CO2 Serving Pressures

[Mr E]

Since different beer styles require different pressures, do we maintain these pressures while serving? I've been dialing in my kegs to a desired pressure, then reducing the pressure to 5-7lb for serving. Right now I only have one regulator for all my kegs on tap, but I soon plan on getting a regulator for each keg.

[Oktober]

Mr E,

I think you are doing it right, based on your equipment. Most people drop their pressure for serving - just remember not to leave the kegs at the serving pressure for extended periods of time (i.e. keeping the kegs on 5-7 lbs for several days) as it will obviously pull CO2 out of solution.

-Okt

[ajdelange]

The best way to do it is to set each beer for the pressure (regulator panel required, obviously) that gives the correct number of volumes for the temperature of storage and then connect each keg to its faucet with a length of beer line (of proper ID) sufficient to "balance" that pressure. There will be fiddling around with choker lengths and pressures until you hit the magic combinations but when you get things set you don't have to fiddle with adjustments thereafter (if you write the setups down so you can go back to them when you put a keg of a particular beer on line).

[stadelman]

+1 on balancing your system.

Changing pressures each time you serve, seems like a big pain.

As for maintaining different pressures... I have two pressures in my using a secondary regulator. One pressure drives a four way manifold. So, four of my beers have the same carbonation level. The other gauge of the secondary regulator is independent, so I can have one beer that is a higher or lower pressure than the other four kegs.

If I had it to build again, I would just get a regulator that has multiple pressures on it and skip the secondary. A primary regulator is much more responsive since it's working off of 600 psi. You can get a primary regulator that has four serving pressures or more.

[Elbone]

You can get a primary regulator that has four serving pressures or more.

Link?

[stadelman]

You can get a primary regulator that has four serving pressures or more.

Link?

Morebeer has a three pressure primary...
http://morebeer.com/view_product/6914/1 ... Four_Gauge

Kegkits.com has a four pressure primary and they will build you pretty much anything you want...
http://www.kegkits.com/Merchant2/mercha ... de=WMReg-4

Be forewarned on ordering from kegkits.com. They don't exactly get rave reviews. It's my personal opinion that they aren't trying to rip anyone off. I think they mean well, but are overwhelmed with orders. I've always gotten my orders, but a couple did take quite a while to ship.

[Otter]

I have a primary regulator going to a set of secondary regulators inside my kegerator. I haven't had any problems with them. They work great. I have 30 psi gauges on them, so I can easily set some regulators to less than 10 psi.

I only had to run one hose into my kegerator to service all of the secondary regulators. It seems like that would be easier than running multiple lines into your kegerator. But that's just my opinion.