Soft Drink Kegging Questions...

[Fammer]

Few quick questions....I have my converted freezer setup and all is running smooth at about 3degC.

- My compressor on the freezer fires up and cools it to about 1.5 degC and then it slowlys warms back up to 4.5 degC (probably takes half an hour) before it kicks in again....Is this normal or is it excessive compressor use?

- Secondly I only keg soft drink premix etc (will be looking to ginger beer in the future) and I have found that it at least needs 5 volumes of CO2 instead of the suggested 3 by the carbonation chart, I have tried both forced and leaving it for a week method with the latter producing better results. Now If I am storing at 25psi at 3degC and serving at around 6psi do I have to bleed off the headspace and reset the regulator everytime I want to pour just once glass? Or can I (once carbonated) store at 6psi and just serve from there?

- Does the liquid in the line from the keg to the tap (about 1.5mts) go flat?

- Lastly with forced carbonation when it is carbonated and the gas is disconnected will it lose carbonation?


Can someone give me a alternative into storing vs serving as it seems a waste to bleed off all that CO2 (or is it air?) everytime i want a glass.


Cheers

 

[Doc]

Fammer,

A couple of things. I think your freezer maybe a bit cool. I found that mine works best set at around 5-6 degC. Being that close to 0 you may run the risk of freezing a keg if your hystersis (the gap better when the compressor comes on and goes off) gets out by more that a degree.

Second, you basically need a balanced system. This is where the pressue you use to carbonate the keg is also the pressure you use to despense. It involves either putting more line between the keg and the tap to provide line resistence, or use inline flow restrictors. Both are documented here on AHB. Do a search on both and you will find lots of info.

Beers,
Doc

 

[PostModern]

As a quick guide, I carbonate and dispense at 18psi. For this I have a 1.9m line to the gun. When I server the kids' "apple sparkle" which is carbed at 40psi, I have to bleed off the pressure to serve at 18psi (and still get loads of froth). If you're happy at 25psi, you'd probably be OK with 2.5 or 2.6 metres of beer line and never have to change pressure. This is the balancing that Doc mentions.

When your drink is carbonated and the headspace is at carbonation pressure, you should be able to remove the keg from the line and lose no carbonation, provided your keg is well sealed.

Hey, how do pubs manage to balance their setups with all those multi-metre serving lines?

 

[Fammer]

What about somehow have a secondary regulator set at 5psi for the serving of the kegs? but then you would still need to pump in more gas to store the keg....hmm.

Regulator on the tap lines?

 

[Fammer]

Is there supposed to be bubbles in the liquid line? or a continous sytream of liquid when the tap is off?

Will this liquid in the line go flat?

Can I just store the kegs at 5psi when carbonated after a week or will they go flat?


so many questions...