I asked this in another forum but I figured I would give this question a shot in here. I finally was able to keg a batch of homebrew, probably the best step I have taken so far. I force carbed my pale ale @ 11 psi (39 degrees) for 1 week. Everything came out fine. Perfect carbonation. I am now dispensing at 8 psi.
My issue is with my commercial kegs. My kegerator (dual tower) came with the generic 5ft of 3/16" ID tubing. When I dispense my commercial kegs (so far they have been SN Ruthless Rye, Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout, and Saranac IPA) I would need to dial down the serving pressure to 4 to 5 psi to get a good pour.
My question is, Can I lower my serving psi on my corny keg to the 4 to 5 psi range and still be ok or will the beer loose carbonation? I have not noticed any real loss of carbonation on the commercial kegs at this pressure (they lasted 1-1/2 to 2 months tapped.) Or should I bleed my next commercial keg.
Thanks,
Joe
Over time all of your kegs will come to equilibrium at the 5psi mark and be under carbonated. Best to lengthen the serving line or add some epoxy mixer twists and serve it at the same pressure it should be carbonated at.
39* @ 11psi is 2.43volumes.
39* @ 8psi is 2.15volumes.
probably wont notice.
39* @ 5psi is 1.82. I think you will notice that.
You must be adjusting the psi back up to 8 at the end of the night?
No. The corny keg has never been below 8 psi.
The corny keg was carbed at 11 psi and I lowered it to 8 psi to serve both the corny and commercial (sanky) keg. I disconnected the sanky keg while I carbed the corny keg.
At 8 and 11 psi, the sanky keg is (now was) alot of foam.
As I stated, my sanky kegs were set at 5 psi for up to 2 months without noticeable loss of carbonation.
See if the store you purchased the keg from can get the volumes of CO2 the beer is carbonated at from the distributor. Or email the brewery to see if they will disclose that information.
With that information you can balance your serving line for the temp/pressure you are serving at. Maybe these commercial kegs are low on carbonation by design.
Anything else is just a guess.
A dual regulator would let you set different pressures on the corny and commercial kegs. Then you don’t have to worry about trying to find a common pressure.
Your commercial keg should be drafted around the 2.5 volumes. The answer here is to carb homebrew and draft all kegs irregardless at 10(ish) PSI. As stated above 4-5 PSI is definitely not the answer and the answer here is to extend the length of line to around 8-10 feet depending.
The reason why the 5ft is requiring a lower pressure is because the gas is simply breaking out or liquid is flowing too fast because the length is too short thus foamy pours. Replace the 5ft and always leave the reg at 10 PSI and you will never have issue.
Your carbonation pressure is your serving pressure, period. It doesn’t matter what vessel you are serving from.
If you are not able to serve at the same pressure your beer is carbonated at, then you need to properly balance your system. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. If you have some odd style that has higher or lower required volumes of CO2, that is another story for balancing the system, but serving pressure is still the same as the pressure needed to properly carbonate the beer.
For most people serving at industry standard 36-38F temps, 10-12psi, and 6ft of 3/16" ID beverage line is fairly standard for almost anything you will ever serve, and you can put all standard beers in this setup and everyone will be happy 
With 6-7ft of proper serving line you can vary the pressure greatly and still get proper pours from a wide variety of carbonation pressures with no other adjustments.
Until you have a balanced system for normal serving and understand the variables, you cannot expect to introduce variables without having issues.
So after it was all said and done, I decided that the wife should buy me the Perlick Flow Control Faucets for Father’s Day. Best gift in a long time.
I am now dispensing perfect pours at 11 psi and no issues. Not the proper way to balance the system, but it works.
Thanks everyone for the advice along the way.
[quote=“JoeSpartaNJ”]So after it was all said and done, I decided that the wife should buy me the Perlick Flow Control Faucets for Father’s Day. Best gift in a long time.
I am now dispensing perfect pours at 11 psi and no issues. Not the proper way to balance the system, but it works.
Thanks everyone for the advice along the way.[/quote]
hey…if it works, then it IS the proper way.
