Corny Regulator Setting Advice

[floydmeddler]

Hi folks,

I'm doing a kegerator build in a few weeks. In the meantime, though, I have a single corny keg hooked up to a cheap party tap wich is 20 inch long and 3/8 thickness. Have the beer and co2 canister at 2c. I have it at around 12psi for 3 days now and tend to get stuck in this wknd.

Do I leave the regulator at 12psi when serving or do I reduce the pressure?

Have read a million things and am now confused!!

ALl new territory for me. After 9 years brewing, I think I finally deserve a 6 tap kegerator.

Cheers folks,

Floyd

[AnthonyUK]

I turn it down. You only need enough to push the beer out and if too high you just end up with foam.

[IPA]

Buy one of these when they are back in stock. Set it to 4 psi and vent the cornie with it. From then on just keep the gas pressure the same to serve.

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.p ... at&Submit= 

[PeeBee]

The "kegerator" will help. Chilling the beer is the best way of combating foam. But you must prefer cold beer (I don't!). Dropping the pressure to serve may result in foam too, unless you let the pressure stabilise over a day or so and then the lower pressure will result in less foam (but it may need to be a lot less, at room temperature even 5PSI will create copious foam). You may find raising the pressure 1-2PSI produces a better pour (less foam), but the pressure must be returned to the lower value at the end of the session. Sharp (but even small) drops in pressure and increases in temperature (cold beer into warm glass) can affect the pour more than the initial pressure. Beer-lines can be "balanced"; lengthened until resistance in the line creates a slow decrease in pressure to a point where the beer pours fine (using 3/16 instead of 3/8 line achieves this in shorter lengths).

Driving your regulator much lower probably won't work. Pub style "keg" regulators are pretty crude and will get "sticky" much below 10PSI. Secondary "keg" regulators are no better, for pub use there was no need to regulate so low so they weren't made to do so. If you are confident "secondary" regulators from the pneumatic machine world may regulate down to 2-3PSI (and are often cheaper too).

I don't like the look of them Malt Miller jobbies. They are a PRV design and notoriously sticky and inaccurate, and pressure will need to be maintained manually.

[Jambo]

Beer-lines can be "balanced"; lengthened until resistance in the line creates a slow decrease in pressure to a point where the beer pours fine (using 3/16 instead of 3/8 line achieves this in shorter lengths).

Indeed, unless you're piping it to the other end of a fairly large house, 3/8 line never drops the pressure enough, in my experience. A coil of 3/16 works a treat though.

[naturals]

I bought expensive flow control taps to try and avoid foaming but still have a right job getting a decent pour.

Pressure is set to around 5psi (though often creeps up to 10psi with the reg I'm using). Fridge is around 5c ambient with a fan to circulate air over the beer line. Even with the flow control close to closed pretty much 90% of my pour is froth.

Any suggestions? I wanted to avoid long beer lines to reduce the pressure (I thought the FC taps would do this). Is there an inline regulator I can fit to sustain 5psi more accurately?

[PeeBee]

I bought expensive flow control taps to try and avoid foaming but still have a right job getting a decent pour.

Pressure is set to around 5psi (though often creeps up to 10psi with the reg I'm using). Fridge is around 5c ambient with a fan to circulate air over the beer line. Even with the flow control close to closed pretty much 90% of my pour is froth.

Any suggestions? I wanted to avoid long beer lines to reduce the pressure (I thought the FC taps would do this). Is there an inline regulator I can fit to sustain 5psi more accurately?

Flow control taps work by creating a bit of a restriction. Unfortunately a restriction may also create fobbing and foaming. A common solution is to use long lengths of 3/16 tubing - it coils up readily and doesn't hold a huge reservoir of beer.

I use these as secondary regulators: http://www.shako-online-sales.com/frl/r ... 1-nr200-02. Cheap, accurate at low pressure (even 2-3BAR - they work using a diaphragm not a sticky piston) but not designed for purpose. Some people will prefer to pay more for a naff regulator because it says its been designed for beer dispensing. You need a gauge (they sell them as an option) and connectors. I use "aquarium" style 6mm tubing, but you can get studs for more conventional tube, e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-4-BSP-Male- ... SwgZ1XtX30.

You'll need a little confidence in what you're doing and able to work without being spoon-fed the details. Not for everyone.


If it makes you feel better, I can have problem with some beers fobbing - at 2PSI from a hand pump!

[floydmeddler]

Cheers folks. I was hoping to just plug in and enjoy!!!

Lots of tweaking to do then...

[beer baron]

Hi
try a flow restrictor made for beer lines about £8-£10 off Ebay. I use these on all my lines and you just twist the collar on the restrictor to suit the flow works well for me even if too much co2 in the corny so you do not have to be perfect on your line settings but somewhere near.
Pete

[PeeBee]

Hi
try a flow restrictor made for beer lines about £8-£10 off Ebay. I use these on all my lines and you just twist the collar on the restrictor to suit the flow works well for me even if too much co2 in the corny so you do not have to be perfect on your line settings but somewhere near.
Pete

They are effectively the same as flow control taps (cone restrictors), so may not cure the issue. And the cones in the taps are polished steel so should be less likely to cause an issue.

I use these in-line restrictors, but as "shunts" so I can select a variable amount of beer to bypass coiling coils and give a degree of serving temperature control. Not all my brews are destined for hand-pumps in-case I'm confusing anyone who has read my earlier post.

[floydmeddler]

These are what I've purchased. Flow restrictor on them.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adjustable-Dr ... 2749.l2649

[Kev888]

If you want consistency of carbonation (and foam etc), then ideally always use the same pressure and temperature for carbonating and serving. If you can do this then set a suitable pressure for the level of carbonation and temperature you want, adjust the beer line length/bore to get a nice slow rate of pour (tweaking with flow control if present) and theres no need to be messing around reducing pressures etc. Some people choose to carbonate more quickly by using a higher pressure, which is fine but it is harder to get right because leaving too long would result in over-carbonation.

If you can't keep the temperature stable then things are more difficult. In that case err on the side of caution by using low pressures, and perhaps dumping pressure if the keg gets warm. You can leave the gas turned off when not force-carbonating or dispensing in any case, but it is more important to do so if the temperature changes.

[Fil]

Cheers folks. I was hoping to just plug in and enjoy!!!

Lots of tweaking to do then...

Yes fraid so ,but it will all just fall into place in a short while and become second nature, a kegging chart is a useful reference to start with check the style of brew and the optimum co2 content, then use the table to look up the pressure and temp that will naturally met at the equilibrium point of your optimum co2 content. I tend to find the kegging chart ive bookmarked to provide beers a tad to fizzy if followed to the letter,, However that may just be the error in my regulators..

as mentioned above dropping the serving pressure to a nominal level will also solve the fobbing short term, but depending on how fast the keg is consumed will also allow the brew to loose some condition, If its just the one keg on tap its unlikely it will become much of an issue before the keg is drained, But if you have 6 on tap at once.. then the chances of a keg remaining on tap long enough for a condition loss to be noticed and need correction will increase. the solution is to simply up the pressure to recondition again, but if its gonna happen its gonna happen on party night

a creeping up pressure once set can sometimes be rectified by knocking the knob/screw on the regulator back a notch and venting the keg, hopefully after a few repetitions the sort of knock back required should become evident and then second nature to knock back automatically Also double check the bottle valve is fully open, if you have the bottle valve just cracked it may not provide sufficient back pressure for the regulator to operate correctly
(btw tipex makes a great semi permenant marker to help you gauge knock backs and knob/screw positions and unlike a sharpie can be chipped off when no longer needed..)