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kahlerisms

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Location
kew.vic.au
Hi Guys

Long time lurker.

I've been kegging for about 18 months, with a dedicated four tap keg fridge for around nine months. Overall I'm pretty happy with my carbing settings and ability (though I haven't started doing different carbonations yet due to limitations in my setup at the moment but I think it could be better.

What i'm finding every so often is that I'd probably like a slightly higher carbonation level in my kegs, but increasing the pressure results in a lot of foam, so I've started looking at reducing the beer flow.

My setup is

CO2 bottle ---> Reg ---> one way valve -> Four way splitter with on/off valves --> 4 Kegs --> 4 taps (there's just over three metres of line between the keg and the tap rolled up in the fridge, i know this isn't ideal and it should be as straight as possible with the keg at the lowest point)

I'm using OD8/ID5 line throughout. I'm curious ff I could get more gas in the keg while keeping my pour pressure the same or even dropping it.

Would changing my line to ID6 from Reg to keg and my line to ID4 from keg to tap make much different? I've looked at flow resirictors ranging from in-line to in-tube (in the keg) but both seem to increase foaming, which seems counter productive.


Curious to know if it's worth changing all my lines over or what other options I have. I think I've ruled out the variable flow taps, from what I understand these are really for fine tuning once you've pretty much got everything right.

Edit: how I carb is probably relevant here. I put an uncartbed keg in the fridge, connect it to CO2 at my pouring pressure (100-110KPA) and around day 6-7 it's good to go. I'm hesitant to carb at different pressures to my serving pressure as sometimes I don't hit a keg for 3-4 weeks and I'd imagine they'd equalise out and lose the extra carbing anyway.
 
Have a read of http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=24

There's also a spreadsheet in that article to help determine what length lines to use (its not perfect, but will get you in the ball park)


No point changing the gas lines (ie. between reg -> keg), they don't matter.

Flow control taps will definately solve any line length issues you have - they aren't just for fine tuning.

You said your carbing at serving pressure so that's a good start, but 110KPA seems pretty high to me?
 
You said your carbing at serving pressure so that's a good start, but 110KPA seems pretty high to me?

I carb all my beers at about 100kPA and dispense at the same pressure. That pressure works a treat for me.

If you want you beer to be carbed up more, I think you would need to carbonate at a higher pressure and also serve at a higher pressure. In this instance, it may help to increase the length of you line or decrease the internal diameter of the line to create more resistance, so the flow of beer slows down rather then squirting out at 100km/hr
 
Yeah it's usually closer to 100.

So it turns out "Balancing" is what I want to learn about. Thanks. I'll have a good read.
 
If you are carbing up at 100kpa and pouring well with 3m of 5mm beer line, that sound like its pretty well balanced. Depending on fridge temps of course.

That seems to be on the upper end of the desired carbonation level for most beers from what I read.
Do you really want more carbonation?
 
Hi Guys

Long time lurker.

I've been kegging for about 18 months, with a dedicated four tap keg fridge for around nine months. Overall I'm pretty happy with my carbing settings and ability (though I haven't started doing different carbonations yet due to limitations in my setup at the moment but I think it could be better.

What i'm finding every so often is that I'd probably like a slightly higher carbonation level in my kegs, but increasing the pressure results in a lot of foam, so I've started looking at reducing the beer flow.

My setup is

CO2 bottle ---> Reg ---> one way valve -> Four way splitter with on/off valves --> 4 Kegs --> 4 taps (there's just over three metres of line between the keg and the tap rolled up in the fridge, i know this isn't ideal and it should be as straight as possible with the keg at the lowest point)

I'm using OD8/ID5 line throughout. I'm curious ff I could get more gas in the keg while keeping my pour pressure the same or even dropping it.

Would changing my line to ID6 from Reg to keg and my line to ID4 from keg to tap make much different? I've looked at flow resirictors ranging from in-line to in-tube (in the keg) but both seem to increase foaming, which seems counter productive.


Curious to know if it's worth changing all my lines over or what other options I have. I think I've ruled out the variable flow taps, from what I understand these are really for fine tuning once you've pretty much got everything right.

Edit: how I carb is probably relevant here. I put an uncartbed keg in the fridge, connect it to CO2 at my pouring pressure (100-110KPA) and around day 6-7 it's good to go. I'm hesitant to carb at different pressures to my serving pressure as sometimes I don't hit a keg for 3-4 weeks and I'd imagine they'd equalise out and lose the extra carbing anyway.

Yes 4id from keg to tap would make a big differance. I'm using 4id line at about 1mt long so you would want to start at about 2mts and shorten the line till you're happy with the flow.
 
if you do go to 4 i would suggest using those john guest type snap in fittings, trying to get one of those over a flange is painfull
 
if you do go to 4 i would suggest using those john guest type snap in fittings, trying to get one of those over a flange is painfull


I totally agree. What I did was leave 5cm of 6id line attached to the tap barb then connected the 4id line to the end with a JG joiner.
 

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