Beer line length questions

[Tim1975]

I am waiting for a delivery of a flow control tap today and took the liberty to order 2M of beer line, this was primarily because I was getting pure froth from the tap I got with my corny's (no beer line, attached straight to the Keg).

I seem to remember reading that beer line length was really important but now can't find why that is, can anyone enlighten me on what I should be doing here?

 

[Tim1975]

Hoping someone can help, I have just attached flow control tap to a 2m line and I am still getting nothing but froth, even with the PSI almost at zero, what in the hell am I doing wrong?

 

[strange-steve]

There is a good BYO article here which discusses how to balance your keg pressure and beer line. It's possible that 2M isn't long enough, depending on the size of the line.

 

[Joeyriles]

Sometimes it has to do with the width rather than just the length (Ooh matron). What are you using?

 

[Tim1975]

There is a good BYO article here which discusses how to balance your keg pressure and beer line. It's possible that 2M isn't long enough, depending on the size of the line.

Cheers for this, that is some maths to get right, I think I will pour a beer later and ponder that for a while :thumb:

 

[F00b4r]

If you are using the Intertap flow control faucets then about 120cm of 3/16 beer line should suit for just about anything and means it is flexible enough to make our an easy install as well, just use 3/8 to 3/16 stem reducers on your JG fittings.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
3/8 beer line has almost no resistance so it won't help at keeping foam at a minimum. I have short lengths of 3/8 from the disconnect and the party tap, reducing to 3/16 for the main beer line. This should give a resistance of about 3 psi per foot, so I have 4 ft of line, set the serving pressure at 12 psi and I've had no further problems with excessive foaming.

This is from Beersmith:
At the tap end of our balanced keg system we want a slight positive pressure to push the beer out, but not enough to foam. Generally this would be between less than 1 psi. So let’s target a tap end pressure of 1 psi. The math from here is pretty easy to calculate the balanced line length (L):

• L = (keg_pressure – 1 psi) / Resistance

So starting with our example of 12 psi keg pressure, and some typical 3/16″ vinyl keg tubing (which loses 3 lb/ft) we get L= (12-1)/3 which is 3.66 feet. So a 12 psi kegging system would provide 1 psi of pressure at the tap with 3.66 feet of tubing.
Note that some authors leave out the 1 psi tap pressure (i.e. use zero tap pressure) and simplify the equation to L= (keg_pressure/Resistance) which makes the math even easier (the simplified equation would give you 4 feet of tubing vs 3.66 ft). The truth is that you can target anywhere between zero and 1 psi at the tap and still be in balance – the difference is relatively small, though a slight positive keg pressure will give you a better flow rate.

 

[The Idiot]

When I did my calculations I needed around 12 metres of 3/8 beer line! Instead I simply ran 1 metre of 3/8 line, added a 3/8-3/16 reducer, coiled 1 metre of 3/16 line, then used another reducer to go back to 3/8 for another metre. That sorted it for every type of beer I serve.

It's a nice and easy solution and costs pennies to do.

 

[The Idiot]

There you go: three minutes, three replies all pointing you to the simplest solution!

 

[Bigcol49]

Great minds think alike!