Balancing a draft system...

[Jashdon]

So my wife recently got me a draft setup for my birhtday. I think she finally got fed up with my swing top bottles all over the place. I've got my first keg in the fridge carbonating, which is very exciting, but I'm having trouble balancing the system so that it pours right.

I listened to all the BN shows on the subject and I found a website with a formula for correctly setting up line length based on the inner diameter, temperature and pressure. http://hbd.org/clubs/franklin/public_ht ... lance.html. The problem is that I think I've done everything correctly but my pours are mostly foam. Do any of you kegging pro's have any advice for me?


Thanks

[barleydog]

I think we may need more info to help you out. What temp is the beer at and how many PSI's do you have the regulator set at? Did you shake the keg to carbonate? If you are not careful it is really easy to over carbonate that way. As Doc and Zamil say there is a bit of zen involved with that. If you think it may be over carbonated you can shut off the gas and leave the purge valve open over night. The off gas CO2 will keep anything from getting into the beer and it will lower the over all carbonation level.

[Jashdon]

Thanks Barleydog,

I've got it at about 34 - 35 degress and at about 9 psi. I did shake it a bit just after I put the gas on but not for very long, maybe once ever 5 - 10 minutes for 30 minutes at 20 psi. I was under the impression that you would have to shake it for 45 minutes to an hour to get it carbonated to the level that you want.

[BadRock]

Here is a manual with just about everything you could possibly want to know about draft systems....

http://www.draughtquality.org/f/DBQM_Full.pdf

[barleydog]

I stopped shaking to carbonate because I was over carbonating very quickly. I have found that if I set the regulator to the psi I need and let it sit for four days it is pretty much good to go. I just didn't have the magic touch to shake carbonate without screwing up my brew. This way I can check it everyday to nail the carbonation level just right for the brew.

Seems like you were set for 2.5 volumes of CO2 in the beer so my guess is that you may have overshot. When I over carbonated I noticed large gaps in the faucet line where there was no beer just a lot of CO2 out of solution. I would try venting the keg.

[Jashdon]

I think you are right barleydog. I had those gaps in the line too. I vented the keg last night and set it back to the proper carbonating/serving pressure and this morning it is pouring just find with none of those gaps in the line. I guess I need to either develop more patience or more quick carbonating zen! Thanks for your help.