Carbonation Hell

[jmiller]

Newbie to kegging :-)

I have a corny my first that I forced carbed for 4 days at 6 psi 40 degrees. It was dispensing nicely.

I got a tower for my fridge so I put the tower on top. Ran new lines. and the pressure dropped in the keg. Stupidly I adjusted the regulator. The keg was at 10psi 24 hours later. So I dropped the regulator down adn released pressure. It is back around 6. I get mostly foam. Very little beer in my flow but alot of carbonation.

Help!!!

[Fly Creek]

Reduce the pressure and the carbonation will equalize itself. I know there exists a formula for the proper pressure which is a function of line length and temperature, but I don't really know what it is. I jsut fiddle with the regulator for a couple days until I get the carb level I want. Mine is a real seat-of-the-pants type method, but it seems to work.

[jsmurphy]

You need to balance your set-up.

What size hose (diameter) are you using?

What is the vertical distance from keg to tap handle?

[jsmurphy]

A couple of more points. Force carbonating with 6psi @40* is less than 2 vols. of CO2. That's pretty low for any beer style. Maybe you don't have enough co2 in your beer.

From Byron Burch: ..." if you're drawing a glass of beer and you get mostly foam, the cause may be that you have too little co2 in the beer, (so that it wants to escape all at once), rather than too much. Or that you're trying to push the beer out with less dispensing pressure than you should be using.

Just a thought.

Also, I have heard that some guys have foaming problems using draft towers due to the temperature of the beer line up at the tap. (Warmer than at the keg.)

Good luck...

[jmiller]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Here are the details of the set-up.

15 Cu Ft Chest Freezer
5 lb co2 tank sitting on the bottom next to the corny keg.
3.5 Ft of tubing going from co2 to the keg
5 ft total of 3/16 ID X 7/16 OD line going to the tab with 1 foot outside the fridge in the tower.


If the problem were related to the temperature in the tower I assume that would affect the first glass but subsequent glasses would be alright. This does not appear to be the case. I get Foam, Foam, and more Foam :-(

I can shorten the lines but where can I get info on how the line size and length affects the keg?

thanks!

-Jim

[jsmurphy]

Are you dispensing at 6 psi?

You need 14-15 psi for 5 feet of 3/16 ID hose, which is what I do.

3/16 imposes about 3 psi of restriction per foot. If you must dispense at 6 psi, calculate and use 1/4 ID hose, as 2 feet of 3/16 isn't practical with a tower.

Hope this helps: http://hbd.org/franklin/public_html/brewinfo/balance.html