No Need to Balance?

[gcsowden]

This is a question/comment. To keep SWMBO happy I am making a Cream Soda. I have read in a lot of threads that if you do this because of the amount of pressure you need in soda you have to get a 20'+ line for serving to keep it balanced like you would with a regular beer. Well this was bothersome as I have a dual keg Kegerator and changing the lines in the tower is a Pain in the A##.

I talked to 'my guy' at the LHBS and he said that is NO REQUIRED for soda. He told me soda, even Root Beer and Cream Soda which are more foamy, will not create enough head to be a problem.

So, I got a regulator, left my lines as they are (knowing the may taste like Cream Soda after this) and I'm ready to go.

Does anyone disagree with 'my guy's' logic?

Let me know, Thanks!

 

[david_42]

Well, in my experience, anything less than 25' just doesn't keep the carbonation in. You might consider adding a quick disconnect and make a soda line extension.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I agree with david. I keep root beer on tap most of the time, and I use 20-25' of line. Some people say they carbonate and serve their root beer at 30psi, but I use about 25psi and it works fine. Either way, you'll need a lot of hose.

I tried the same thing you did and got nothing but foam. Then I tried getting 15' lines. Still had a ton of foam. It wasn't until I put 20'+ on that I stopped having issues.

 

[Yooper]

Well, in my experience, anything less than 25' just doesn't keep the carbonation in. You might consider adding a quick disconnect and make a soda line extension.

Try it- and then do like we say and make it 25' or so! Otherwise, you will have either a) soda shooting out like a firehose at the correct psi at 30 psi, or b) be forced to purge the keg and reset at like 2 psi to push out the soda and then reset back to 30 psi. The carbonation will never be right if you do a or b.

The other thing to keep in mind is that you're going to want different lines for soda and beer anyway. Maybe not for some sodas, but if you do root beer or ginger ale, you don't want to use the same line for beer. That root beer taste will NEVER come out.

I bought some cheaper line from McMaster-Carr that doesn't hold in smells and it's pretty rigid so I just made it into a loop and kept it with the soda keg. Even though it's supposedly "smell less" it still has a faint eau de root beer in it.

 

[gcsowden]

thanks y'all, I appreciate the feedback. I might have to go to the LHBS for the 3rd time today to get that longer hose. Who knew some guages were left hand thread and some were right? I guess I won't forget now.

 

[avaserfi]

Well, in my experience, anything less than 25' just doesn't keep the carbonation in. You might consider adding a quick disconnect and make a soda line extension.

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but how exactly do you make a line extension with quick disconnects?

Right now I am planning on adding a keg of carbonated water to my setup and would like the option of switching between a 10ft and 25ft line depending on my needs pressure needs (12-14psi vs psi). An extension would be perfect because I don't know of any easy way to switch between line lengths due to the barbed fittings on my shanks.

Thanks

 

[str8wire]

You just need to buy an entire new quick disconnect and line and keep it as one unit. No need to switch lines, just unhook the QD and hook up the longer one when you need it.

 

[avaserfi]

I must be dense. I don't see how that helps. It is easy to change QDs from keg to keg, but the other end is connected to my faucet. The trouble is changing out the faucet side connection. How do I put a QD on that? My shanks are barbed and I'm not aware of any other style.

 

[joex444]

It's also easy to add an extension if you used flare nut connections. If your QDs have barbs, that's fine, you can use a flare on the end and have two separate QDs. But you'd want to convert the end of your current QD to a flare (female). Then you can pick up a new QD with a male flare on it, make this your beer QD. Your old barb QD then gets the new hose and ends with a flare nut (male preferably, but may be cheaper to go to female and then use a coupler).

 

[avaserfi]

It's also easy to add an extension if you used flare nut connections. If your QDs have barbs, that's fine, you can use a flare on the end and have two separate QDs. But you'd want to convert the end of your current QD to a flare (female). Then you can pick up a new QD with a male flare on it, make this your beer QD. Your old barb QD then gets the new hose and ends with a flare nut (male preferably, but may be cheaper to go to female and then use a coupler).

All my CO2 and liquid line QDs are the screw kind with the flare swivel.

If I am understanding you correctly, you are saying make an extension tube (in my case I need an extra 15ft - I have a 10ft line running from the barbed shank to the keg) that has one of the swivel fittings I linked above on each side. One of the fittings would have a QD (keg side) and the other would have an 1/4" MFL to 1/4" MFL in it connecting to the other piece of hose which is clamped to the shank?

That way I would just have to screw/unscrew the MFL/MFL to change between 10ft and 25ft.

Thanks for pointing it out to me! For some reason the idea of an MFL/MFL piece never occurred to me.