Overcarbed Or Undercarbed?

[Lobsta]

poured my first kegged beer just before, it came out with lots of bubbles through the whole glass which rose to the top of the beer (for a temporary good head, but the beer had barely any carbonation. i have a feeling that it is overcarbed, and forcing it through the tap is making it lose all carbonation. I carbed by leaving it for 6 days so far at 1bar (serving pressure - is this too high?). I am pouring using a bronco tap and about 1 m of hose. how do i alleviate this problem?

Lobby

 

[mika]

Sounds undercarbed. 1bar is highish (14psi). I usually serve at 10..ish...give or take an ish.
1m of hose also sounds a bit short.
It's really a bit of a stuff around, but you'll probably need to experiment with much longer line lengths, I've heard of people using up to 4metres for 'Balanced systems'. This means you need a lot of pressure to push it thru your lines, so you get a higher carbonated beer...kinda. It's really a suck it and see kinda thing. Oh ... and as soon as you can afford to, buy a Shirron or Celi or any kind of decent tap, the difference in the pour of my Shirron to my e-bay cheapy is like chalk ad cheese. The Shirron is a lot less finicky about what pressure you're running.

 

[Nedelz]

Hey lobsta, I highly recommend reading the wiki topic about balancing your keg system.

hope this helps

cheers.

 

[Lobsta]

ok, lets assume that im NOT going to buy anything else... with 1m of hose + a bronco, keg of beer, gas bottle and line, how can i make it work?

 

[Adamt]

You will not easily be able to serve well-carbonated beer through 1m of serving line.

The head pressure <=> the carbonation level (at steady state), the head pressure and the length of the beer line determines the flow rate. The length of the beer line affects the flow rate as the resistance slows the beer down. The faster the beer hits the glass the more gas comes out of solution (as fizz/head).

For standard carbonation, ~2.5 volumes (or around 90kPa), you need about 3m of beer line to slow the beer down enough to pour a good beer.

You may be able to pour a good beer if right before pouring, you turn the gas off, purge the headspace (with the release valve), put the gas onto about 30kPa and pour. However you'll have to do this every time you pour your beer as the head pressure will increase back to your original pressure over time (well, a bit less).

 

[mika]

Basically as I was going to say. Charge the keg right up, get some gas into that beer to get it carbed and then pour with the gas off to maintain the carbonation into the glass. Lot of stuffing around and you're going to need to keep gassing it up to put back what it takes to pour the beer. Pouring with the gas on and a highly charged keg will just result in a Guiness style pour, ie waiting for 1/2hr for the foam to dissappear.