Keg line issues

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Trenloco

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Hi guys , since I started kegging I never seem to stop running into issues.

I'm using a cornelius ball lock which at first foamed like crazy , which I thought would be solved by switching the 1ft line it came with for a longer one.

Calc said I needed around 26 ft 1/4' Vinyl hose (3/16 isn't available in my country, dont así lol) to push beer at 14 psi from my 41° F fridge with a picnic tap.

And now the beer pours like a trickle and after a while it just pours straight foam, might it be too long a hose? Temp issues maybe?

I store the coiled hose and tap hooked up to the keg inside the fridge.
What could I try to narrow down the issue? I'll start by cutting the hose at least 3 ft , it just takes way too long for beer to get trough it.

Another thing I noticed is that sometimes the beer goes 'back' from the hose and into the keg , which leaves the last ft or so of hose before the tap full of air or some gas (the rest is full of beer). Is this normal?

Sorry for the wot , hope someone can chime in on this, kegging has been a pita for me
 
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Thanks for putting your location in your profile, you're awesome!

Can you get EVA Barrier line? That would be best of all, as it is O2 impermeable, and totally taste and odorless.
It also has a very thin ID of 4mm, but they have wider too. At 4mm ID, you'd only need about 6 feet for 10-12psi at 38F.

[Edit]
Oops, I didn't realize you had bought and used the 26' of 1/4 vinyl line already.
Not sure either why it trickles and foams at the same time.
 
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my first question is how did you carb the beer and temp. overcarbing and then shutting the gas of will create negative pressure in the hose making the beer gas off in the hose. in most cases a longer hose would help alleviate foaming issues at high carbonation. i think i run seven feet, it pours slower but i dont care. also it took a few attempts to dial in my kegging. god speed.
 
Indeed , I bought 24 ft of hose straight up, was convinced it'd stop the foam.

I carbed by shaking with the gas at 14 psi for a hell of a long time and leaving it at that for a couple days.
 
Indeed , I bought 24 ft of hose straight up, was convinced it'd stop the foam.

I carbed by shaking with the gas at 14 psi for a hell of a long time and leaving it at that for a couple days.
Well, it should stop most of the foaming with that length.
The trickle is more puzzling.
Are you keeping gas on the keg?
 
Yes, serving pressure is 14 psi too , not purging or anything. I can clearly see the beer coiling around slowly but near the tap it turns into a bubbly mess.

Might it have to do with the up and downs of the coil? It's quite haphazardly done, there's some interlacing going on
 
Beer "backing up" in the line has to be an indicator of something because that just ain't right :)

Otherwise, the length seems about right according to Mike's calculator, and storing the line and picnic tap cold has to help. But if it's empty (the "backing up" thing), I suspect the first pour would be foamy - I get the same thing on the first pour of a freshly tapped keg feeding a cleaned and drained (thus empty) line...

Cheers!
 
Trying to diagnose an issue with kegging is frustrating.
I absolutely hate vinyl hose. But if that's all you can get then you will have to make it work. As mentioned, if you can get EVA barrier line, that is the best.
As for the trickle, that seems like there isn't enough PSI to push the beer from the keg through the lines and tap.
If you have a spunding valve put that on your gas post just to check the psi in your keg. Maybe your beer is over-carbed? I use vinyl tubing for my picnic tap just to take samples and I find if produces alot of foam.

The tubing you are using is that the thick walled version or thin? Thick walled is used in the beer industry- the thin walled is what you buy at hardware stores.
 
Sounds like you may have a clogged poppet likely from hop particles. I had the same thing going on with the foamy trickle Try tilting the keg and sending some co2 back through the beer line.
 
Have a free afternoon today so I'll check all your suggestions guys.

Forgot to mention, my keg lines arent clear vynil but braided vynil (PVC) hose. Dont know if this is standard, maybe that throws off the calculations with a higher resistance? (Thinking of the trickle of beer I get despite using correct hose length and pressure, it's like 1 minute to fill a pint lol)

Edit: my line is identical to this one.
https://www.micromatic.com/braided-vinyl/1-4-inch-id-braided-Vinyl-tubing-priced-by-the-foot-548wd
 
Braided PVC is probably the issue- I dont think that line is intended for beer. You need to use beer line, which is thick walled if you go with PVC- I would try to find EVA Barrier, 4mm version. But not sure what you can get in Argentina- I'm sure you could order online but shipping might be a deal breaker.
 
Could be , but I clean the keg after it kicks, take out poppets dip tubes and all, orings seemed to be in a good state , they are quite new.
Maybe I didn't seat the out poppet properly?
 
Braided PVC is probably the issue- I dont think that line is intended for beer. You need to use beer line, which is thick walled if you go with PVC- I would try to find EVA Barrier, 4mm version. But not sure what you can get in Argentina- I'm sure you could order online but shipping might be a deal breaker.

HBS here all sell braided for keg lines, there's no food-safe clear tubing available I could find, plus indeed, shipping involves paying 5x the price and lots of permits, even for simple hose (bear with me).

After cutting around 6 ft of line, pour still remains a trickle, exact same speed as before. Upon opening the tap , sudden spurt of beer AND after that a white trickle that reduces to 80% foam.

Really dont want to open up the keg to check the poppet, it's full to the lid with IPA and I'm afraid I'll oxy it too much.
 
Some ideas here: Why do I get foamy beer from my Kegerator?.

Especially this one second from the end...
  • Beer Line BELOW the top of the keg – Do not let your beer line dip below the top of your keg. Any excess beer line should be coiled up on the top of the keg. A beer line dipping below the top of the keg could possibly allow air to get in the lines and will lead to foam issues.
 
Also can you circulate the air in your refrigerator? I fixed most of my foamy pours issues with a small always on computer fan that keeps the air in my keezer mixed. WIthout something like this the beer in your keg will be colder than the lines sitting above your keg because the cold air is denser and sinks. This means the beer will change temperature as it moves into the line and as it warms up CO2 will come out of solution creating foam.
 
@eric19312 In an attempt to even out keg and line temps, I put the line below the ball lock QD , coiled at the midpoint of the keg. That might be the reason the beer would sometimes back up and the last ft of line would fill with foam.

After some fighting with the keg today I was not only unable to fix the issue but twisted my wrist in the process. As soon as it stops hurting Im biting the bullet,taking out the dip tube and checking for clogs on the poppet (or maybe ill try blasting the liquid post with co2 as someone above said, dont have check valve on regulator so im kinda scared to fill it with beer).

Im going for the clogged hypothesis as changing the line lenght had 0 effect on pour speed, its waay too slow, even with such a long hose.
 
Bleed the keg and or crank up the gas before you put it in the line out.. don’t forget to tilt the keg so what ever it was doesn’t get sucked up again.
Did you try mercadoLibre for beer line? Not sure if they have it or can deliver to your area, but worth a shot.

Hope the wrist feels better and you get your pour straightened out. I’m all for slow cooking, but then you have to wait for the foam to die down too.
 
Big update today!
Solved the trickle , as several of you pointed out, the poppet was full of hop debris. Now I pour a solid stream of well, foam. Around 50-50 once I let it settle in a glass.

I'll include photos of my humble setup in case it helps.

Every pour is foamy (not only the first) so I'm ruling out temperature gradients between keg and hose. I'll get a mini fan nevertheless.

Dropping Serving pressure to half (7 psi) has no effect on pour, so I'm ruling out hose/pressure related.

Only thing left Is air ingress somewhere , gonna check dip tube orring again , picnic tap - hose connection, and QD - hose connection.

Anything I may have missed?? Thank you very much for all the help given so far, it's rare to find much advice where I live.

As trivia: 3/16 is sold only wholesale here, not by the foot. Sadly I have no use for 150+ ft hosing at the time.
 

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Calc said I needed around 26 ft 1/4' Vinyl hose (3/16 isn't available in my country, dont así lol) to push beer at 14 psi from my 41° F fridge with a picnic tap.


Dropping Serving pressure to half (7 psi) has no effect on pour, so I'm ruling out hose/pressure related.
Are you venting the pressure in the keg and letting it equalize at 7 psi before you are trying to pour at that pressure?
Also, at 14 psi with 1/4” tubing, this calculator says you need approximately 47’ of tubing for a 10 second pour.
 
You're overcarbed now.

Hooking the CO2 to the Beer OUT post at 5-10 psi and then pulling the pressure release 10-15 times will reduce the volumes of CO2 dissolved in the beer (the large bubbles of CO2 bubbling through the beer pull the 'overcarb' out of solution). Keep doing this in batches until you can pour a decent pint.

Then you need to balance the pressure drop of the line to the desired carbonation volume of the beer.

In the future I still think the best way to carb is the slow carb and waite although lots of people burst carb.
 
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Final update !! Well seems today Is the day, I finally got a pour I'm comfortable with !

Found the dip tube orring was nicked, replaced it. Scored some 5mm clear hose from a local brewer (a hair bigger than 3/16 inches), and 15 ft ended up being more than enough.

Special thanks to everyone that replied !!! Very grateful salute from across the globe
 
Final update !! Well seems today Is the day, I finally got a pour I'm comfortable with !

Found the dip tube orring was nicked, replaced it. Scored some 5mm clear hose from a local brewer (a hair bigger than 3/16 inches), and 15 ft ended up being more than enough.

Special thanks to everyone that replied !!! Very grateful salute from across the globe
Thanks for coming back to let us know how it worked out.
 
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