Serving pressure

[Deebee]

Hi,

having gotten hold of a proper co2 set up now i just wonder what the ideal serving pressure is for stouts and ales?

I over pressurised the last one and when i tried to fill a glass i got a glass of foam.. it settled out in time rightly enough but you don't want guests waiting for 5 minutes each time their glass is empty , and you don't want to serve half a glass of foam with some beer under now.. do you??:)

[Kev888]

The serving pressure is to some degree personal preference and can be ballanced with the length and size of beer line - longer and narrower line drops the pressure more between the keg and the tap; you want it to have reached a lowish pressure at the tap so that it doesn't suddenly experience a pressure drop as it leaves the nozzle, and yet still have enough that it doesn't take all day to pour a pint. Personally I use about 3 to 4m of 3/16th line and around 7 to 10 PSI (though that could mean very little as the gauge is a bit poor!). I 'think' 3/8ths line has something like four times less resistance and so would need to be quite a lot longer for the same pressure attenuation.

I found that my own initial foam problems were due to force carbonating at a higher pressure and/or lower temperature than I was serving at. I'd been trying to force carbonate at around 15psi and then serve at about 5, the result when serving at lower pressures was that gas tried to get out of the beer even as it entered the beer line. By compromising at 10psi and keeping the pressure and temperature the same for force carbonating and serving the problem has completely dissapeared.

Cheers
Kev

[Deebee]

thanks.
I have one of the black party taps if that helps. It's around 40 cm. Does that help. I'd like to dispense and yet have enough pressure to get a little head.

[boingy]

It's difficult to answer because it depends on the set-up. I go from a cornie through a flash chiller and then to a flow control Dalex tap. Probably about 6 feet of 3/8 beer line in all. The pressure at the cornie end is around 10 PSI but my fine adjustments are made with the flow control at the tap to get a good compromise between froth and serving speed. Others use lengths of narrower beer line to drop some of the pressure. Sometimes I set the pressure to 30 PSI for a few days to boost the carbonation and then choke down on the tap to slow the flow. Other variables to throw into the mix are the level or carbonation and the temperature of the keg.

So it really is a trial and error thing.

[Kev888]

thanks.
I have one of the black party taps if that helps. It's around 40 cm. Does that help. I'd like to dispense and yet have enough pressure to get a little head.

I've never used one of these myself but I know lots on here have. Generally the view seems to be that they are a bit prone to foam due to the short line length, so extending their line with a loop or two of 3/16th beer line can apparently make a big difference. Hopefully someone who has one will be able to add more though.

Cheers
kev