi, but I always get a lot more foam with the Perlicks.
Has anybody tried the steel springs?
 
Any idea if these fit in the dip tube of a 3 gallon keg? Wasn't sure if the diameter of the dip tube is the same, and it is just the length that is different. Thanks!
 
My keezer tower came with 6 foot 3/16" ID lines which really aren't sufficiently long enough to handle my effervescent (3+ volume) wheat beers.

So I had pretty much resigned myself to re-plumbing at least a couple of faucets with 10 to 12 footers - which would be a pita because the 6 footers are fine for middling 2-2.5 volume brews and now I'd have to deal with asymmetric plumbing.

But after coming across this thread last night I couldn't resist giving these plastic doohickeys a try, as they could be configured within the keg for any given brew and leave my faucet plumbing alone.

So I putted over to the local Graingers this morning, bought a ten-pack, sanitized two pairs in the cheap grain alcohol I use for filling ferm locks, then dropped a pair into each of the two Wheaties kegs out tubes.

Et voila! A huge change in behavior! The Wheaties are both tamed!

fwiw, If I had to guess, I'd say each doohickey provides resistance equivalent to about 3 feet of 3/16" vinyl beer line. I'd have to muck about with the plumbing to get close to proving that though...

Cheers - and thanks for the great lead!
 
I just put two of these in a keg of dark lager and it helped out a lot. i think my brew is over carbonated, but its pouring 100 times better already, many thanks to the OP, its people like him that keep this hobby going...
 
Bought a ten pack last in June and put two in every keg and three in the Belgium keg. Works great and severely reduces the plumbing.
 
I'm going to give it a shot too. Just need to put a few other things together for my McMaster order to justify the shipping.
 
I got some of these from grainger, and they barely fit in my diptube. I broke 2 of them trying to shove them in the tube. broke into a bunch of little pieces. Then after my keg was empty i was a real pain trying to get them out. Tried the air compressor and that didnt work. I ended up shoving a piece of solid copper wire up there to get them out.
 

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