Keg Carbonation Pressure / Dispensing Pressure
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There's a couple of different ways of doing this. Both depend on the temperature of your fridge and (obviously) how fizzy you want your beer. The reason for the difference based on temperature is that the lower the temperature the more co2 the beer will absorb (this actually explains why when you put a bottle of coke or beer in the sun and open it, it tends to fizz over - the co2 has left the liquid).
But back on topic. The first and most common method is to carbonate at one pressure and dispense at a pressure that pours correctly. My fridge is set at around 2 degrees and I carbonate at around 100kpa. In my system I can leave it to reach 100kpa over a week or two hence no risk of over or under carbonation. You can also force carbonate at higher pressures which will carbonate quicker, you just have to be careful not to over carbonate. Suggest doing a search on "force carbonation". You'll find plenty of info.
With this system, I used to have around 2m of 6mm or so beer line. After carbonating (either forced or long time) I'd pour at around 10kpa. Note that this pressure will vary hugely and depend on your length of tubing, type of tubing, diameter etc. You can see why I said find a pressure that works. If it comes out too frothy reduce the pressure.
The disadvantage of this (more common) method is that of course over time your beer will tend to go flat (i.e. it's carbonated at 100kpa and dispensed with a head pressure of 10kpa you'll lose co2 out of the beer).
The second method is more advanced and to my mind offers significant advantages, but as it's more difficult to setup I wouldn't suggest you start with it. I'd proceed with the method above, carbonate at 100kpa (force or otherwise) and then dispense at a pressure that pours well. Once you've got this all running fine do a search on "balanced method" if you're interested in proceeding further. FWIW, the primary advantage of the balanced method is that you have your dispensing pressure and carbonating pressure equal (hence "balanced") and thus your beer never goes flat. This is particularly advantageous if you have multiple kegs connected (I have 8 at most times) as they're all always ready to go.
Hope this helps somewhat. Feel free to ask more if anything isn't clear. And finally welcome to the world of kegging. Easily your best move I think you'll find.
tony
mayzi
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Have a quick search on this topic. There is heaps of info about. Try this one for starters. Wortgames guide to kegging.
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...l=keg+pressures
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...l=keg+pressures
mayzi
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OK found the one that I was looking for... How to balance your system. Theres a link in that wiki article.
and here....
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/ineo...;showarticle=24
and here....
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/ineo...;showarticle=24
That's a good article and well worth referring to many times if you decide to balance your system.
As a guide on my system I mentioned above, I have around 5m of 4mm (inside diameter) beer line. This serves perfectly at around 100kpa. It's a real pain to get onto the connections, but as mentioned in the article, boiling water and needle nose pliers do the trick!
Note that different lines have different resistances so you may need more or less to get the same result. I initially tried with 5mm ID line but gave up after finding it was still coming out too fast with 10m of line! This was the stuff from the hardware shop, and I'm not sure what difference different quality line would have made. (A question I'll ask Ross from Craftbrewer I suppose as he sells different types).
