[BEAGLEBREWINGCO]

Hi Everyone

I'm new to kegging so I am enjoying many glasses of delicious foam at the moment - however I think from some of my reading of the articles on AHA that I should solve that pretty soon.

The one question I am not sure of is ...

Once I have force carbonated and my keg is at pressure, is there enough pressure in the keg to then dispense the beer from at a future location. For example, I have seen breweries offering kegs delivered to parties etc where the keg is just tossed into ice and served from, but doesn't this approach require a CO2 tank to providing the dispensing pressure ?

The kegging article on AHA tends to suggest that a CO2 tank is always hooked up for dispensing ?

Would appreciate your knowledge on this.

[tommymorris]

Hi Everyone

I'm new to kegging so I am enjoying many glasses of delicious foam at the moment - however I think from some of my reading of the articles on AHA that I should solve that pretty soon.

The one question I am not sure of is ...

Once I have force carbonated and my keg is at pressure, is there enough pressure in the keg to then dispense the beer from at a future location. For example, I have seen breweries offering kegs delivered to parties etc where the keg is just tossed into ice and served from, but doesn't this approach require a CO2 tank to providing the dispensing pressure ?

The kegging article on AHA tends to suggest that a CO2 tank is always hooked up for dispensing ?

Would appreciate your knowledge on this.

You always need to attach a CO2 source to serve beer. You can serve a few glasses without being hooked up to CO2 but after that there won't be enough pressure to push out the beer.

There are portable CO2 dispensers for when you take kegs on the road. Example: http://www.homebrewing.org/Co2-Cornelius-Keg-Charger-Genuine-Innovations_p_5783.html

[HoosierBrew]

+1 to what Tommy said. Also, you say your beer is foamy - how did you carb it? How long is your serving line? What type of beer are you serving? If a dry hopped beer, hop particles have a way of clogging dip tubes and/or poppet valves, causing a foamy pour. I'm betting on too short a serving line.

[BEAGLEBREWINGCO]

Thanks for the reply Jon - I'm pretty comfortable I will solve my foaming problems with some experimentation. But my dispensing line is about 4 feet long, I think its 1/4 inch poly. I sat it for 2 days on about 12 psi but was getting foaming I tried burping the keg and then lowering the P to say 5 psi and got mostly flat beer. I also read in "Brew Like a Pro" that its worth trying turning up the P and dispensing full throttle (squeeze trigger completely) so I tried that at 15 and got one perfect pour and then after that pouring deteriorated again to foam.

So I thought I would try some experiments over the weekend again. I don't feel I have any hop residue or blockage problems. One issue probably is that my old fridge is working too well it is currently at 2 deg C (35.6 F) so I could easily turn that back to say 4 degrees and still get good serving temp and carb.

However all thoughts are welcome. Good part is I have to keep drinking every experiment I dispense. Cheers

[tommymorris]

1/4" ID line will have to be longer than 4 feet when serving at 10-12 PSI. Most people use 3/16" ID line and 5-10' is a common length. Longer lengths add resistance and reduce foam.

If your beer is flat when serving at 5 PSI it probably needs to carbonate longer. It takes 1-2 weeks at 10-12 PSI to carb if you don't use acceleration methods, which I don't recommend.

[HoosierBrew]

Thanks for the reply Jon - I'm pretty comfortable I will solve my foaming problems with some experimentation. But my dispensing line is about 4 feet long, I think its 1/4 inch poly. I sat it for 2 days on about 12 psi but was getting foaming I tried burping the keg and then lowering the P to say 5 psi and got mostly flat beer. I also read in "Brew Like a Pro" that its worth trying turning up the P and dispensing full throttle (squeeze trigger completely) so I tried that at 15 and got one perfect pour and then after that pouring deteriorated again to foam.

So I thought I would try some experiments over the weekend again. I don't feel I have any hop residue or blockage problems. One issue probably is that my old fridge is working too well it is currently at 2 deg C (35.6 F) so I could easily turn that back to say 4 degrees and still get good serving temp and carb.

However all thoughts are welcome. Good part is I have to keep drinking every experiment I dispense. Cheers

A couple thoughts - 2 days @ 12 psi won't carb your beer properly. A really easy way to get good carbonation AND a good pour is to use this temp/pressure chart to get to around 2.5 volumes of CO2 (in the green range)for normal beers. Then buy 10 feet of 3/16" ID beer line and cut it down in 6 inch increments until you get the pour you want at your carbonation pressure. Being able to get a good pour at your carbonation pressure is key to good draft beer that maintains proper carbonation. Good luck regardless!

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

[BEAGLEBREWINGCO]

Great thanks to everyone for their replies - much appreciated. I'll get a longer length and check the diameter and try that. It's just such a relief to be able to get away from bottling and the experimenting is fun anyway. Thanks again.