Hey folks,
Long time no post. I hope everyone's brewing has been going well!
I have a real head scratcher here that I MAY know the answer to but wanted to bounce it off all you brewmeisters.
Some background: 2 freezers, one for fermentation, one with 4 kegs/taps. Full temp control (heat and cold) as well as 24 hour monitoring of the brew with a "Brewbug". (AWESOME little device I must say...) I generally brew 10-15 gallon batches. I've been kegging over a year and haven't really run into any issues.
I kegged up (2) 5 gallon kegs with my latest cream ale and force carbed it for 24 hours on 30 and then 24 hours on 20. At that point I turned it down to serving pressure, 8psi. (This is how I carb all my beers without issue.) While CO2 isn't fully dissolved at that point it is drinkable and stabilizes within days.
Everything seems to be pouring fine at this point. I have a few pints and notice it is a little cloudier than usual. I decide to cold crash. I crank the freezer down to 34F and monitor. It swings down as low as 32-33F at times when measuring temps 1/2 way up the keg with a probe sealed against the side with neoprene covering it. At 5.5% ABV I wouldn't expect it to freeze.
After sitting for a few days however my pours get slower on one of the kegs, almost a trickle at times, as well as one of the kegs (only one) only puts out foam. I mean 100% foam no matter how long I let it run.
My thoughts are: I created some ice down at the bottom of the kegs and they are potentially not only blocking the bottom of the spear to some degree but also on the one keg maybe creating enough turbulence that the beer is just foaming like crazy on it's way out.
I have since turned the temperature up to about 38F and am watching it slowly come back up but in the mean time I am scratching my head.
I clean the lines every time I kick a keg, replace them as needed, and verify I have no leaks. (Found one and fixed it this round) Also, I know I need to put a fan in the serving freezer, my temps are higher at the top with no air circulation, but even having warmer beer lines near the top never caused this bad of a problem.
Any thoughts or am I going in the correct direction?
Long time no post. I hope everyone's brewing has been going well!
I have a real head scratcher here that I MAY know the answer to but wanted to bounce it off all you brewmeisters.
Some background: 2 freezers, one for fermentation, one with 4 kegs/taps. Full temp control (heat and cold) as well as 24 hour monitoring of the brew with a "Brewbug". (AWESOME little device I must say...) I generally brew 10-15 gallon batches. I've been kegging over a year and haven't really run into any issues.
I kegged up (2) 5 gallon kegs with my latest cream ale and force carbed it for 24 hours on 30 and then 24 hours on 20. At that point I turned it down to serving pressure, 8psi. (This is how I carb all my beers without issue.) While CO2 isn't fully dissolved at that point it is drinkable and stabilizes within days.
Everything seems to be pouring fine at this point. I have a few pints and notice it is a little cloudier than usual. I decide to cold crash. I crank the freezer down to 34F and monitor. It swings down as low as 32-33F at times when measuring temps 1/2 way up the keg with a probe sealed against the side with neoprene covering it. At 5.5% ABV I wouldn't expect it to freeze.
After sitting for a few days however my pours get slower on one of the kegs, almost a trickle at times, as well as one of the kegs (only one) only puts out foam. I mean 100% foam no matter how long I let it run.
My thoughts are: I created some ice down at the bottom of the kegs and they are potentially not only blocking the bottom of the spear to some degree but also on the one keg maybe creating enough turbulence that the beer is just foaming like crazy on it's way out.
I have since turned the temperature up to about 38F and am watching it slowly come back up but in the mean time I am scratching my head.
I clean the lines every time I kick a keg, replace them as needed, and verify I have no leaks. (Found one and fixed it this round) Also, I know I need to put a fan in the serving freezer, my temps are higher at the top with no air circulation, but even having warmer beer lines near the top never caused this bad of a problem.
Any thoughts or am I going in the correct direction?
