Hose?

I am thinking about brewing another beer, possible pils. I do not have any more bottles, but have kegs. I never had any luck with kegging (too much foam). I tried longer lines and changing pressure. When I did keg, I did 30lb for three days. I also used priming sugar a couple of times to try it. Lately been thinking about a larger dia. hose. I was thinking 5/16 -3/8 dia to cut down the foam fear issue. Thoughts? The beer I put on keg often was an Irish Stout.

I don’t understand why you can’t keg without foam. First of all stop trying to fast carb at 30psi and get some forward sealing faucets. While hose length and diameter can make a difference I suppose, turning the pressure down will do the same thing. Your not serving soda slow it down.

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I used to be in a hurry to carb my beers and discovered it many times turned out bad. Fill the keg, seal it, set it to about 12lbs and forget it for a couple of weeks. If you are still getting foam then look at your lines.

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Lines aren’t the culprit… My lines are about 2’ and I do have perlicks… Pressure is the key… You can do a quick carb to to get the CO2 into the brew… Then after an hour … Release all the pressure… Turn your regulator down to zero… Hook everything up and open the faucet and pour… Adjust the pressure slowly… Some more CO2 will go into the brew and some won’t… Take over a couple of days to adjust… You’ll find your sweet spot… I like a red with very little carbonation too. Sneezles61

This. I understand being impatient when it’s your first time kegging but you’ve been brewing a while and probably have some bottles stored away right? So just keg one, set it and forget it for a couple weeks.

How long are your liquid lines? Line length can make a difference but either diameter liquid line can be made to work with the right combination of temperature and pressure.

No bottles stored away for me except over the winter when I do bottle some. At the winter retreat now so that may be soon.

Lines in my kegorator are about 4’. I will probably go longer when I replace them next spring. Easier to cut them than stretch them :wink:

Line in my jockey box is even shorter but the beer does go through the cold plate and that adds some length. Going from room temp to cold does make for some foam plus whatever restriction the cold plate adds I need to crank the pressure up to get a decent flow then turn it off when not pouring.

I often prime kegs. That seems hit or miss even when following carbonation calcs and carefully measuring or weighing the sugar out. I built a Spunding valve that I have not tried out yet in an attempt to fix that.

That wasn’t a very well constructed post on my part.

The part about being patient and drinking your bottled beer while it carbs was for the OP. @irishjoe

It’s all good. Gave me something to talk about :slight_smile:

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The other thing is try to keep your lines insulated. Mine are insulated but f I’m away and the lines with beer in them warm then the first pour will be foamy for sure . But after that it’s good.

I think the lines are around 4 ft? The issue is tooo much foam. I do like a nice head on my beer, it shows carbonation.

I have been wanting to do this for a while. I check this section out often for some spark. There is a spark! Thank you all!!!

When I got my perlicks I was told put 10 foot lines on and slowly trim them back 6 inches at a time until I got the speed of pour I was looking for. I ended up leaving them at about 9 feet because the pour was fast enough for me.

Long lines will not hamper head or carbonation. Short lines can however increase foam on the pour. This is not really head. The size of the head is determined by carbonation and proteins or nucleation sites in the beer. In other words you don’t need to over carbonate a beer to have good head on pouring.

Your foam is likely overcarbonation based on the description of how you carbonate combined with lines that are likely a bit short. My advice is get longer lines…diameter isn’t that much of an issue but to dial in carbonation you should consider the size along with temperature and target vol level.

So keg one, determine the vol level you want for the beer, set the gas pressure appropriately and leave it alone for a couple of weeks. Just like you would carbing in a bottle. Once you’ve had success then you can play around with quick carbing to determine the best process for your setup but 3 days at 30 would be excessive on my system. Good luck!

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How about your regulator? Is it new? Maybe the guage is off.

I use 8 feet of 3/16 tubing. Tried switching to 1/4 inch lines and had all foam and they were the same length.

I use picnic taps with random line lengths and diameters without issues. The only time I’ve had a foaming problem is when I over-carbonated the beer forcing it. It took a bit to fix it by closing the gas supply and bleeding off the pressure but it did finally get to the point I could open the gas back up. I do force it now at 40 psi for a day or two and then waiting a few days at serving pressure. In a nutshell I’m on the patience bandwagon as well. :sunglasses:

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When setting up my keezer a while back, and after learning to not rush things while getting carbonation levels (pressure and temperature) where I liked it, I found this line length calculating tool to be helpful. As others have noted above, start with the lines longer than you think they should be and trim a little at a time - its easier to make them shorter than longer.

I haven’t seen anyone explain to turn off/disconnect the gas… Unless there is a need for a beer bath? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Sneezles61

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Did you ever see the Brew Dogs show where they climbed into a fermenter with Jim Koch? Beer bath.

Reminds me of the movie Strange Brew when Bob McKenzie drank his way of of the fermentation tank. “hurry up I gotta wiz eh”

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If line length is so important how come I can serve on a picnic tap with about 5’ that has the hose and tap completely in the fridge and get no foam . Same setup hose outside gets foam on first pour. My lines on my fridge that runs to my taps at most 5’. Two feet of which are inside the rest outside but insulated and also no problem at 8psi. 9’ of line is alot of wasted beer sitting in there. Well I guess you can drink it.