Tapping my First Keg,Have a Few Questions

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RLinNH

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I Kegged for my first time this past Friday. The beer (an Oatmeal Stout) has been sitting at about 55 degrees now for a little less then 72 hours. The Beer was racked from a secondary into the Keg. The keg has been charging at 15 PSI since Friday evening. I have my liquid lines, my Cobra spigot, and my Ball Lock all sitting in a Star Sans Bath. Here's my question. When I go to draw beer from the keg for the first time to sample it to check for proper levels of Carbonization;) , should I cut the Co Tank down to 5 PSI just to push the beer, or can I leave the PSI at 15? I do realize that once proper Carbonization levels are reached that I can cut the CO PSI down to 5ish PSI just to push the beer, but I am wondering if I should be pushing the beer with the PSI set at 15. Sounds like a lot of pressure just to push beer.
 
At 55F the 15psi is not that high. The lower the temp, the lower the PSI you need to carb. I would not drop it to 5psi. Yes its enough pressure to push the beer, but eventually you're keg will reach equilibrium with the regulator PSI and become under-carbed...
 
I agree, if you want to drink it at 55 degrees, I'd still drop the temp of your kegerator and let the beer warm up a few minutes after the pour. That way you don't have to worry about losing carbonation.
 
At that pressure you might need at least 5 feet of tubing to keep the foaming down.

I just added a 7 foot dispense line and I serve at 12psi with no foaming (thanks to the advice here on the forum).
 
RLinNH said:
So drop the temp of the Fridge to 44ish and let her carb up for a couple extra days?

Well just for reference, I keep my fridge at 42F and my PSI at 10-12. Also, my lines are about 4 feet long...
 
Here's what I'm going to do then. In about 45 minutes, I'll go down to the basement with my assembled Liquid set up, with my 12 inches of hose. I'll close the CO2, lift the relief valve, and bleed all the pressure from the keg. I will then put the regulator at 3 PSI, and connect my hoses and try the beer. How's that sound?
 
RLinNH said:
Here's what I'm going to do then. In about 45 minutes, I'll go down to the basement with my assembled Liquid set up, with my 12 inches of hose. I'll close the CO2, lift the relief valve, and bleed all the pressure from the keg. I will then put the regulator at 3 PSI, and connect my hoses and try the beer. How's that sound?



I am going to use another Lquid hose that I bought that is about 2 1/2 feet in length.
 
The 15 PSI was just to Carbonize the beer. I was told to keg the beer, then let it carb up at 15 PSI for 3-4 days, then start sampling the beer. Once you reach your preferred level of carbonization, drop the PSI to 5 and enjoy.
 
RLinNH said:
The 15 PSI was just to Carbonize the beer. I was told to keg the beer, then let it carb up at 15 PSI for 3-4 days, then start sampling the beer. Once you reach your preferred level of carbonization, drop the PSI to 5 and enjoy.

But between the keg pressure and the gas-IN pressure, there is a balance. If you lower the PSI to 5, the beer's carbonation level will slowly fall down to that level. It will always reach a balance with time. So once the beer's carbonation level gets to 5psi, it may be under-carbed in your opinion. I think Orfy would disagree though...
 
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