Kegging Virgin

The ins and outs of putting your beer into kegs.

Kegging Virgin

Postby Nishy » Thursday Jan 01, 2009 10:24 am

Hi beer lovers!! I've just bought a kegarator and have now kegged 4 (19L) brews. My problem is that most pours are all very frothy and I'm wasting a lot of beer trying to pour a glass.
I've been following this method of force carbonation:
1) fill Keg : From fermenter tap to keg with poly line direct to bottom of keg
2) Purge Keg
3) Carbonate: Place in Kegarator at 2 degrees and connect gas at 40 PSI for 48 Hours
4) Pouring Pressure: Reduce pressure to about 7 PSI and pour.

What I am finding is that there is gas in my lines and when I pour the gun "spits" and froths when it hits some gas and then pours OK when I get fluid - this constantly repeats and I get a half filled glass of froth.

My beer line is about 2m long and 6mm diameter. Also worth pointing out is there is a "join" about half way as the line that came with the Kegarator had different fittings than I needed to connect to my postmix connects. I had to cut off the fitting that was on the end of the font and connect my new line I bought from the home brew shop and then connect to keg.

Funny thing is when i connect a keg with just water it pours beautifully.

Can anybody explain what I might be doing wrong!!

Cheers

Daryl
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Re: Kegging Virgin

Postby Gym_ » Thursday Jan 01, 2009 8:44 pm

2 main things that spring to mind and one is over carbonated and the other is leaking hose or fittings.

I too just got a keg set up for Xmas and thought my keg was over carbonated till I put in a flat one on and the same thing happened..

Turned out the post seals were rat shit and it was sucking in air..

So try pouring a beer from a flat keg and see how you go if it pours correctly then you have prob just over carbonated your beer if it still plays up then off to the shop to replace all the seals you go.. in fact it turned out in my case come to think about it ..
That it was a shonky disconector even thou it was brand new ..

Also I have read a million posts on carbonation and watched a crap load of videos and personally I think it’s all hit and miss and it depends on the… type of beer you have.. Height above sea level .. Temp of beer.. Age of beer … density of beer… Alcohol content & prob a hell of a lot more..
What works for another people doesn’t seem to work for me and vice versa..

ive tried the Ross method and ive followed advice form 20 different people but what works for me is I chill my beer 24hrs in the fridge and then hit it with 350 for 24hrs and then burp the keg down to a very low 5kpa then pour a glass and see if its good for me..

if not then back on the gas for another 6hrs and see how it turns out.. this method works very well for me ..
For you id say do this but every few hrs check it till you know the exact time that your happy with it.

Personally I think you just need to find your own rhythm.. Dance to your own drum .. Once you get it down you won’t have any probs from then on ..

If your still having probs id invest anuther 20 bucks on a new hose one with out any joins in it.
Gym_
beauty is in the eye of the beerholder
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Re: Kegging Virgin

Postby drsmurto » Friday Jan 02, 2009 11:52 am

Must have skim read that last time.

Your beer line has a join in it? I would be fixing that pronto. The join will be causing turbulence in the beer flow which is knocking CO2 out of solution causing the excessive foaming.

And if you havent replaced every seal then i would as an old seal can also allow some air into the system having the same affect as above.

As Gym points out, there are many different ways of gassing your beer up. I use a modified version of the Ross method which gets me beer that is undercarbed but still ok to drink within 10 mins of racking it to the keg. Over the next week or so it equilibrates to the pouring pressure.
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Re: Kegging Virgin

Postby Nishy » Saturday Jan 03, 2009 11:20 am

Thanks guys, I hooked up my second gun yesterday with a new connect and it too has a join. I used 2m of 6mm line and it poured an uncarbonated keg well with no spitting. I will try again today once it is carbonated. Thanks for the feedback and tips.
Cheers
daryl
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Re: Kegging Virgin

Postby Shaun » Thursday Jan 15, 2009 7:34 pm

Your beer line is to short for the diameter used. Rule of thumb is 2 meter for 4mm, 3 meters for 5mm, and you have 6mm line so if will need to be at lest longer than 3m. Try lengthening your line or get a smaller diameter. It is better to start to long than short.

The beer line needs to provide some resistance to the fluid flow as you pour or you will get foam at the tap. It does not just get the beer from keg to tap.

If you think you have a dodgy seal check them by spraying the area with soapy water and seeing if you have a leak anywhere.

If you think you have over carbed a keg de-gas it. You do this by taking the keg out of the fridge and purge it of all pressure. Let it sit for 10-30 minutes then purge again. Then put back in fringe and test, repeat until happy.
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Re: Kegging Virgin

Postby Nishy » Monday Jan 19, 2009 7:19 pm

Thanks guys. I have removed the join by getting my home brew shop guy Mark replace from tap to disconnect with 3m of 6mm line. The beer pours better but the first glass is always half full of froth. Is this normal? The gas in the beer line seems to rise up to the highest point (as it would) causing the froth. Also my mate has just bought a kegarator and he uses the same beer as me and the same length of line but his pours beautifully - worth pointing out is his tap has a larger diameter outlet than mine - would a smaller diameter outlet cause pouring problems?

cheers

Daryl
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