Hello, I have been using a converted freezer for my homebrew kegs. I have a distributor hooked up to the same regulator for 4 kegs. I usually leave it at 11-12PSI for force carbing and serving and have had good results overall
I picked up a sanke adapter and a 5 gallon keg of Microbrew from a local brewery. I want to serve this alongside my homebrew. Questions I can think of are:
I understand that since the commercial keg is naturally carbed I should dial down the serving pressure to around 5PSI. When I am done for the day and crank the gas back up to 11 PSI is it ok to leave the commercial keg connected (will the gas get into the beer and overcarb it). I’m assuming I can leave it tapped?
If I leave the regulator set at 5 PSI any idea how long will it take for my homebrew to loose carbonation?
Anything else that I missed? For people that are local - The keg is Dark Abbey From Harriet Brewing in Minneapolis. I’m so stoked! :cheers:
The last time I borrowed some draft gear from my local brewery, they had their stuff set at about 7 psi, and it worked well for their beer. I imagine style of the beer could make a difference, but I can’t see 10psi being that bad for the commercial beer.
Eventually the system will equalize and all of the kegs will have the same amount of carbonation. The pressure and temperature those kegs are set at will tell you what volume of CO2 you have. For example, 12 PSI at 40*F is about 2.5volumes of CO2.
You can set the regulator to match the brewery’s volumes. Leave it at your setting. Or split the difference. If you don’t have it, here is the carbonation chart.
Unless the brewer provided special info for serving, they expect standard setups. If you know a standard for a style is different than the norm, go for that. Just balance the system to serve at the same pressure as the beer’s carbonation level of volumes of Co2. There is never a reason to be turning the regulator up and down between serving and storage.
If your system is properly balanced and your temperature stable, you can tweak the pressure up and down a few psi for a lot of styles with no other changes. I doubt that you’ll find many commercial craft beers that are not made to be acceptably served at normal pressures at 36-38f (there are exceptions). If you don’t yet understand the formulas for volumes of Co2 contained in liquid at certain temps and pressure, do some reading and you’ll see why most beers you’ll purchase will be within a pretty narrow range. For example my system is balanced with mostly hoses that are 6ft of 3/16" ID, and that allows me to dial down the pressure to as low as 8 and up to 14 and still get a mostly acceptable pour across the range. I’ve made beer line extensions for higher carb beers that do require a bit higher pressure to serve properly and retain the level of carb the brewer intended. Flare fittings on the lines make this easy.
