Help! With Keg Setup

[jgriffin]

So i went a little crazy, and bought a keg system today.
Onyl problem, is i'm stuck - the little clamp things that hold the tubing onto the reg and ball-lock, how exactly do you crimp them? I'm thinking i need something like a nail puller, rather than using pliers. Anyone got any bright ideas on other tools that you can use?

http://www.users.on.net/jgriffin/keg/

 

[DaveR]

I think I used nose pliers when I did mine. I do remember it being a pain. I have seen other people use cable ties.

 

[dicko]

If you haven't got pincers then use side cutting pliers and GENTLY crimp the tags until it is tight on the tubing.
Squeeze too hard and you will cut the clamp!!!!!!!!
Cheers

 

[jgriffin]

Got it sorted thanks!
I ended up getting two nails on either side of the clamp, and squeezing them with pliers. Worked rather well.

I've got a query though, i just filled one keg, and the thing leaks around the oval plate when i shake it. If i charge up the gas though, it seals and stops leaking.
Is this normal? The kegs were supposed to have been reco-ed

 

[Doc]

jgriffen,

Way to go. No looking back now.
My tip on the clips is to not try and fasten them at the top of the connection.
Fasten them just over half way on the tube side and use fat nosed pliers to do the job.

Beers,
Doc

 

[dicko]

Yes JG,
Keg should seal under pressure,
Cheers

 

[jgriffin]

I'm having a bit of trouble getting a nicely carbonated beer. I pumped up the pressure to 200kpa and rocked the keg for 10 mins or so. Then i upped the pressure to 350kpa and left it overnight.
The beer that comes out is still a bit flat, i can get a nice head by slightly closing the tap, but if i don't do that she's flat as a tack.
It's a wheat beer (and not very nice either) so i don't care wasting it, but trying to get the trick right before i put down a nice batch.

 

[JasonY]

Lots of ways to carbonate. Myself I get the beer nice and cold then up the pressure to 350kpa and rock the kecg 50 times. Turn off the gas and rock until the pressure evens out usually at about 130kpa. Leave it for a while then dispense at 100kpa or so.

Biggest thing is that the beer is cold as it absorbs the gas better.

 

[Tony M]

Yes, JG
I find even with high initial pressures and shaking ***** out of the keg until my arm drops off, it is still 3 or four days before the beer holds a good head and a couple of days longer before it starts tasting really good.
The answer is to get a keg ahead, then your mates become pests. At least they do the right thing and take their green tinnies home with them.

 

[jgriffin]

Now all i get is foam :-( I dropped the pressure to about 50kpa, and even bled the keg, but i still end up with 90% foam coming out.
Thank god i really don't like the beer i'm practising with.

 

[Doc]

I recently put a third tap on my keg fridge.
I had two choices of beer line size and choose the larger (6mm I think).
The beer line was about 1 metre keg to tap. All I got was head.
Changed it over to 5mm and again still 1 metre and perfect pour.

What size beer line (ID) you using ?

Doc

 

[DaveR]

Hi jgriffin,

Now all i get is foam :-( I dropped the pressure to about 50kpa, and even bled the keg, but i still end up with 90% foam coming out.
Thank god i really don't like the beer i'm practising with.

You might have overcarbonated it. If you remove the gas and give it a bit of a shake for a couple of mins. Let sit for about an hour and try again. bring back up to 7-10 psi.

Sometimes if the gas is too low it can give too much foam.

 

[jgriffin]

Well i took the advice of GMK and removed it from the fridge, released the gas, rocked it, and released the gas again, and discovered the pure joy of a 10pm beer shower.
Thanks mate!

 

[Kai]

And what great advice it was. teehee.

 

[DaveR]

post from grumpy's

Name: GRUMPY DAVE STEWART
Date: 04-07-03 09:36

Dennis,

I am assuming a few things here. First that you have gassed or carbonated the beer at 300 KPA not 300 pSI.

Your fridge is still at 2.0 DegC.

Answer.

You are experiencing EXACTLY what happened to me nearly 15 years ago. Thae advice I got on how to keg was flawed and came to me from a brewcraft brewshop guy.

I wasted probably 2 kegs of beer in a foamy hell and swore I wouldn't do this again. Then I met Grumpy Andrew.

Your beer is over carbonated mate!

The only way to fix it is to TURN THE F...ING GAS OFF!

Your pouring pressure should be head pressure only and when the beer starts to pour a little slow, just tweak it with the gas a bit.

You said that the beer had been cold conditioned, therefore it would have been cold when you kegged it?

So why wouldn't you then pressure it up to you 300KPA, give the keg about 70-80 violent shakes then turn the gas OFF. Shake the keg about 20 more times to dissolve any excess CO2 pressure, hook the tap up and have a pour.

This method works and for proof, it is the one we use in the shop. you should see the jaws drop on a weekend when we fill a keg in front of everybody from a cold conditioned jerrycan, and then immediately offer everyone a sample.

The way to fix your problem is to release ALL the gas out of the keg via the pressure relief valve, shake the keg violently, then do it again, and again until the beer has stopped foaming on pouring.

You may need to give the beer time to settle in between shakes in order that foam does not then come out of the pressure relief valve.

See how you go, and tell the bloke that told you how to do it, to go and get some proper advice before he advises anyone else.

The only other way to carbonate beer the way you have been told, that is 2 days under pressure, is to have the reg set at about 200KPA.

The difficulty with this method and the reason we don't advocate it, is that should you have a small gas leak, you will waste gas. Secondly, every fridge is a different temperature. The CO2 solution rate gets really going under 4 degrees C and rises rapidly for each degree.

Hope this helps, I don't want to offend anyone but ****** instructions like you've been given, don't help the cause one bit.

Regards
Dave

 

[jgriffin]

Thanks mate, that sounds exactly like my problem.

 

[jgriffin]

I'm still having problems with my keg setup and getting the carbonation right. Basically my beer froths up heaps, and ends up a bit flat. I end up with 1/2 glass beer, and 1/2 glass head.
It's not a major problem with the beers i have down at (irish red, porter) as they are not supposed to be highly carbonated, but if this goes on it's going to be a real drama with my lagers.

I've noticed that the beer gets that settling effect that you see when they pour a Guiness at the pub, all my beers do this.

I'm starting to think that the system must be unbalanced, any ideas guys?

 

[Hoops]

John

so, you've got icecream on tap hey?
if you are getting the "settling" effect then your beer is still overcarbonated.
I would dump all the pressure and leave overnight, then test tommorrow.
Secondly I would use cold glasses, when I say cold I mean in the keg fridge NOT in the freezer. A warm glass will cause a lot more froth.
Another thing that can help (mainly on hot days in summer) is to get rid of the first squirt of the beer from the tap, as it warms in the tap and comes out as froth.
How fast is the beer coming out your tap when you pour? At the moment you can't really tell if your system is balanced or not as it is probably coming out too fast - but it's probably overgassed and hence has too much force behind it.
I have ordered 2 inline pressure compensators from W.A. and this will give me a balanced system at the tweak of a knob. I will let you know how it goes. They cost me $30 incl postage which I think is a good investment.

Hoops

 

[jgriffin]

Thanks for that hoops - don't understand how i can be constantly overcarbonating my beers though.
I've tried three methods -the method just on the other page where you shake 50 times at 350kpa, then 20 times with no gas.
I've triedleaving it overnight at 300, then reducing the head pressure and pouring.
I've also tried another method of leaving it at 100kpa for four days.

All result in the same froth.
I just dumped almost all the head pressure off a beer, so it poured pretty slowly, and it was even worse :-(
It's almost as though there's a sparkler plate in my tap or something.

 

[Hoops]

I just dumped almost all the head pressure off a beer, so it poured pretty slowly, and it was even worse :-(

It will be particularly bad if you try pour a beer now, you will have to wait till tommorrow.
It is bad now beacause you have "gas break out" in your beer line. If you look at the beer line there will be lots of gas in it. This is beacause there is more gas dissolved in the beer than there is head pressure so the beer is slowly equalizing it's carbonation pressure with the kegs gas/head pressure - the same way a beer slowly looses it's carbonation when you open a stubby.