Carbonation Issues

[Beerman213]

Hi everyone! I've done a lot of searching and tried a lot of the things folks have recommended but I still can't get control. Here's the issue:

I keg my beer. I carbonate over 2-3 days. I connect the gas to the beverage side of the keg and set to about 10psi. The first quarter of the keg pours fine and perfectly carbonated but then it starts to pour fast and very full of foam. I use 10ft of 3/16" beer line. So if I lower the psi to 3-4 the c02 comes out of suspension and also produces mass amounts of foam. I am lost. I don't know what do do. I regularly brew IPAs, pale ales, wheats…nothing that requires special or particular carbonation levels.

Any help would be great. Anything I left out please ask an I'll promptly answer. I appreciate the help I'm advance.

Walt
Wet Nose Brewery


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[JBIII]

What PSI do you carbonate at? If you carbonate at a PSI higher than 10 do you bleed your keg once your desired level of carbonation has been reached? Do you store your CO2 tanks inside the kegerator? What temperature do you keep your kegerator at? And 10ft of hose is much longer than what most people use, is there a particular reason you are using 10ft lines?

 

[Beerman213]

What PSI do you carbonate at? If you carbonate at a PSI higher than 10 do you bleed your keg once your desired level of carbonation has been reached? Do you store your CO2 tanks inside the kegerator? What temperature do you keep your kegerator at? And 10ft of hose is much longer than what most people use, is there a particular reason you are using 10ft lines?

I carbonate at 10psi
C02 is stored in the keezer
Keezer is at about 37deg
The reason for 10 freet is this: I had 5 ft when I used picnic taps. When I upgraded to perlicks, I was getting ALOT of foam and very fast pours. So I switched to 10ft with the thought that I could cut it down to a better length if need be. The only problem is that I would think I would get the opposite problem (not enough flow) if I had too much tubing.

As a side note, I have my regulator hooked up to a 4 way manifold each with a flapper valve. I do notice that often times I'll set my output to 10psi. The next day I will come back and it will be at 14 psi. Not really sure what that's about. Possibly the regulator is shot? Possibly the source of my problem? I don't know.

Walt


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[Thesomeguy]

Hi everyone! I've done a lot of searching and tried a lot of the things folks have recommended but I still can't get control. Here's the issue:

I keg my beer. I carbonate over 2-3 days. I connect the gas to the beverage side of the keg and set to about 10psi. The first quarter of the keg pours fine and perfectly carbonated but then it starts to pour fast and very full of foam. I use 10ft of 3/16" beer line. So if I lower the psi to 3-4 the c02 comes out of suspension and also produces mass amounts of foam. I am lost. I don't know what do do. I regularly brew IPAs, pale ales, wheats…nothing that requires special or particular carbonation levels.

Any help would be great. Anything I left out please ask an I'll promptly answer. I appreciate the help I'm advance.

Walt


Wet Nose Brewery


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I would think that 2-3 days is not enough for proper carbonation, Personally I do 10-12 PSI for 9-14 days and dont have problems. That is in a 40 Degree freezer.

 

[Beerman213]

I would think that 2-3 days is not enough for proper carbonation, Personally I do 10-12 PSI for 9-14 days and dont have problems. That is in a 40 Degree freezer.

After 2-3 days, I take the c02 off the beverage side and continue on the gas side at 10psi.


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[kh54s10]

I am assuming that it takes a while to drink down to where you are seeing problems. But as noted 2-3 days at 10 psi? That would show no carbonation at all on my system. I have tried force carbonating at 30 psi for up to 2 days and the carbonation still takes about 2 weeks to level out. After that I have had no differing levels of foaming.

So really, I have no suggestions.

When I set my regulator at a certain pressure on a fresh keg and look later the pressure is usually lower. I assume this is co2 going into solution although I would expect the regulator to keep the pressure up.

 

[JBIII]

Walt,

Fast beer is a symptom of excessive head pressure or little to no line restriction. And the general rule of thumb is each foot of hose is equivalent to .5 PSI of line restriction...so 10ft of hose is about 5 PSI worth of line restriction which leads me to believe it's not a line restriction problem.

It seems as if your regulator is not working properly. Additionally, if you're able to carbonate at 10 PSI in 2-3 days, that is further evidence it's more than likely a regulator problem. If I want my beer to carbonate in 2-3 days I have to crank my regulator up to about 25 PSI. When I set it to 10 PSI it takes about 7 - 9 days.

Your best bet may be to swap regulators with someone and compare the results...

Hope this helps and happy brewing...

 

[Beerman213]

I am assuming that it takes a while to drink down to where you are seeing problems. But as noted 2-3 days at 10 psi? That would show no carbonation at all on my system. I have tried force carbonating at 30 psi for up to 2 days and the carbonation still takes about 2 weeks to level out. After that I have had no differing levels of foaming.

So really, I have no suggestions.

When I set my regulator at a certain pressure on a fresh keg and look later the pressure is usually lower. I assume this is co2 going into solution although I would expect the regulator to keep the pressure up.

Even after 2-3 days of 10psi on the beverage side I see for sure signs of carbonation. After a week of my normal routine is about perfect. Then after a while it gets crazy foamy. Not over carbonated. If I pour a glass it will easily be full of nothing but foam. Then I pour again and it's usually not as foamy.


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[Beerman213]

Walt,



Fast beer is a symptom of excessive head pressure or little to no line restriction. And the general rule of thumb is each foot of hose is equivalent to .5 PSI of line restriction...so 10ft of hose is about 5 PSI worth of line restriction which leads me to believe it's not a line restriction problem.



It seems as if your regulator is not working properly. Additionally, if you're able to carbonate at 10 PSI in 2-3 days, that is further evidence it's more than likely a regulator problem. If I want my beer to carbonate in 2-3 days I have to crank my regulator up to about 25 PSI. When I set it to 10 PSI it takes about 7 - 9 days.



Your best bet may be to swap regulators with someone and compare the results...



Hope this helps and happy brewing...

I've been leaning towards this as well. Any suggestions against a particular regulator? Not looking to spend an arm and a leg on a name. Just looking for a solid regulator. The one I have is a micromatic that's about 10 years old.


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[JBIII]

Walt,

I have a taprite dual guage, two product regulator, with one line hooked up to a 4 way manifold, that I brought off Amazon. I love it and haven't had any issues with it. The prices can vary significantly for essentially the same product on Amazon, so you'll have to do a bit of comparing and contrasting, but I'm sure you'll find something for a fairly reasonable price.

 

[Beerman213]

Walt,



I have a taprite dual guage, two product regulator, with one line hooked up to a 4 way manifold, that I brought off Amazon. I love it and haven't had any issues with it. The prices can vary significantly for essentially the same product on Amazon, so you'll have to do a bit of comparing and contrasting, but I'm sure you'll find something for a fairly reasonable price.

JBill, by two product are you saying that it's a dual regulator meaning that you can control the psi to two different kegs? That's exactly what I've been thinking I need to get as I've been using a 'wye' for years.


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[JBIII]

Walt,

Dual gauge just means I have a gauge for the dispensing line and a gauge for the CO2 tank...the 'two products' means I have two lines running off the regulator. So, I essentially have 3 gauges. One for the tank and one for each of the lines running off the regulator. A single gauge means you'll know what the PSI is coming off the regulator, but you won't know what pressure your CO2 tank is at.

If you really want to go as low cost as possible you really only need a single gauge, because the PSI of your CO2 thank will essentially stay the same until your CO2 tank is about one carbonation away from being absolutely empty. So, you can have a 'single gauge' with one or more lines running from the regulator or you can have a dual gauge with multiple lines running from the regulator.

Is that about as clear as mud?

 

[Takuie]

Even after 2-3 days of 10psi on the beverage side I see for sure signs of carbonation. After a week of my normal routine is about perfect. Then after a while it gets crazy foamy. Not over carbonated. If I pour a glass it will easily be full of nothing but foam. Then I pour again and it's usually not as foamy.


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Your lines are warm, put a fan inside kegerator to circulate air, check you tube tons of vids on how to do it. Also rebalance system using this set up : mike soltys keg balancer

I had similar problem, adding fan and rebalancing using above link calculator has provided me with perfect pours every time.

 

[Beerman213]

Walt,

Dual gauge just means I have a gauge for the dispensing line and a gauge for the CO2 tank...the 'two products' means I have two lines running off the regulator. So, I essentially have 3 gauges. One for the tank and one for each of the lines running off the regulator. A single gauge means you'll know what the PSI is coming off the regulator, but you won't know what pressure your CO2 tank is at.

If you really want to go as low cost as possible you really only need a single gauge, because the PSI of your CO2 thank will essentially stay the same until your CO2 tank is about one carbonation away from being absolutely empty. So, you can have a 'single gauge' with one or more lines running from the regulator or you can have a dual gauge with multiple lines running from the regulator.

Is that about as clear as mud?

A three gauge regulator is what I've been wanting to upgrade to. I have no problem with spending the money on something that is good and will last. Thanks for all your help!


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[Beerman213]

Your lines are warm, put a fan inside kegerator to circulate air, check you tube tons of vids on how to do it. Also rebalance system using this set up : mike soltys keg balancer



I had similar problem, adding fan and rebalancing using above link calculator has provided me with perfect pours every time.

I will check out the link. About recirculation of air, I have only a 2x4 collar on the keezer. Originally I didn't think a recirculation fan would do much because I only added a little bit of space. Do you guys think a fan is required?


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[Beerman213]

Is like to follow up to this post because I hate unanswered threads. I purchased a TapRite dual regulator and that has fixed all of my issues. The only think I can think is that my old regulator has called it quits and was not indicating properly. Not saying that that will fix every bodies problems. Just saying that's what fixed mine. Good luck!


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