When carbonating my beer, I keep the temp at 38 degrees and adjust the PSI level to 10. I will give it at least a week or so, before serving. When it comes time to serve, it seems like if I don’t bleed the keg for each beer I pour, then the beer I pour is almost all head. Even after I bleed the keg, pour (No problem if I pour immediately after I bleed), wait 10 minutes and pour another beer, I get the same result. This just doesn’t seem right to me…After speaking with the owener of keg connections, I know that my lines are not too long and I have a fan blowing cold air up into the tower to keep the lines at the top cold. Should I be lowering the PSI when I serve it?
I’ve always been a little skeptical of the 2lb per foot pressure drop advertised on 3/16" tubing. I run 9’ lines, and keep my system at 13 psi and 38F. I have nicely carbed beers and no foam issues (apart from the line beer if its been a while).
i’ve been monitoring a bunch of epoxy nozzle tip threads for a while now. rather than putting them inline like this, you can actually just put them in your dip tube, as they slide right in. apparently they work wonders.
BUT
the problem that many threads run into is that these are not certified food safe. a number of people have contacted mcmaster carr, who [smartly] refuses to say anything about the potential hazards of having these things in contact with your beer. they simply say they weren’t designed to be food safe, any contact with food is at your own risk. additionally, even if they are made of something benign like hdpe, if they aren’t made specifically as food grade hdpe, all bets are off.
you have to consider that every drop of your beer will be in contact with these things, and that alcohol acts as a solvent, leaching out nasty stuff even faster than water will.
without knowing ALL of these things you cannot balance your system, so all these posts [sorry to single you out mainebrewer] with just a line length and psi are useless.
Zee, no problem, my response was lacking in detail but was based on the assumption that most people use corny kegs, 3/16" tubing and 38-40 degree temps.
For the record, my setup is:
7’ 3/16 tubing,
whatever height a corny is (25"?).
38-40 degreees,
10-11 PSI
Hydrostatic (beerostatic?) pressure will drop about 0.4 psi for every foot the beer has to rise. It’s per foot above the level of the beer, so using the center of the keg gives you an average.
I’m having a similar problem as well. Check out my “Keggerator Anchor” thread for some ideas. I haven’t reached a solution yet but I’ve tried just about everything and I’m down to opeing my keg up and checking out my dip tube and poppet next.