Still can't stop frothy pints from keg

[paulg]

Hi all,

I'm having problems serving beer from my Grundy style stainless keg. It's a stsndard pub one, with a proper connector and co2 supply. My lager is coopers Australian and has been in my keg for 4 days at 60psi gassing up. It's outside at a temp of about 8 degrees.

I have tried several options for serving from short 10mm pipe, 3m of 4mm pipe and now 7 meters if 5mm pipe connecting to 30cm 12mm pipe. My tube is normal poly tube from b&q. It's not proper beer line.

The tap is a ball valve plumbing tap that I open fully.

I've been reducing keg pressure to about 1bar for serving, and I still just get foam!

Any advice would be appreciated. I've read lots here and I've studied the beer line formula. Seems I should have had luck by now...

Thanks

Paul

 

[unclepumble]

from memory, (I used to live in a pub years ago)

I think 1 bar is a tad too much I think 3-4 PSI should be adequate for serving, I don't think we ever went above 8psi,

I would try it at about 5psi then and go up 1psi at a time until you find the point at which it just fobs.

Shane

 

[theboytony]

I've found that with my corny i have to dispense at about 4psi otherwise i get a lot of froth, but then again that all depends on pipe length. Although 60psi sounds quite high for carbonating, I only usually go upto 20psi. I've actually got a coopers austrailian in my fridge at the moment that has been at 20 psi for a bit under a week. I'm tempted to have a sample to check it but i should really leave it for christmas :whistle:

 

[prolix]

60 psi is far too high to carb a beer if froth is not your cup of tea. at 10 c you need ~24 psi to carbonate to get 3 atmospheres of co2 or whatever those things are at 15 degrees 29 psi

so probably 2 times as much co2 as required for high gas lagers, vent it let it settle vent it and repeat until you can pour some then work upwards with beer line if not fizzy enough.

personally I drink flat beer, gas it once to 20 psi on kegging then serve at 3 psi, not a bubble in sight , bliss :drink:

 

[paulg]

Thanks for the replies!

Is four psi not a bit low? My local landlord reckons he has his lager stored at about 12psi but maybe his delivery setup requires this? I was concerned that 4psi would let the beer go flat. Also despite it foaming, it actually comes out fairly slowly. Maybe even too slow. Funny thing is, there us a hiss when I open the tap , suggesting gas has left the beer before I pour?

It's very frustrating. Any further suggestions?

Paul

 

[Aleman]

Way, Way, Way, Way, Way, Way, Way, Too much Pressure!

20 psi at 10C will give you about 2Vols of CO2 in your beer, which is about the same as pub style lager dispense. . . . What you then need to do is to balance the pressure in the keg with the line resistance of the dispense tubing so that you have an effective 1-2psi at the tap. The best way to do this is to use 3/16 (ID) tubing (From Barley Bottom), as you only need a few feet to drop the pressure (Start with 6 feet and snip 6" off at a time until it dispenses at a sensible feed without foaming).

You need to remove all pressure from the keg for 48 hours, pull the PRV of the corny, and leave it open . . . cover the corny with a plastic bag to prevent nasties getting in and leave it like this for 48 hours . . . hopefully you should get enough degassing to allow you to pressurise at 20psi and get beer with no foam.