Line length

[murppie]

So question. I just got my kegerator and have about 6' of beer lines. Its workout out ok so far (3 beers, its still a youngin) But I was doing some reading earlier today and saw that most people on here recommend 10' lines, but when I was reading on kegerator.com they said 5' (I think?) Why do commercial places (I got mine from beveragefactory.com) recommend the shorter lines, but people on this forum recomment the longer lines?

 

[day_trippr]

[...]Why do commercial places (I got mine from beveragefactory.com) recommend the shorter lines, but people on this forum recomment the longer lines?

People on this forum are relating their real life user experiences. I can only guess that the commercial places base their lengths on theory...

Cheers!

 

[badbrew]

mine are mostly 7'.

 

[LKABrewer]

Commercial beer is served at a lower temperature and lower pressure.

 

[Golddiggie]

The commonly called out 10' lines is due to many people putting their brews under 10-12psi at serving temperature. The general rule of thumb is 1' of beer hose/line length per 1psi of CO2 pressure the brew is under. This keeps the carbonation in suspension by providing enough back-pressure as the brew goes through the hose to the faucet/tap.

In my own experience, when I place a brew/keg under 10psi (all my lines are 10' long) it has less excess head to it. When I go past 12psi (especially if I go to 14psi) then there is more head/foam than I normally want in my brews.

You can go lower in psi on the keg with 10' lines, but I wouldn't go much lower than about 8psi if it was me.

Typically, I put my porters and brown ales at 10psi with the rest of my ales sitting at ~12psi.

 

[Xtant]

Line length is used to balance your system. It's the easiest variable to adjust.

Google balancing a draft beer system.

Essentially, your beer requires a certain volume of CO2. That Volume is obtained by carbing at a set pressure on your keg. That pressure will vary from style to style (very low for an Imperial stout or very high for a lambic). Once you are carbed up, you want to serve it.

If you change to a "serving pressure," you'll eventually change the volume of CO2 and your beer will not be properly carbed for the style. The pressure must stay the same on the keg. What you can vary is beer line length.

Read this article from BYO: http://***********/stories/techniqu...-balancing-your-draft-system-advanced-brewing

 

[JRems]

Also when talking about beer line, most are talking about standard 3/16" beer line. It comes in 1/4" as well, but 1/4" does not offer enough resistance.

 

[david_42]

If you keep your beer near freezing and use 5-6 psi, a 5' line is fine. I serve my beers around 45F at 12 psi and use 10' lines.

 

[JuanMoore]

One of the reasons that many line balancing calculators come up with figures that are so short is that they are based on line resistance figures that don't match well with real life figures. My experience has been that most 3/16" ID line has slightly less resistance than even the lowest published figures found online. Another reason is that the calculators were originally designed for commercial draught systems, where the beer is usually kept close to freezing, and where it's important to be able to fill a pint as fast as possible while still getting a good pour.

I highly suggest making your lines extra long. The only downside to lines that are "too long" is a slightly slower pour, but it has the benefit of reducing foaming issues greatly. It also enables you to serve beers at all sorts of carbonation levels, and still get a good pour even with the highly carbed ones. It's also much easier to trim a foot or two off of a line that's too long than it is to grow a line that's too short. Since I'm not running a busy bar or restaurant out of my house, if I have time to drink a beer then I also have an extra few seconds to wait for it to pour.