Hi,
Would be great if someone can spot the obvious mistake I am making when trying to actually get my brew out of the taps.
Ive got a full pun Mix gas Cellargas 60% Co2 / 40% Nitrogen tank with a mix gas regulator on it.
split off on a Y push fit, one line going to a sankey 88 pint Strongbow keg and the other going to my corny with homebrew strawberry cider.
Both these lines going thorugh my maxi cooler. on about 2 foot of 3/8 line.
problem I have is when I turn the gas on the 'new' regualor zooms up to about 190 lb/in on one dial ( i assume this is the dial showing how much left in tank ) and the other dial stays at zero. This is Cuft/hour so think its a flow meter dial even though was sold to me on ebay as a regualtor.
The reg twist is set to fully anti clockwise as assuming wouuld be pushing thorugh like 1-2 psi. But....
the srongbow keg is coming out pure foam and at a million miles an hour
the corny keg isnt coming out at all.
wanting to set the psi to about 12 but have no idea how to do this with this regulator..
am I doing something wrong and should just change my gas to a Co2 set up ? As im on my thrid regualtor now of trying and all seem to give the same results. i.e massive foam and no way to turn the psi down.
cheers
Help. What am I doing wrong - Mix gas tank and reg
Help. What am I doing wrong - Mix gas tank and reg
Without a pressure gauge on the secondary side you won't know what pressure you have so I would start with that.
Also it's a bomb waiting to go off if you're not using a keg with pressure relief, it can kill and I'm not kidding. Pressure is a killer in my industry.
Get a proper reg or at an absolute minimum some sort of PRV and a gauge with the correct scale you have on that welding reg.
When you have the basics correct, revisit it. It will be a lot easier and safer for us to help.
Also it's a bomb waiting to go off if you're not using a keg with pressure relief, it can kill and I'm not kidding. Pressure is a killer in my industry.
Get a proper reg or at an absolute minimum some sort of PRV and a gauge with the correct scale you have on that welding reg.
When you have the basics correct, revisit it. It will be a lot easier and safer for us to help.
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Kev888
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Re: Help. What am I doing wrong - Mix gas tank and reg
Yes, take care with these things; there is a lot of force in compressed gas. Hopefully the corny will have a PRV or at least a burst ring and (as its on the same line) that should help limit things, but those only go off at really quite high pressures so I too would much prefer a pressure gauge.
Regulators can either have pressure or flow meter dials - the former are of more interest to us where we pressurise things and want to know how much, but applications like welding want to know the flow because they feed gas through and out at a given rate.
With the regulator set to fully anti-clockwise the output will largely be off (if it works in the same way as my regulators anyway). So my 'suspicion' (which could be wrong) is that the strongbow keg is probably already pressurised and so is effectively serving itself for the moment (and that you have a non-return valve in the coupler which is preventing it sharing its pressure with the corny).
The keg could be fobbing because its too warm compared to the temperature it was carbonated at/for. Liquid retains far less gas when its warm than when its cool, so if warmed up the gas tries to come out of suspension. I don't know what a strongbow keg should be kept at but I'd guess 12c cellar temperature - if its warmer than that you may need to vent it and let it gradually de-carbonate over time (swirling can help). Maxi coolers can certainly reduce the problem by cooling the liquid, but not if the cider is already fobbing by the time it reaches them.
Also 2 feet of line isn't much. Pressure drops between the keg and the tap - if it happens too quickly (over a short distance) this helps gas escape and increases foaming, and the pressure at the taps nozzle can also be too high for a controlled release. So a nice long line helps to drop the pressure further and more gradually. Or you can step down to 3/16" line which has a greater restriction and so can be shorter for a similar effect.
Theres a whole science around pressure and temperature WRT carbonation, and also around 'balancing' the serving pressure and beer line length/bore. You would probably gain quite an insight into your issues by looking into those aspects but sadly I'm not very familiar with kegged cider or mixed gas so can't really be more specific myself.
Cheers
kev
EDIT: BTW if the strongbow keg is a spear type and you do try to release some pressure from it don't just undo/unscrew the spear - it could become a gas propelled missile.
Regulators can either have pressure or flow meter dials - the former are of more interest to us where we pressurise things and want to know how much, but applications like welding want to know the flow because they feed gas through and out at a given rate.
With the regulator set to fully anti-clockwise the output will largely be off (if it works in the same way as my regulators anyway). So my 'suspicion' (which could be wrong) is that the strongbow keg is probably already pressurised and so is effectively serving itself for the moment (and that you have a non-return valve in the coupler which is preventing it sharing its pressure with the corny).
The keg could be fobbing because its too warm compared to the temperature it was carbonated at/for. Liquid retains far less gas when its warm than when its cool, so if warmed up the gas tries to come out of suspension. I don't know what a strongbow keg should be kept at but I'd guess 12c cellar temperature - if its warmer than that you may need to vent it and let it gradually de-carbonate over time (swirling can help). Maxi coolers can certainly reduce the problem by cooling the liquid, but not if the cider is already fobbing by the time it reaches them.
Also 2 feet of line isn't much. Pressure drops between the keg and the tap - if it happens too quickly (over a short distance) this helps gas escape and increases foaming, and the pressure at the taps nozzle can also be too high for a controlled release. So a nice long line helps to drop the pressure further and more gradually. Or you can step down to 3/16" line which has a greater restriction and so can be shorter for a similar effect.
Theres a whole science around pressure and temperature WRT carbonation, and also around 'balancing' the serving pressure and beer line length/bore. You would probably gain quite an insight into your issues by looking into those aspects but sadly I'm not very familiar with kegged cider or mixed gas so can't really be more specific myself.
Cheers
kev
EDIT: BTW if the strongbow keg is a spear type and you do try to release some pressure from it don't just undo/unscrew the spear - it could become a gas propelled missile.
Kev
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richardskinner1984
Re: Help. What am I doing wrong - Mix gas tank and reg
Cheers for the help guys. I'll have a play around and see what I can deduce