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There are thousands of home brewers using plastic. If there was some sort of inherent problem with plastic it would have shown up years ago.

Since you know it's not the gas line or beer line it can only be a recurring beer dip tube clog or a gas leak. By any chance is there a dry hop bag down at the bottom of the keg? Any free floating leaf hops in there? As for leaks I assume that you know that the keg is holding pressure. If your...

Frustrating! I am assuming that you are using corny keg and you are certain that the gas is getting in the keg. If the gas is getting in then you have to have a leak. One thing to look at is the post gasket on the gas side. If it is damaged the post won't show a leak but the bad gasket will...

When you use a tire valve for carbonation the only way to get the gas into the bottle is to use the same type of fitting you use to put air in your tires. I bought an air fitting and an adapter to add a 1/4 MFL flare fitting to screw into the female flare fitting attached to the gas line...

I have made carbonator valves out of metal tire valves - drill the appropriate size hole in the soda top and seal it with silicone. Works great. Fill the bottle, squeeze out the air, put the cap on and pressurize. Remember that you will need a gas fitting for the tire valve. If you don't want to...

I'd go with 10' lines then work backwards. Let the beer tell you when it's right. Besides it always easier to shorten a line than lengthen it. Cheers

I've found that it is OK to gelatin fine even after carbonation.

I went to the Dow Corning site and they list 5 AFE- xxxx products for controlling foam during fermentation. But 1410 is not one of them. They list 0010, 0100, 1510, 1520, 1920. Is there any difference for homebrewing purposes?

Where do you get AFE1410? Price?

Sometimes I think that we'd be better off not relying so much on the accuracy of our instruments but making sure that they are reasonably precise. If I mash at say 154 as shown on my thermometer and the beer is good and is what I was shooting for who cares if the "true" temperature was 152 or...

+1 Fermcap.

Drew Beechum wrote an article in the Nov/Dec 2011 Zymurgy entitled "From Grain to Glass in Six Days". Excellent article and right on point. Any AHA member has access to it. Cheers

Not sure how you know the 150 temp referenced above is 150 without measuring it with a calibrated thermometer. I have always thought that the reason one calibrated with an ice bath or boiling water was that you could assume the temperature value (after adjusting for barometric pressure). At my...

It's worth remembering that water expands when heated. 5.75 gallons at boil = about 5.52 gallons at 68F.

I agree. It's physics - the gas will migrate to the lower pressure so if you think the beer is over carbonated (not likely with commercial kegs) you need to vent and allow the gas some time to get out of the beer. But it may just be that a higher regulator pressure will suppress the foam by...

Couple of thoughts: First, are both the line and faucet clean? Take the faucet off the shank and see if this is residue at either the faucet or shank end. Assuming that your lines are transparent, look for crud. Watch the line while pouring to see when/ where the foaming starts. You might need...

Should have also noted that you really have to let the keg settle. Overnight is fine. Chilled is best.

Oops, didn't mean to send that. You can force carb one day, put the keg in whatever refrigeration environment you use and tap the next day. Naturally you wouldn't open a shaken can or bottle right away but overnight settling will solve the problem. As for line length, I did all the...

I force carb from time to time with no probls as long as you let the beer settle prior to serving. Same as with a commercial keg

Yes, you can quick carbonate in 20-30 minutes if you want to. I also leave the beer in the fermenter for 2-3 weeks after fermentation ceases. (Use your hydrometer.). Then I rack to secondary. I use another keg. Cold crash to clear the beer. Rack to second keg. (I use kegs as secondary so I...