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Author Topic: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure  (Read 15494 times)

Offline bluesman

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Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« on: November 03, 2009, 12:52:30 pm »
I want to be able to carbonate my kegged beer while at the same time be able to serve the beer.

For example... I want to force carb a beer at 12psi and maintain that pressure and ...I also would like to serve the beer at 5psi. Is this possible?

If so...How would I set-up my kegging system to accomplish this?
Ron Price

Offline beer_crafter

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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2009, 01:14:23 pm »
The short answer is no-- over time, your beer will drop down to the carbonation level which you would get at 5psi (at serving temp).

My question back to you is, why do you want to serve at 5psi?  It seems to me that you are looking to serve at 12psi. 

I will venture a guess and say that currently your system is unbalanced, and thus at 12psi, the beer comes out of the tap too fast.  In order to correct this, you don't want to serve at 5psi;  rather, you want to add enough resistance into the system so that 12psi pours at an acceptable rate.  The easiest way to do this is to increase the length of your beer lines.  There are calculations availible (which I don't have readily at hand) which will tell you the length of tubing you need to maintain 12psi.


Offline Gary Glass

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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2009, 01:35:22 pm »
Wahoo is correct, you want to serve the beer at whatever pressure you need to maintain your desired carbonation and then need to balance that with your draught line.

Check out Chapter 5 in the Brewers Association's Draught Beer Quality Manual for a complete description of how to balance your draught system: http://www.draughtquality.org/A-Matter-of-Balance.
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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2009, 01:54:14 pm »
That manual is fantastic, Gary.
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Offline bonjour

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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2009, 08:41:20 pm »
I had no idea that that was there Gary,  Thanks.

To repeat Gary, Wahoo is correct,  you need to achieve balance with your delivery system.

Fred
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Offline bluesman

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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #5 on: November 04, 2009, 11:02:24 am »
I had no idea that that was there Gary,  Thanks.

To repeat Gary, Wahoo is correct,  you need to achieve balance with your delivery system.

Fred

Thanks folks...for setting me in the right direction.

My first topic on this forum was a good one for me.  :)
Ron Price

Offline smurfe

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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2009, 03:14:29 pm »
I have never had a problem with my beers loosing carbonation with 5 psi which is around what I serve with. I will carb at around 12 psi for a couple weeks depending volume desired, vent the keg and then pressurize it with around 5 psi. Get a perfect pour. Of course a keg around here doesn't last very long so maybe that is why I never have an issue loosing carbonation. I use around 5 ft of 3/16" line on each tap.



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Offline a10t2

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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2009, 03:39:48 pm »
I have never had a problem with my beers loosing carbonation with 5 psi which is around what I serve with. I will carb at around 12 psi for a couple weeks depending volume desired, vent the keg and then pressurize it with around 5 psi. Get a perfect pour. Of course a keg around here doesn't last very long so maybe that is why I never have an issue loosing carbonation. I use around 5 ft of 3/16" line on each tap.
Just curious; why drop the pressure at all? With 5 ft of line you should be fine serving much higher than 5 psi.
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Offline smurfe

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Re: Setting up keg for carbonating/serving pressure
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2009, 04:06:06 pm »
I have never had a problem with my beers loosing carbonation with 5 psi which is around what I serve with. I will carb at around 12 psi for a couple weeks depending volume desired, vent the keg and then pressurize it with around 5 psi. Get a perfect pour. Of course a keg around here doesn't last very long so maybe that is why I never have an issue loosing carbonation. I use around 5 ft of 3/16" line on each tap.
Just curious; why drop the pressure at all? With 5 ft of line you should be fine serving much higher than 5 psi.

Dunno, just the way I was taught and it works fine for me. I don't do this with all beers though. I do mostly Ordinary Bitters though and it works great for my set up. You are correct though. It probably isn't required. 5-8 psi is what I normally serve at though for just about any beer.
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