Ghetto setup needs help!!

[tv219]

My brother got me this keg setup for Christmas and my dead guy clone just finished and has been in there for about a week, my problem I haven't gotten my mini fridge from him after he goes to school, this was best way I could think while keepin the keg cool and dry. It's sitting in a trash bag in a bucket with water surrounding the bag, I just checked it and it was 42 degrees

My question, I noticed that I can pour out a couple of great glasses and carbonated but after three or four it becomes flat with tons of foam???!! This is the cheapest ghettoest way I could do it for now so any help will be nice. Any reason why it goes flat?





Here it is!!

 

[Dynachrome]

I realize that to a lot of people that this is a step in the wrong direction, but you might consider bottling. Storing bottles doesn't really require a fridge.

Kegging is great. I haven't made it there yet. Look through craigslist and see if you can find an old fridge cheap and just set it in there?

Aren't you affraid someone else will come steal it from the front porch? ...ghetto?

 

[day_trippr]

If you pour a beer with tons of foam, the underlying liquid will be flattened - that's where the carbonation to generate the foam came from, and it's not an unlimited resource.

A week is fairly short to fully carbonate a keg, but otherwise, make sure your CO2 pressure isn't set so low that it's not maintaining the carbonation level in the keg. Ie, looking at this chart, for your 42°F and a typical 2.5 volumes of CO2, you'd want to keep the CO2 regulator set for around 13 psi. And once the beer is carbed to that volume of CO2, you need to keep the pressure set for 2.5 volumes to keep the CO2 from bursting back out of solution...

Cheers!

 

[Begin2Brew]

What is your PSI on your regulator? It looks like you have 1/4" ID tubing at about 4 feet of it? If that is the case your serving line is way to short. If you carbonate to 13psi you need around 13 feet of 1/4" for your serving line.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

It will also help to keep your serving line cold. I don't know where you are, but if the serving line is warmer than the beer it will knock the CO2 out of solutiion when you pour resulting in flat, foamy beer. Look up "Jockey Box."

 

[tv219]

My psi is set to 12-15 depending on the temperature, I really want to get the fridge so I can stop having to mess with the regulator, I kinda winged it lately becuz of the missing fridge, I am not an expert by any means but I want to nail this down, any other steps or recommendations for what to do or get, short on money so cos effective would be great becuz of the beer that was carbonated I now want MORE!!

 

[tv219]

Dynachrome- well found out I'll have a fridge by the end of this week, it's a mini which Gould be able to hold two cornies and a 5lb tank, sufficient for what I do, and have plenty of bottles for now, and I have some curious neighbors but some of which think ima blow the apartment up lol

 

[brewinginnc]

I switched to a 10 foot bev line and no foam at 12-15 psi for me

 

[inhousebrew]

At least six feet of line and the longer the better. With a fridge you'll be able to keep the line cold too. It's going to be hard to perfect something like this ghetto rig so I'd just wait and not fret about it until you get the fridge. Your beer isn't going to go bad sitting in there so just wait to get more line and the fridge.