Draught System Issue

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iralosavic

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G'day - I'm a noob at kegging (well the dispensing side anyway), so this may be an obvious thing...


I have two kegs connected to one regulator. One keg was previously naturally carbonated and the other is uncarbonated. The fridge appears to maintain the beer at 2c, so I opted for 70kpa for dispensing (around 2.5vols) and planned to just leave the other keg to mature and carbonate for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, the naturally carbonated beer has overcarbonated to the point that it's like soda water and when I purge the pressure (while the other keg remains connected and unchanged) and start again, the next time I look at the regulator it has risen to 100kpa. I've tried a few times, including attempting to move the regulator up and down to compensate, but I just can't seem to get it to stay at 70kpa and not be overcarbed.
 
Did you use half the normal bottling sugar as is oft quoted?

Even at that low temperature, yeast still works to a degree, so if there is sugar left, that might be it.

Also, do you use a NRV? That should stop the excess pressure going back to your reg?!? You could take the naturally carbed keg out, let it warm to room temp for few days to dry out and then release excess carbonation and chuck it back in the fridge.
Can't think of much else that would force extra carb into your beer unless the reg is faulty.
 
G'day - I'm a noob at kegging (well the dispensing side anyway), so this may be an obvious thing...


I have two kegs connected to one regulator. One keg was previously naturally carbonated and the other is uncarbonated. The fridge appears to maintain the beer at 2c, so I opted for 70kpa for dispensing (around 2.5vols) and planned to just leave the other keg to mature and carbonate for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, the naturally carbonated beer has overcarbonated to the point that it's like soda water and when I purge the pressure (while the other keg remains connected and unchanged) and start again, the next time I look at the regulator it has risen to 100kpa. I've tried a few times, including attempting to move the regulator up and down to compensate, but I just can't seem to get it to stay at 70kpa and not be overcarbed.

It's a little hard for me to understand, but if you are pouring foam from the naturally carbed keg, and assuming the line lengths are balance for you dispensing pressure, then the keg is probably over-carbed and will need to be disconnected from the CO2 bottle and bled off until it is where you want it. If your lines are not balanced with the dispensing pressure, you may want to tackle that problem first. Would help to know what the line lengths and ID is on the beer dispensing side of the equation. Is it the same for both kegs?

It may pay to approach this by assuming you only have one keg at first and then worry about the other later. If it were me I would close the supply/isolate the un-carbed beer so that all the pressure measurements at the regulator are concerned only with the naturally kegged beer as this seems to be the one with the problem. Once you have dropped the carbonation in the naturally kegged beer and have it sitting at your serving pressure, then re-introduce the second keg. I often find even with one keg connected, that it takes a while for the adjustment made at the regulator to equilibrate, such that you think you have it dialled in, but then you come back an hour later and it has crept up.

Hope that helps.
 
ok sounds like the "uncarbonated keg" needs force carbing check sticky in gear and equipment and you may find your naturally carbed keg is over carbed and charging your gas line. although I could be wrong, when you naturally carbed you should have used half the priming sugar you would normally use for bottling. You haven't mentioned if you have non return valves on your gas lines, best to have one for each line. If you do have non return valves then ignore all above and have reg and valves checked :p
 
Yea, but if ur a tightarse like me u'd be using one nrv and then splitting off the gas....
Definitely worth nrvs on all lines if ur doing funny stuff like natural carbing.
 
Did you use half the normal bottling sugar as is oft quoted?

Even at that low temperature, yeast still works to a degree, so if there is sugar left, that might be it.

Also, do you use a NRV? That should stop the excess pressure going back to your reg?!? You could take the naturally carbed keg out, let it warm to room temp for few days to dry out and then release excess carbonation and chuck it back in the fridge.
Can't think of much else that would force extra carb into your beer unless the reg is faulty.

Yeah I used half of what the calculator said. Interestingly, it was pouring at the correct level of carbonation for the past few days and only became overcarbed today - although I did muck around with pressures a bit. I did purge the gas post until it stopped hissing and then adjust pressure back to 70kpa though.

Anyway, I will do as advised and remove the second keg from the equation, re-purge all pressure, allow the keg to warm up for a while, purge again and then reconnect at 70kpa and see how we go.
 
Yea, but if ur a tightarse like me u'd be using one nrv and then splitting off the gas....
Definitely worth nrvs on all lines if ur doing funny stuff like natural carbing.

haha that's exactly what I do... I won't be naturally carbing any future kegs - I think I'll just bottle condition any beers that benefit from secondary fermentation.
 
haha that's exactly what I do... I won't be naturally carbing any future kegs - I think I'll just bottle condition any beers that benefit from secondary fermentation.


Naturally condition the beer in the keg with half the normal bottling sugar. Once carbed up, connect the guys at your dispensing pressure and pour the beer. Once you've finished your beer session, disconnect the keg from the gas.

If its overcarbed, try disconnecting from the gas and pour using the keg pressure only. Use a larger glass so that even with a large head, you still get a decent amount of beer :)
 
My problem is completely different but rather than start a new thread 'Reg problem'...


Picked up a Dual Output Regulator, hooked up outermost reg to 80kPa (my serving pressure), all good for a month now, exactly as it was with my previous Regulator.
Have just hooked up the inner Reg, wanting to carb a Dubbel higher, but am getting unexpected results and trying to work out if the Reg is faulty or what.


I hooked up one keg, tried setting the reg to 100kPa, but it won't get there.
It gets to about 30kPa. I've left for a day, no change, opening Reg further has zero effect (kPa does not increase)
I've tried venting the keg multiple times but still get minimal kPa reading and opening Reg further doesn't increase it, whatever I try.

I've tried reseating the gas post. I've pulled everything off the Inner Reg line and just vented gas to check there is no physical obstruction.
The serving keg volume is definitely below the gas dip tube. The beer inside is carbed but not overly so, certainly not the spritzy Belgian I had in mind.

I didn't expect the keg to balance immediately but I didn't expect these weird results. Whatever I do, I cannot get the kPa reading to increase. Turning off the gas and back on just returns it to 30kPa at most.

In my (tiny) mind, if I leave the keg for a day, then open the Reg further, the kPa reading should definitely increase noticeably and immediately, then drop over several hours as the keg balances at that pressure? This definitely doesn't happen. Zero increase. Even opening it completely.


Any ideas on troubleshooting? I'm stumped.
 
Any ideas guys? What's the best way to troubleshoot a spotty reg? I'm not that experienced with regs but something feels wrong with this one and how it behaves when turning up the pressure.
I'd like to try and confirm where the problem is, so I can take it further, but there's not much science in my method so far.
 
Figured it out I think. The handle on the faulty reg is loose, it has loads of lateral give, like something has come loose inside. I dont think it is opening the reg properly. Now to try and figure out how to fix it. Don't all rush lol.
 
Figured it out I think. The handle on the faulty reg is loose, it has loads of lateral give, like something has come loose inside. I dont think it is opening the reg properly. Now to try and figure out how to fix it. Don't all rush lol.

Can you open the middle/handle/center without having to remove all the gauges? Other wise it will be a pain in the ass.
 
Thanks. It's a Tesuco one. It looks like the chrome front with plastic handle might come away from the brass main body of the gauges. Where the two sections meet i can try with the spanner. Can't see another way to get the plastic handles off. Going to have to unhook everything to have more of a look.
Now I've noticed it, the handle is quite loose, something up in there.
 
sounds like the thread maybe stripped.
I took one apart, I think I used a big shifter.
 
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