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Beer-Gas hose length formula?

RaymondMillbrae

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Hey Folks, I have a question for you.

I am primarily brewing porters and stouts.

I have a beer-gas tank (75/25) and also the nitro spouts.

Looking at the carbonation levels for stouts, I am keeping mine at 2.0 CO2 per volume.

My fridge is at 39 degrees. So after kegging the bier after fermentation, I pressured it with pure CO2 for 5 days at 7-8 psi's.

I have looked at "hose length calculators," and they show the length for pure CO2 carbonation.

I currently have a fridge in my Man-Cave which I have converted to a kegorator. (Three spouts drilled into the door).

There is about a 4" inch height difference (upward) from the keg to the spout. And there is about a 1' foot distance from the keg to the door spout.

Is there a calculator for beer-gas hose length available?

I currently have a 3/16" ID hose, cut to an 8' foot length, with the beer-gas set at 35 psi's of pressure. (.25 [beer-gas CO2 percentage] multiplied by 35 [the psi pressure] = 8.75 psi of CO2 pressure.

The stout is pouring kinda slow, with a SLIGHT head. The cascading is also minimal.

Does it need to rest a bit more with pure CO2 to get better carbonated, or is there a beer-gas hose calculator out there to help me calculate a better hose length?

Just curious.
 
The length of the gas line does not matter, regardless if it is pure CO2 or a CO2/N2 blend.  The length of the beer line coming out is of importance in making sure the flow of the beer is laminar and does not cause undue degassing during dispensing.  This is primary a function of serving pressure and flow rate.
 
Brad has written an article on this subject: http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/

Beer line length, beer line inner diameter, CO2 pressure and more all make a difference. If anyone tells you X feet of beer line works for them, don't assume it works for you too. There are a lot of variables in every system.
 
I read the article KEVIN58 linked me to. But the pressure is based off of keg pressures from a 100% CO2 gas mixture.

But myself, I'm using 35 psi's of beer-gas, which is 75% nitrogen and 25% CO2.

Do I just neglect the nitrogen part of the beer-gas, and assume that 35 psi's will give me 8.25 psi's of CO2?

I'm a bit lost here, and don't want to start cutting my beer hose length until I can understand the math/reasoning behind what I am doing.

Seems to me that I would need a longer length of 3/16" inch hose length to achieve more resistance/pressure.

Does anyone have a keg-to-tap hose length calculator for peeps brewing porters and stouts with a nitro/CO2 gas mixture?
 
First, you need to calculate your line length based on SERVING pressure.

Second, some stout faucets have a restrictor plate, or flow control valve built in to compensate for the additional serving pressure.

Lastly, if you want "nitro" you can serve off straight nitrogen. "beer gas" is predominately used for brewhouses that have long serving line lengths, and has minimal use for homebrewers, as the concentration of co2 is still high enough that you're not getting proper nitrogen amounts into the beer (nitrogen is not very miscible with beer)
 
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