I think i got it!!

[idtapit]

So I am new to kegging, and I have always been told different numbers to set my serving pressure at, but after doing a lot of reading I think I found it out but I want to check with everyone and see what they think. So if have 5.3 ft of 3/16 serving line and a desired output pressure is 2.48 (amber beer) to have the correct carbonation for pouring I would set my regulator to about 22 psi correct? That's accounting for pressure lost in tubing etc..

 

[Rev2010]

No, that's totally wrong. Leave your serving pressure set to whatever pressure you carbed the beer at. If you have foaming you might want to consider just increasing the line length. I use 12' lines and everything is just perfect. I've run beers from 10psi to 18psi with no foaming issues. You definitely don't want to set your Amber ale pressure to 22psi. And remember, whatever you set it to the beer will eventually equilibriate to over time, hence the reason to not have a different serving pressure than your carbing pressure.


Rev.

 

[idtapit]

Well damn what about the friction lost in the 3/16 tubing? I have one line this is 5.3 ft that has a shank on it and the other is 3 ft with a picnic tap. Can you tell me what you would set the serving pressure on those? Same as pressure I carb at as well? Or can you give me a good idea on some servicing pressures on different styles of beer?

 

[idtapit]

No, that's totally wrong. Leave your serving pressure set to whatever pressure you carbed the beer at. If you have foaming you might want to consider just increasing the line length. I use 12' lines and everything is just perfect. I've run beers from 10psi to 18psi with no foaming issues. You definitely don't want to set your Amber ale pressure to 22psi. And remember, whatever you set it to the beer will eventually equilibriate to over time, hence the reason to not have a different serving pressure than your carbing pressure.


Rev.

Well damn what about the friction lost in the 3/16 tubing? I have one line this is 5.3 ft that has a shank on it and the other is 3 ft with a picnic tap. Can you tell me what you would set the serving pressure on those? Same as pressure I carb at as well? Or can you give me a good idea on some servicing pressures on different styles of beer?

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Set it between 2 & 67 psi if your beer is between -13° & 210° F or C (depending in the style of beer) and you'll be golden. Don't forget to account for the height of the tap from the keg.

 

[idtapit]

Set it between 2 & 67 psi if your beer is between -13° & 210° F or C (depending in the style of beer) and you'll be golden. Don't forget to account for the height of the tap from the keg.

Why would you take the time to post if your not even going to offer any help......(there is always that one person)

 

[FloppyKnockers]

 

[day_trippr]

We are confronted with a fundamental problem here: you're going about this process from the wrong end. A well-behaved beer dispensing system doesn't just miraculously arise from random components, and trying to come up with a CO2 pressure solution given your current mismatched setup isn't going to happen.

Consider the classic method:

Start with your desired dispensing temperature. Then use our favorite carbonation table, find your temperature on the Y scale, scan across that row to the level of carbonation wanted (hint: 2.5 volumes of CO2 is about middle of the road for ales), then run up that column to find the correct CO2 pressure to use to achieve and maintain that carbonation level indefinitely.

Then use the only beer line length calculator worth using (comes complete with an education!) to find the length of beer tubing that will balance against the CO2 pressure you determined above.

Or you can short-cut that bit and just use 1 foot of conventional 3/16" beer line per the PSI found in the table.

Use the same tubing and length as determined for both of your kegs (the faucet difference has little effect) so they'll behave the same, and you'll have the start of a reliable dispensing system...

hth!

Cheers!

[edit] Forgot the "carb to style" bit: there's a handy page here that has an embedded table of beer styles with their respective carbonation levels. Also, if you check the "Kegging" box, the page switches to a temperature vs pressure = carbonation level calculator, which would replace Our Favorite Carbonation Table in the classic process above...