Silly Question About Tapping A Keg

[ScottishPete]

I've recently built a keezer and am picking up a barrel of Dogfish 90 later today. It has been a *long* time since I've tapped a keg. I have a D coupler, but am unsure of which nozzle the CO2 is attached to, and which is the beer line ... I see conflicting pictures:

When I received the coupler, there was a rubber insert in the lower nozzle with a shank penetrating the nozzle ( so the shank wasn't sticking out of the coupler ). Can anyone point me in the right direction possibly with a picture of their setup?

I know, silly question right?

 

[TipsyDragon]

im going to ask an equally silly question. did the kit come with a picture and do you still have it?

 

[ScottishPete]

I bought the pieces individually over time ...

 

[lamarguy]

Not silly, the first diagram is wrong. The liquid line is always on the top, unless it's a low profile coupler, then they're both on the side.

The correct diagram is:

 

[ScottishPete]

Excellent. Thank you!

 

[wildwest450]

Make sure the lever arm is in the DOWN position before attaching it to the keg.

 

[Scimmia]

Make sure the lever arm is in the DOWN position before attaching it to the keg.

LOL, that's cruel.

 

[lamarguy]

Make sure the lever arm is in the DOWN position before attaching it to the keg.

Ha...Ya, that and be sure to shake up the keg before tapping it. Probably best to bring a change of clothes.

 

[Mayday99]

looks like she knows how to tap a keg. By the way, just picked up a micromatic sanke tap on ebay, and the gas in has GAS etched into the metal. I would think your coupler would have that on there to.

How much did the dogfish 90 set you back? Is it a 1/6 barrel?

 

[lamarguy]

This lady looks like she knows how to tap a keg.

Ha, I've actually been to that store in SF. It's a small place with a good specialty beer selection. Definitely not the cheapest.

I love how the demonstration includes touching the ball valve with your dirty finger before tapping the keg. It adds that certain je ne sais quoi.

 

[ScottishPete]

How much did the dogfish 90 set you back? Is it a 1/6 barrel?

Yea it was a 1/6 barrel ... $119 + $105 for deposit

I am sad to announce that my initial keezer + kegging ( I realize I wasn't actually kegging my own beer ... ) experience was an epic disaster ...

Brought the DF90 home on Friday around 5pm for a get together with my neighbors ... connected everything together, had a massive air leak ... found I forgot to add a washer in the CO2 coupler connection ... fixed that up quick

Next pulled the tap but beer only trickled out ... at this point I had a couple of my neighbors help me figure it out as they wanted their DF90 LDO ... one is a nuclear engineer and the other is a high profile accountant ... finally figured it was the regulator and had to adjust the knob ...

OK, we can now adjust the pressure at will and we are ready to drink massive amounts of cold, hoppy, draft DF90 ... here we go!! ... almost completely all foam ...

I had read this was probable, but had been *extremely* careful in not jostling the keg as much as possible on its car ride home ... I had it tucked in tight in the front seat ... anyway, I thought I had read to just let the beer relax for the first hour after tapping, but the Nuclear Engineer said when they tapped kegs up at the fire station, they just tapped & drank straight away ... we filled a couple of growlers to see if we just needed to "run off" the foam ... seems like it wasn't getting better ... I cap the growlers and put them in the keezer ...

So we decide to let it sit for a while ... crack some Dogfish 60 bottles and enjoy hour 80 degree sun and delicious BBQ ... come back an hour later and try the draft again ... still mostly foam, and it's coming out fast & furious ... the growlers however have settled right down and are now half full with beer ... we pour those and are ready to embrace the sweet nectar of DF90 ... however, it's mostly flattish ... it tastes good, but it's close to flat ...

So I hit the internet ... people say the CO2 needs 24 hours to become soluble in the beer ( is that correct? I've forgotten the terminology now ) ... and they say crank the PSI to 15 for 24 hours and then simmer down to 8ish ... so I do that and we drink the rest of the growlers which is now ice cold from the keezer ( I keep the temp control at 40 +- 3 ) ... the growlers are good, but flat

I come down the next morning, willing to drink a draft DF90 for breakfast if it's flowing ok, but it's not ... in fact, it's not flowing at all ... all that's coming out of the tap is air ... I open up the keezer and look inside .... son of a ***** ... all of my beer is floating on the bottom of the keezer ... I pick up the keg and it weighs 15 lbs, as opposed to the 65ish when it was full ... there is zero beer in it

Son of a ***** X2 ... I pull the tap again and there's a noticeable air leak in the beer line where it connects to the keg ... I believe this is one of the lines I ad hoc'ed together ... it seemed fine at 8 PSI, and it seemed fine in the first few minutes I monitored it at 15 PSI ... but alas ... there was puddles of beer on top of the keg and foaming at this point in the beer line

I've already ordered a pre-assembled beer line and I ordered a new pre-assembled air line just for good measure

I'm not opposed to being laughed, snickered & pointed at ... in fact I encourage it if it will make my next experience 1000% times better

Suggestions?

5lb CO2
1/6 barrel DF90
Initially 8 PSI
Turned up to 15 PSI
Temp control +-3 @ 40
CO2 tank + regulator currently inside the keezer

 

[Dave46382]

I would assume your commercial beer is already at the proper volume for it's style. So, all you would need to do is apply enough PSI to serve, not to carbonate.

Foamy beer is more a function of length and inside diameter of the beer line and the height to the faucet rather than pressure.

What kind of beer line do you have?

 

[ScottishPete]

Dave,

I'm pretty sure it's the 3/16" beer line stuff supplied by Keg Works ... it is probably about 4' long, though I only need probably 2' max, and more like 18"

FWIW, this is the replacement I just ordered that has everything assembled nice & tight: http://www.kegworks.com/product.php?productid=16537&source=nextopia

 

[Dave46382]

That replacement is 5 feet, which I think would be the minimum for foam free beer. For example, I use a 6 foot beer line even though my keg is about 12 inches from my faucet.

 

[ScottishPete]

So you don't think my foam issues had anything to do with my PSI? And also, the idea that the keg needs 24 hours @ 15PSI is just nonsense?

Thanks for your input ...

Edit: Also regarding your one other variable ... the faucet is about a foot higher than the top of the keg ...

 

[IrregularPulse]

That replacement is 5 feet, which I think would be the minimum for foam free beer. For example, I use a 6 foot beer line even though my keg is about 12 inches from my faucet.

Your system will dictate beer ling length. Temperature and carb level play into it. There are some good online calculators. Mine calls for about 3'. I put 5 on anyway cause 3 just seemed so short. I 'll likely try shortening on to 4' cause I get hardly any foam.
This sucks that your lesson was learned on a $100 keg. Maybe next time test the system for leaks with water
When I'm switching in a keg, I run hot water then starsan through the system then hookup the beer keg This rinses and sanitizes the line from the previous keg and would show me any leaks.
+1 to the comment about if you're buying a keg from somewhere, you should be able to just serve with 2-3 psi.

 

[Dave46382]

I think commercial kegged beer is already carbonated at the proper volume for it's style. In other words, the keg is not sold 'flat' with zero carbonation leaving it up the customer to carbonate it to the proper number of volumes.

Since it is already at the correct carbonation level; the correct PSI would be just enough to push it through the correct beer line.

I think 15 PSI for 24 hours is nonsense.

 

[Dave46382]

Link

 

[ScottishPete]

Thanks for the info everyone ... the PDF is an amazing source of knowledge ... reading now

 

[ScottishPete]

Sorry, forgot to bring this up again ... aside from the foam issues, any ideas why the beer was flat-ish right from the beginning ... is a leaky line going to cause this?

My first pulls, with very high powered foam coming out, were mostly flat once the foam settled down ... could be the keg itself, but probably not right?

 

[Pick]

I've got a 1/4 keg of Yuengling in my kegerator as we speak. It was relatively flat when I tapped it. A couple of days at 12 PSI, still flat. Jumped it up to 20 PSI and in 2 days it was fine. In fact I am dispensing it at 20 PSI though 10' of 3/16. It tastes perfect now, and dispenses just fine, just a little fast. I will probably turn it down to 12 PSI in a day or so.