Keg beer quality?

[HaveABeer]

So I kegged a brown ale. Its been in the keg for 2 weeks. I used CO2 to carbonate. For the first week it was super tasty and had a nice head on it when I dispensed it. The poppet got clogged and I had to take it off to clean it as the beer stopped dispensing. I pulled the dip tube too. Cleaned it all and put it back together. Everything was fine. Now another week in and I get no head at all when dispensing and the flavor though good is not as good as it was and it seems a bit flat. There is maybe a gallon of less left in the keg.

Educate me please.

 

[shoengine]

My guess is you have a gas leak.

 

[Mr. Vern]

Serving pressure / line size / carbonation volume are all related here. Have you reviewed your beer line length to work with your CO2 regulator pressure? You normally end up with 4' of tubing +/- coiled up before the faucet, at least that's how my system looks.

<Edit for flavor comment> it could be CO2 or even Oxygen from the poppet cleaning. I would concentrate on the Co2 volume and sizing, looking at flavor issues after correcting process issues.

 

[HaveABeer]

I had a leak the first days after kegging. I actually discovered it was from not having the bottle open all the way. Once I did that, I've not lost any according to my regulator.

 

[HaveABeer]

Serving pressure / line size / carbonation volume are all related here. Have you reviewed your beer line length to work with your CO2 regulator pressure? You normally end up with 4' of tubing +/- coiled up before the faucet, at least that's how my system looks.

<Edit for flavor comment> it could be CO2 or even Oxygen from the poppet cleaning. I would concentrate on the Co2 volume and sizing, looking at flavor issues after correcting process issues.

Yes, Id say that is correct. 4 ft of line. Dispensing at 3-5psi. Nice flow. No head.

 

[Mr. Vern]

Dispensing at 3-5psi.

I think this is it, if you are only at 3-5 PSI in the keg you are losing carbonation over time. The reason for the longer length is to reduce pressure between keg and faucet, so that you can store beer at the appropriate carbonation level and not have a super-soaker style faucet on the other end. Crank that pressure up to 12 and let it carbonate so you can enjoy that last gallon! Brown Ale 2.2-2.5 volumes of CO2, check the tables for pressure/temperature setting and you will be very close.

Poke around in the forum, there is a plethora of info to dig into! Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

Just want to echo that you really want to serve at a pressure that will maintain the correct carbonation level in the beer. And use a beer line length calculator too. Four feet of 3/16" diameter line will work for 5 PSI, but you'd need ten feet to serve at 12 PSI. If you're going to replace your beer lines anyway, consider EVABarrier tubing. 4-5 feet of 4 mm tubing works great at 12 PSI.

 

[Bobby_M]

If the flavor is falling off, it's 99% oxygen damage that probably started when you moved the beer into the keg (dependent on how you actually moved the beer). There's a lot of little nuance skills involved in keep oxygen off the beer but baby steps.

Beer needs to be kept under contstant pressure based on the carb charts and what temp the beer is. At most kegerator temps of 38F "ish".... you'll need to keep the beer at 10psi. Then you size the serving hose to diminish that pressure by the time it gets to the faucet. That's about 10 feet of 3/16" ID tubing or about 6 feet of 4mm ID EVA barrier tubing.

 

[hottpeper13]

When you pulled the dip tube out did you use a new seal when putting it back?