Two kegging questions,,,

[billc68]

Ok, two question, I read the sticky and I think I know what's up, just want to double check.

1. I have some beer kegged, a stout and dutch lager, bith were force carbbed and come out way too foamy. My lines are 4 ft, storage pressure 10PSI, serving at about 5 (my regulator doesn't read lower than 5) what are my options? lower temp? and or longer lines? Do I just splice some more line on?

2. My 3rd kegging attempt, I primed it and am letting it carbonate naturally. After it is primed, do i hook it up to the line at 10PSI to store it? and then again reduce it to serving pressure to serve?

On a side note, how long can I leave my system set at serving temp before I should increase the pressure back to 10?

Thanks Gurus!

 

[Zen_Brew]

Bill:

It sounds like your lines are too short. Also when you say you force carbed you current beers, do you mean you force carbed them quickly by shaking, or running high pressure for a couple days.

It is easiest to have the carb and serving pressure the same. It saves having to continually turn the gas up or down. There are some spreadsheets out there if you google beer line calculator, but I'll give you a general ballpark figure.

First you need to have the lines as cool as possible. Ideally they will be chilled to the same temp as the beer is being served at.

What temp you are serving at affects how high you should carb, which in turn affects how much line you use.

Since you are carbing at 10 psi I am going to assume you are serving around 38 deg F or so. I am also going to assume you are using 3/16 inside diameter beer line.

If you have chilled 3/16 beer line with your beer carb level at 10 psi you probably need around 8 to 10 feet of line. This helps keep foaming down as the pressure is used to get the beer through the line without a lot of extra pushing it out of the tap too quickly. It is best to start at 10 feet and cut it back in 6 inch increments until you get the flow level you want. A ballpark flow rate would be 8-10 seconds to fill a pint glass.

Give that a try and it should greatly alleviate faoming in your dispensed beer.

 

[billc68]

Awesome advice, I am serving at 40 degrees at about 5 psi, but would love to keep the storing pressure and serving pressure the same.
I force carbbed by leaving the kegs at about 24 hours at 30, but this was after a few days at 10.
The lines are 3/16 I believe and changing them might be difficult as they came already attached to the faucets in a tower, so I guess I can try adding 6 feet with a joiner.
I think i might also cool it down to 36 or so. I like my beer at 40 but let's face it, it will only get warmer as I drink it.
Yes the lines are chilled, they just sit in the keggerator with the kegs.