Gas / Foam from my new Keezer

[flash9]

I thought it would be best to keep my "technical" question separate from my posting presenting my new Keezer I just built.

My new Keezer has been operational about a week now and I need some advice.

Before building my Keezer, I had modified a standup refrigerator to hold a couple kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank with a primary regulator with a Y splitter so I could push two kegs. I used simple "Picnic" spigots and generally got nice poors with an acceptable head of foam.

For my Keezer I picked up four secondary regulators, so I can run each keg at its own separate pressure. The liquid lines at 5' long and are 3/16" ID, and I have the secondary set between 10 and 12 psi.

The beer is coming out very foamy and after a poor of beer the lines fill with gas. You can see the gas in the liquid line in my second attached photo.

Any suggestions on what is causing this?

 

[doug293cz]

I thought it would be best to keep my "technical" question separate from my posting presenting my new Keezer I just built.

My new Keezer has been operational about a week now and I need some advice.

Before building my Keezer, I had modified a standup refrigerator to hold a couple kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank with a primary regulator with a Y splitter so I could push two kegs. I used simple "Picnic" spigots and generally got nice poors with an acceptable head of foam.

For my Keezer I picked up four secondary regulators, so I can run each keg at its own separate pressure. The liquid lines at 5' long and are 1/4" ID, and I have the secondary set between 10 and 12 psi.

The beer is coming out very foamy and after a poor of beer the lines fill with gas. You can see the gas in the liquid line in my second attached photo.

Any suggestions on what is causing this?

Your beer lines are too short, and do not create enough pressure drop between the keg and tap. Here's a good place to calculate required line lengths, and learn more background about why it matters.

Brew on

 

[Genuine]

I switched to 10' lines in my kegerator and now I have nice pours with even minimal first pour foam. I used to have 5' and had the hardest time keeping it from foaming. I keep the pressure from 9-13psi and things have been great.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[flash9]

So - I want back and actually looked at my receipt, and the liquid lines are indeed 3/16" ID. But, I had chosen to keep the Keezer at 53 degrees versus the refrigerator I was using which was at about 37 degrees.

In the short term I am planning to drop the temperature of the Keezer. In the long term I will make my beer lines closer to 10' to 12" long.

 

[Auger]

Off topic, but where did you get the secondary regulator bodies?

 

[dnslater]

How much does wall thickness of the lines impact this? I am building a Kegerator and have two taps. I bought 3/16" ID tubing from two different sources. Source one was my LHBS, and they told me 5' would be fine without foaming. Their lines were very thin walled. Source two, an online source has wall thickness about 3x the tubing from the LHBS. I assume the thinner tubing would drop pressure more and require less length?

 

[Auger]

If the ID is the same, the pressure drop should be about the same. It would vary slightly based on the thinner walled tubing being able to stretch/expand slightly more than the thicker, but at the relatively low pressures we're dealing with I wouldn't think that would cause a significant difference.

 

[flash9]

Off topic, but where did you get the secondary regulator bodies?

The two Taptite's were separate eBay auctions, and the two Cornelius were together in a eBay auction. I was able to purchase all four including shipping for less then $60, or $15 each.

Then I purchased all of the check valves, swivel nut connectors, and connectors from a online store (if I am allowed I will list the website).

Looks like I will be going back and purchasing more beer line from them.

 

[Auger]

Very nice, thanks, and good prices! I'm looking at doing something similar - I'm trying to decide whether I want just two regulator bodies with manifolds on each one so I can serve 2-4 kegs and have another 2 carbing, or if I'm going to want more individualized control than that for fine-tuning carb levels on indivudual beers.

 

[dnslater]

If the ID is the same, the pressure drop should be about the same. It would vary slightly based on the thinner walled tubing being able to stretch/expand slightly more than the thicker, but at the relatively low pressures we're dealing with I wouldn't think that would cause a significant difference.

I'm really curious about this. It seems as though the thinner stuff would expand far more easily.

 

[flash9]

So, I have ordered 50' of beer lines for my four tap keezer, so I can make them ~12.5" each.

I guess I will coil them up and zip tie them together to keep them from getting all tangled up in my keezer.

So, clearly too short of beer line cause foam, assuming they are within the keezer, is there any problem with too long of beer lines?

 

[Brewerforlife]

Longer beer lines will just give you slower pour times.

 

[day_trippr]

Each keg has a 12' run with the slack coiled up and zip-tied to fit inside the handles. No big deal - at least using Bevlex-200. Bev Seal Ultra might be a greater challenge - I don't know what the minimum bend radius is for that stuff but I hear it's stiffer.

Things get slightly more interesting when you add flow meters and a bunch of temperature sensors, but it's still not a problem

Cheers!