Air in my beer line!

[WelshPaul]

Hi folks,
I'm getting a lot of air in one of my lines in my kegerator (see below). This always seems to happen if the tap is left alone for an hour or so without pouring a beer. If it is in regular use then it is fine.

The tap that has the problem is the one on the left. The other tap with the black end has no problems other than slow flow (which probably just needs a good cleaning).

 

[Kev888]

Its more likely to be CO2 than air, which bubbles out of the beer as you're serving and accumulates in bigger pockets when the flow stops.

This happens to me sometimes but its usually a result of serving too fast - the pressure dropping suddenly in the beer line is like suddenly opening a bottle of fizzy cola or something, rather than slowly releasing the pressure; gas comes out of suspension quickly and bubbles form. That may also explain why the slower tap is okay. The flow control may help, but if not then try using a much longer length of beer line; the small bore causes a restriction to the flow as beer is dispensed so a longer line makes pressure drop gradually as it heads towards the tap.

There can be many causes though - one keg could be taking a while to cool down (warmer beer foams more), the beer in that corny may be more carbonated (and/or at a higher pressure if you have separate regulators), the poppet or dip-tube in that keg could be more restictive than the other, someone even had a tiny hole in the top of their dip-tube that was feeding gas as well as beer into the line.

Cheers
kev

 

[Vossy1]

You could also have a leak, you could rule this out by testing the set up with water (non carbonated). Follow Kevs advice and you wont go far wrong :thumb:

 

[WelshPaul]

Thanks. I'll try a longer line as the kegs are both well chilled and are at the same pressure.