Balanced beer lines

[craiclad]

Do you guys bother with balancing your beer lines? Seems like it's impossible to find 3/16" ID tubing over here, so to have a properly balanced line you'd have to have 40'+ of beer line hanging around in your fridge.

How do you guys deal with this? Reduce pressure and purge every time you want a pint?

[Leann ull]

Huh? Carb at 1 bar for 7-10 days set your co2 to 5 psi to serve and regulate your flow for serving perfect pints
4-5 ft of 5/16ths for stout 3/8ths for everything else simples

[craiclad]

Interesting... A lot of information here I haven't heard before.

The understanding I had was that it's best to keep your beer line balanced to the carbonation you want (generally 10-15 PSI), but you're saying you just balance your lines to 5 PSI and then store your beer like that after it's carbonated? Do you ever have problems with losing carbonation over time?

And I'm assuming you mean the sizes that are available from thehomebrewcompany and other stores like it (ie. you're talking about the outer diameter and not the inner diameter)? I'm currently using about 10' of 5/16" tubing to serve a hefeweizen and have trouble pouring pints at anything past 2-3 PSI.

[Leann ull]

The 5 psi for me is for serving not storage for long durations, co2 coming out of solution with a positive head of pressure and cold takes quite a while.
Do your taps have restrictors?
Can you post pics of your set-up?

[Leann ull]

http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/

[Paul B]

I'm interested in this also, from a slightly different angle. According to the calculators, I need my reg at 12 psi to get 2.4 vol carbonation at 6c. But I find I need to keep my reg at about 20 psi to get the level I'd expect. This works OK with the flow control taps but would still probably be more managable at the recommended 12psi. 99.9% sure no leaks, could the reg be faulty?

Also craiclad, I'd check with thehomebrewcompany that the 3/16 line they stock is in fact OD as listed and not ID. ID seems to be more common at this size so maybe theyve mislisted it?

[Leann ull]

Try and borrow a reg from a pal just to check your pressures, I do believe older ones drift.

Don't forget to change your profile pic
http://fortune.com/2015/09/08/heineken-lagunitas-craft/

[Paul B]

Don't forget to change your profile pic
http://fortune.com/2015/09/08/heineken-lagunitas-craft/

Just means more lagunitas for me

[Beermonger]

Ciderhead, how often do you switch it back up to carbing pressure? After every pour, after every session, or just when not serving for a few days?

[krockett]

I have 5 foot of 3/8 line  - you can drink it at 5 psi but find that my beer is undercarbed.

At 6 degrees celcius it should be at 12 psi to be at 2.5 bar pressure. http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

[Leann ull]

Ciderhead, how often do you switch it back up to carbing pressure? After every pour, after every session, or just when not serving for a few days?

My keezer is set to 5 Degrees and I put back on pressure after the session the next day or so.

[Beermonger]

So if you are serving from the same keg each day (like I'm doing while waiting for other brews to be done), you never really turn it up again?

[Leann ull]

Not sure I understand the question?

I don't normally drink midweek so it goes back on monday to fri

Just to also say that some styles like english bitter should be served in the 5-9 psi area as too much carbonation with light bodied beers can make them seem thin, harsh and watery.

[Beermonger]

Whenever I think of an adjustment to the keg system, I have to pour some beer... and I don't want to throw it out. So the worse it pours, the more I drink .

Just to back up a bit:
They've 3/16, 3/8, 5/16 OD hard tubing on HBC listed as "BEER/GAS LINE 3/16" (etc.) O.D. - PER METRE (HARD)"

I think the OD is correct, as its makes sense to give ODs for hard tubing that may be required to couple with push fittings like JG (which are obviously specified on the OD of the tube). I hope it is anyway, I've just ordered some.

Further down the page (https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beer-wine-equipment-beer-line-pvc-tubing-c-2_89.html), there's polythene tubing - not really intended for push fittings - which is listed by the ID. Well, except for the 5/16" one that doesn't say whether it's ID or OD. I know it's the ID because I just went and bought 20 metres of it and have to return it now!

This issue is the major thing I'm trying to fix in my beer system right now. I've loads of trouble getting anything but foam serving at 11 psi (=2.25 vol at 6*C) through a 40 cm diameter coil of 3/8 OD (~1/4 ID) hard tubing. There's about 7 loops in the coil (see photo), meaning there must be about 9 metres of line there (trapping ~300 ml in the line, so I rarely get a fresh pour). And that's for just one keg! I plan on up to 6 tapped kegs, and maybe 8 when I build a collar on the chest freezer. There's no way I'm installing 6 or more 40-cm wide coils of hard line (which is heavy and awkward and has sometimes pulled on the qds, causing foaming) totalling 60 m in length. Madness!

So I've a couple of ideas. Maybe some of these will help the OP or someone else with this problem (or me:) :

* I ordered some 5/16 tubing (and 5/16-3/8 JG adaptors). This should be about 3/16 ID, compared to the 3/8 OD which has about 1/4 ID. Hopefully that will up the resistance a bit. If the values quoted online are right, I should be able to do with a meter or two.

* I chilled the fridge down from 6* to 2.6*. This actually lets me serve without foam at 8 psi (which should still give 2.3 vols). Problems: the beer's a little colder than I like it (but it warms up anyway), I still have 9 metres of line, and ... it doesn't taste as carbonated as 2.3 vols. I think I need a new reg. But if the reg is showing high, my foaming problem will be worse when I get an accurate reg

* There's a discussion on homebrewtalk (can't find it now) that developed in an interesting way. First, someone suggested adding tubing to the end of the dip tube. This is a bit of a pain, but led someone to come up with the idea of inserting epoxy mixing nozzles into the dip tube (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=100151). Read the thread, it seems to work great. And there's a better idea mentioned there as well: put 3/16 OD hard tubing into the diptube instead of  the nozzles. That's what I'll be trying. I'd love to increase the resistance in the keg and go with short lines. It would also let you carbonate Belgians or whatever and serve them with the same short tubing as everything else: just customize the dip tube insert (you might find you need 6" for 2.5 vol beer and 9" for 3.5 vol, for example).

[Beermonger]

craiclad, sorry to hijack the thread. It seems like we're dealing with the exact same problem—and we're not the only ones—so I thought it might be worth sharing what I've tried.

Seems like it's impossible to find 3/16" ID tubing over here

This should be it: https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beergas-line-516-od-per-metre-hard-p-72.html

I have some on order, so I'll let you know if it's what I expect in a day or two.