Having a few keg issues

[Paul Cannell]

Pressurised the keg to 30psi for 3 days.

Dropped it down to 10psi today for a sample and all I got was a horribly slow pour and 100% foam and flat beer.

Have checked all the connections a it's not leaking. The c02 is definitely getting into the keg.

Even when I pumped it up to 20psi it makes no difference to the pour.

Beer line is about 2m

C02 bottle has just been filled and fridge is sitting at about 3 degrees c.

Any ideas?

[Scott H]

I have 4m of beer line(5.5mm) on my kegs for serving 10psi@2c. I tried a few calculators but in the end I just bought 5m and trimmed it shorter incrementally till I got my desired pour.

[Cain Harland]

I will probably try that if it still isn't right at 10 psi the anoying thing is the good folks at brewshop sent me some extra when they had to swap the product on my order and I asked about how it might effect balance but a calculator told me 2m was heaps so I cut it.

[Hamish Jones]

I'm running 8mm OD line, I have 4 internal regulators as I set each keg to the pressure for the correct carb for style and also pour at that,

I use about 2.5m of line per tap and it will pour perfectly every time, the fridge runs at 5 deg C, my taps are slightly higher above my kegs though which is another thing to take into consideration if you haven't already

[Cain Harland]

Thats good to know 2.5m of 8mm OD line, taps are slightly higher than kegs 5 deg C sounds very similar to what I have. I'm having a bit of trouble getting a stable 5 deg C just using the fridge thermostat (trying to avoid having to wire up another stc-1000). I had it bang on with 2 crates of beer in there but now I have 2 kegs instead my thermometer in a bottle of water is now telling me about 8c the same setting. I'm guessing that's an air flow thing where the kegs are limiting the flow of cold air and the thermostat sensor is getting it before other parts of the fridge, if i was more on to it electrically I would wire in a little fan to run during cooling. I'm slowly zeroing on on a setting that gets me 5c with the kegs. Knowing it works for you I will wait till the beer is carbed and at 5c and 10-12psi and try again before putting on longer lines.

[Paul Kelleher]

I have a very similar setup to you lads. My kit comes from brewshop so I am using the same 5.5mm ID lines. I had heaps of trouble getting things setup in the start. I found all the online calculators would vary hugely in the recommended line length for each line size and type. I worked out in the end that the 5.5mm ID nylon line from brew shop is fairly low resistance even though it looks really small. I ended up with 12psi in the kegs, 2.1m - 2.4m lines, 600mm height from centre of keg to centre of tap shank. Even with this I am still struggling to get one of my beers to pour well. I have a blonde ale that just pumps out 50% foam and loses carbonation. I am back to the drawing board for that one, trying different line lengths to try to get it balanced. The other three are just about right.

I am trying out the calculator on here at the meoment: http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/kegbalance.shtml

Calculations suggest 16.8 feet (5.1metre) for the pressure, height and line type. Seems a bit long. What do you think? 

Oh yeah, I discovered by trial and error that all the beer line needs to be above the top of the kegs. Got nothing but foam when they were coiled and left to sag down around their respective keg. 

[Crusader-Rob]

speaking of keg issues, dos anyone get issues, when a keg is nearly empty?

[Nathan]

Try having all your kegs empty then we got a situation.......Right now Im drinking half carbed beer but still better than no beer aye......I had to buy beer last week felt strange

[Crusader-Rob]

Hahaha, fair point. I'm molertalking about almost a build up of pressure?

[jt]

At the end of a keg, over saturation of co2 and a bit forced, maybe a bit bitey from the co2 as well?

[Cain Harland]

Has anyone got a good technique for getting 1/4 inch OD LDPE beer line over the barbs on the tap or disconnects I've been using the heat gun and a big metal spike to streach it but it hard work. Obviously it's made for a different system But I have it now so may as well use it.

[Ryan Perkins]

I had the same problem but I just dipped the end in boiling water for about 30 seconds and forced it over the barb.  Took a bit of stuffing around but it worked in the end.

[Scott H]

I had the best luck using a standard BiC ballpoint pen and heat to 'expand' the end.