Hello HBT.
Apologies if this is a repeat, but .. I guess it makes life easier for me to put it in my own thread? I get pretty rubbish pours on my keg system. I thought that flow control taps would solve everything, but it doesn't seem to have. So ...
I want smack bang in the middle of the 'safe' zone for carbonation levels. This is 8 psi at about 30-34F (I'd rather have beer too cold than too warm and it is easier to work with as low a pressure as possible). So I need to overcome 8psi of pressure. Using 5/16" line with a restriction value of 0.4psi per foot and an average height of 2' I have ..
8 (pressure) - 1.5 (height) 6.5 / 0.4 (restriction per foot) = 16.25' of line required to balance.
I did originally have a few feet of 3/8" line which gave pretty poor results. I've just 'upgraded' to about 12' of 5/16" which is ... well still pretty poor tbh.
Is there any way to overcome this without spending any more money? I could run the system at a lower pressure? But then my beer wouldn't be carbonated enough? I could carbonate higher then reduce to serve? But I'd be fiddling with the regulator and the beer would go flat over time. I could reduce the temperature to 30F and reduce the pressure slightly in the hope of fudging it with some middle ground (will likely do this), but feel I should be able to solve everything by just backing the flow control off to almost nothing?
Anything I'm missing? Also everybody rates 3/16" and I can see why with the restriction values, but this is really difficult for me to fit to my taps without an expensive lego like arrangement of push fit. The 5/16" and 3/8" I have laying around.
Apologies if this is a repeat, but .. I guess it makes life easier for me to put it in my own thread? I get pretty rubbish pours on my keg system. I thought that flow control taps would solve everything, but it doesn't seem to have. So ...
I want smack bang in the middle of the 'safe' zone for carbonation levels. This is 8 psi at about 30-34F (I'd rather have beer too cold than too warm and it is easier to work with as low a pressure as possible). So I need to overcome 8psi of pressure. Using 5/16" line with a restriction value of 0.4psi per foot and an average height of 2' I have ..
8 (pressure) - 1.5 (height) 6.5 / 0.4 (restriction per foot) = 16.25' of line required to balance.
I did originally have a few feet of 3/8" line which gave pretty poor results. I've just 'upgraded' to about 12' of 5/16" which is ... well still pretty poor tbh.
Is there any way to overcome this without spending any more money? I could run the system at a lower pressure? But then my beer wouldn't be carbonated enough? I could carbonate higher then reduce to serve? But I'd be fiddling with the regulator and the beer would go flat over time. I could reduce the temperature to 30F and reduce the pressure slightly in the hope of fudging it with some middle ground (will likely do this), but feel I should be able to solve everything by just backing the flow control off to almost nothing?
Anything I'm missing? Also everybody rates 3/16" and I can see why with the restriction values, but this is really difficult for me to fit to my taps without an expensive lego like arrangement of push fit. The 5/16" and 3/8" I have laying around.