Trying to dial in my keggerator...beer line lengths?

[sablesurfer]

So I finally have started brewing consistently and I have figure out the gas issues (was getting compressed air instead of CO2) and now I need to actually pour a nice pint of beer.

My taps are right in the door of the keggerator, so about 1ft above the 3gal kegs inside.

I like my beer on the warm side, because of the styles I make, so sitting at 40F.

Looking at the charts, 10-12PSI gets me in the sweet zone for most beers at that temp.

From what I can tell, these are the numbers I have come up with:
4psi for shank/faucet (from BYO website)
.5psi for the one foot rise
.85psi/ft for 1/4" line (this is what my HBS has)

I take the 4psi from the 10psi and get 6psi.

6psi - .5 for one foot rise and I get 5.5psi remaining to account for....

...5.5/.85 = ~6.5ft of line.

Right now I am just under 5ft and I pour about half and half. My picnic line on a third keg is really just foam.

Does it pass the sanity test that I would need close to 7ft of line to serve 40F beer at 10-12psi for 2.3-2.4 volumes? I would assume I could just zip tie it into a coil inside the keggerator to keep it neat?

 

[sablesurfer]

Links

BYO - https://byo.com/yeast/item/164-balancing-your-draft-system-advanced-brewing

Keggorators (temp/volumes) - http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

Brewers Friend (one of places for the calculation) - http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/0...our-kegged-beer-co2-line-length-and-pressure/

 

[doug293cz]

Forget the other calculators and use only this one where the author gets the science correct. Most calculators use an incorrect (too high) value for the line resistance, and end up recommending lines that are too short.

To the OP, find a source of 3/16" ID beer line. 1/4" line will give you nothing but problems.

Brew on

 

[Sailingeric]

A lot of people on here swear by 10 feet. That is what I got after trying one of the calculators and got foamy beer. Since I went long, beer pours great

 

[doug293cz]

A lot of people on here swear by 10 feet. That is what I got after trying one of the calculators and got foamy beer. Since I went long, beer pours great

10 ft of 3/16" line works well for most situations (maybe not so well for something with 3 - 3.5 volumes tho.) 10 ft of 1/4" line will give mostly foam. You would need almost 40 ft of 1/4" line to be equivalent to 10 ft of 3/16" line.

Brew on

 

[sablesurfer]

Forget the other calculators and use only this one where the author gets the science correct.

TEN SECONDS to pour a beer?!?! Who has time for that?!?! LOL.

 

[max384]

So I finally have started brewing consistently and I have figure out the gas issues (was getting compressed air instead of CO2) and now I need to actually pour a nice pint of beer.

My taps are right in the door of the keggerator, so about 1ft above the 3gal kegs inside.

I like my beer on the warm side, because of the styles I make, so sitting at 40F.

Looking at the charts, 10-12PSI gets me in the sweet zone for most beers at that temp.

From what I can tell, these are the numbers I have come up with:
4psi for shank/faucet (from BYO website)
.5psi for the one foot rise
.85psi/ft for 1/4" line (this is what my HBS has)

I take the 4psi from the 10psi and get 6psi.

6psi - .5 for one foot rise and I get 5.5psi remaining to account for....

...5.5/.85 = ~6.5ft of line.

Right now I am just under 5ft and I pour about half and half. My picnic line on a third keg is really just foam.

Does it pass the sanity test that I would need close to 7ft of line to serve 40F beer at 10-12psi for 2.3-2.4 volumes? I would assume I could just zip tie it into a coil inside the keggerator to keep it neat?

Unless you're running line from one side of your house to the other, you ONLY want 3/16" beverage line.

Forget the math and start with at least 10-12 feet of 3/16" lines. You can ALWAYS cut the lines to make them shorter, but you can't add more length. I started with 4 foot lines, which, after doing the math, made a balanced system... however, in practical use, I got too much foam. I then did a little bit more research, and bought 12 foot lines. Flow rate was a bit slow, so I went down to 10 feet. This gave me the perfect balance between flow rate and foam... Despite not fitting into a beer line length calculator.

 

[Firewalker11]

I use 20 feet of 3/16 line for both of my faucets. They both pour with zero head unless I give the faucet some room to my glass. The other advantage as I don't get a lot of foam when I fill bottles from my faucets either with line that long.

 

[Moose_MI]

TEN SECONDS to pour a beer?!?! Who has time for that?!?! LOL.

I assumed this was a typo and you meant 10 secs to "drink" a beer. Nope...he said 10 sec to poor it...sum-huv-a-itch...you don't need a glass just put your stool under the tap

 

[doug293cz]

TEN SECONDS to pour a beer?!?! Who has time for that?!?! LOL.

So trim your line length to get a 3 second pour, and wait a minute for the foam to die down (unless the beer has good head retention, then wait longer.)

Brew on

 

[sablesurfer]

Thanks for the feedback. I have 10ft on both lines now and seems to be working ok.

Yes, I did find the 3/16". For some reason that is not the first line they grab when I am in there, I have to point to it say that is what I want.

For anyone wondering how you get it on over the barbs, I just put some hot water in micro for 3min....then dipped the end of the line in there for about 2-3 minutes. Becomes nice and rubbery and fits right onto the shanks and keg connectors.

MUCH better pours now.

 

[cod3ck]

Thanks for the feedback. I have 10ft on both lines now and seems to be working ok.

Yes, I did find the 3/16". For some reason that is not the first line they grab when I am in there, I have to point to it say that is what I want.

For anyone wondering how you get it on over the barbs, I just put some hot water in micro for 3min....then dipped the end of the line in there for about 2-3 minutes. Becomes nice and rubbery and fits right onto the shanks and keg connectors.

MUCH better pours now.

Good to know!

I just bought a cheap 1 tap kegorator from Wally World a while back. It came with a short 5' line (3/16) but getting further into this hobby I'm going to expand it to 3 taps. And with this info, upgrade what's in place. Thanks!