Lots And Lots Of Head

[dabre4]

Hi Everyone,

I have finally got my kegging setup up and running. I am having a little trouble with pouring the beer, and always end up with too much head (up to 3/4 of a glass). Yes, I have tryed turning the CO2 down, and no that doesn't seem to help....and I have associated concerns with this. So I have a few questions:

1. How low can your pouring CO2 pressure be? Is there a point where you beer will lose its carbonation because the pouring pressure is too low? In my mind it makes sense that it should remain the same as the pressure used to carbonate the beer, but the results in the beer shooting out the tap.

2. Can the beer line be too short? Is it better to have a long beer line, simply so you can keep higher pressures in the keg, but the beer will flow out slower?

3. I have about 2 feet of beer line that is not refrigerated, is this a massive issue? Obviously this would cause some extra head, but not 3/4 of a glass.

4. Could a kink, or bend in the line cause this? I'm thinking about using copper pipe instead.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[np1962]

Without asking for more info I would think issue 2 may well be a major part of the problem.
Check out these articles
Balancing a draught system
Guide to kegging
They will answer most of your questions.
Cheers
Nige

 

[Pennywise]

I can't answer all the questions but I'll try and help with some,

1. not sure how low a pressure you can go, but mine is set at 10psi at a temp of 5 deg. The temp of the beer will have an impact on how much pressure you use to gas the beer to the required level.

2. Yes, if you don't have a flow restrictor on the tap (like a Celi type) then I'd suggest starting with a few metres of line and work shorter from there, this will also depend on line diameter

3. probably, the beer line will be warm on the first pour , which the massive temp diff will cause foaming, but I can't see it being a massive problem if the tap is in constant use for the day/night. You will however get mostly foam if your line is too short as well

4. Sorry, no idea there

 

[QldKev]

f*<k and I got excited when I read this thread topic...

 

[skippy]

2. Can the beer line be too short? Is it better to have a long beer line, simply so you can keep higher pressures in the keg, but the beer will flow out slower?


yes it can, there is an Crozdog XCel doc. on the board somewhere that asks you for a few specs, (serving temp, desired pressure, distance from top of keg to tap etc...) enter your setup specs into the spreadsheet - wham, it should tell you how much line you need;

I have one adjustable flow tap and I found that you still need approx 2m line to the tap if you want to serve at 5C, and 2.5 atm, and not get ha;f a glass of froth.

hope that this helps

Skippy

 

[dabre4]

Thanks everyone. Very helpful info. I'm thinking that I either need a longer beer line or a tap with flow control. This gets me thinking though, can I simply add a tap/valve into the beer line to control the flow rate instead of getting new beer taps? As far as I can tell its the same concept, anyone tried this?

 

[skippy]

use crozdogs calcs from the spreadsheet, buy 3m of beerline and experiment, you will get a glass of carbed beer without the foam - just dont play around with the reg, it will foam your beer up!

p.s. you dont need adjustable flow taps to pour a perfect beer

cheers

 

[Pennywise]

No, you don't need flow restrictive taps for a good pour at all. But IMO it beats having umpteen meters of line in your kegerator. You don't need to replace the taps either, these look the goods http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=1002. Never used one myself though.

 

[katzke]

How fast is the pour? It could be your gauge is lying to you. Yes warm beer line or taps can cause problems. If that is the case it will improve if you pour more beer at one time. I bet you have to short of a line or way too much pressure.

 

[buttersd70]

to reitterate what others have said....balance the system. Use crozdogs chart. Read the kegging articles. All the answers are there, already. No need to reinvent the damn wheel: It rolls perfectly fine.

1. determine what serving temp you want
2. determine what carb level you want.
3. set your pressure to achieve this (from: you guessed it, crozdogs chart)
4. set your beer line length, which will be determined by 3. above (and you guessed it again....it's in crozdogs chart.)

If you have bad pours after this, then you've got a carbonation issue with the beer itself, it's not a system balance issue. Correct it as per the article on the subject, and review and ammend your carbonation technique so it doesn't happen again.