Kegging

[Mike Neilson]

Looking at doing a keg set up, Is it cheaper and easyer to go with the brew craft setup or designing your own set up, and getting the bits from the likes of Craft brewer, etc?
Whats your thoughts?

[denimglen]

Yeah, I don't get foaming problems either, I've poured at up to 3 volumes I'm all good. It's only when I start playing around with stuff I get problems, that's why I'm just setting and forgetting.

I leak test every few months with a spray bottle filled with soapy water, so I'm reasonably confident that my system isn't leaking anywhere.

[Dale]

I left mine on all the time for 3 months then a leak started and I lost a full bottle a few weeks back. Then did as Reviled and turned CO bottle off as I sorted leaks but then had no foam issue which I have huge issues with. Up till then I had thought the foam issue was cold beer hitting warm beer lines and taps now I don't know.

[denimglen]

Could be that. If you think that's a problem try hooking up a small fan inside the fridge to circulate air. Also how long are your lines? Go long mate, go long! Mine are about 2.5m IIRC.

...that's if you wanna go the set and forget route. Like they say - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Dale]

Mate mine are 5m long I went way long.....but the last 1m is outside the fridge going into a 4 post tap. When I get a freezer I thought of mounting the taps onto the lid but might still have a prob of the taps getting warm.

[denimglen]

Too long usually equals a slow pour at worst, not a foamy one. My eIPA on tap at about 1.8 volumes takes a while to push through.

Your original thought of warm lines is probably the problem then. Best way to test it is pour a pint and then straight away pour another one - if the second one doesn't foam then warm lines is your problem.

If the second one still foams my only other thought is that you've carbonated at a higher pressure and then dropped it to serve. This happened to me once when I turned the pressure up and forgot, then dialled it down to the proper pressure. I was drinking the keg for two weeks and it still didn't drop to the right level.

I believe most guys with the towers have them mounted on the lid of a chest freezer and then have a fan rigged up to blow cold air in to keep the lines cold. It sounds like you've got 1m of exposed line going to a tower away from your cooling source? The only way I can think of getting around this is to run one of those glycol cooled lines which I can imagine wouldn't be cheap.

Even with my setup with the taps through the fridge door will blow a little foam. It only happens with higher carbonated beers in summer. Worst case scenario I have to dump the first 50mL of the pour and then it's all sweet from there.

[denimglen]

So you turn the bottle off and on each time you pour a beer? I'm too lazy for that :-P

[MrC]

I've just started turning off the gas bottle when I'm not pouring also. It seems to work well for me.

I suspect that people with picnic taps have different requirements than those with "fancy" taps. I can't get a nice pour from my picnic taps unless I turn the pressure right down (almost off). I'm forever turning the pressure down for serving and then back up for storage (over night, mid week, etc). Turning the gas off when the pressure isn't changing isn't really anything extra.

How do the "fancy" taps work? Can they handle higher pressure than the picnic taps?

[jt]

How do the "fancy" taps work? Can they handle higher pressure than the picnic taps?

Fatter spout ?

[denimglen]

How long is your beer line mate?

Fatter spout ?

The spout on my perlicks seems pretty similar to my picnic tap.

[jt]

OK, I've got fatter spouts then ...

[Mike Neilson]

Heres my theory on Bottle conditioned homebrewed beer pulled of a tap.

If you dont want the Oxidation of the newly filled beer from the keg, When filling give the keg a kick then bottle it that way at least you will have some yeast to scrub the little bit of 02 that will be in the bottle. Might work might not?

[MrC]

My beer line is about 65cm (straight out of the box from Craftbrewer).
My beers are stored at around 6c.
I get a nice pour with serving pressure set to 50kpa and with a really low serving pressure I can fill a bottle with beer carbed to 2.5vols with no spillage.