northhouguy
Apprentice
Yesterday I used Beersmith's equation and line loss values to calculate serving line length for my first ever kegged beer. The calc came out to 2-1/2 ft. That seemed short, but...
I cut the line to length put everything together and got about 1/3 beer, 2/3 foam. I get beer out of the tap at a VERY high velocity, probably 2-3 sec for a half pint fill. The keg has been sitting at 35 deg F, 10 PSI for seven days. The temp/press is right on the button from several carbonation charts.
I need to slow the beer down and that should mean a longer 3/16" line, I think. I've read that the line length calc is bollocks and I'm thinking that's true. One guy, (it was on the internet so it must be true...), went so far as to recommend putting on 12 feet of line and cutting off 6 inches at a time until Nirvana is attained. That seems wasteful to me, but on the other hand, if the length turned out to be 5 feet that's 14 pours and you can't put it back in the keg...
I think somewhere around a gallon a minute would be enough flow. So, What hose length accomplishes that? How do I figure it, or is trial and error the best method?
By the way, this was just a carbonation check. I'll serve the beer at 46 deg F and 15 lbs, (2.5 Vols of CO2, per Beersmith's recommendation), so I'll have to go through the line length thing again in Nov.
I cut the line to length put everything together and got about 1/3 beer, 2/3 foam. I get beer out of the tap at a VERY high velocity, probably 2-3 sec for a half pint fill. The keg has been sitting at 35 deg F, 10 PSI for seven days. The temp/press is right on the button from several carbonation charts.
I need to slow the beer down and that should mean a longer 3/16" line, I think. I've read that the line length calc is bollocks and I'm thinking that's true. One guy, (it was on the internet so it must be true...), went so far as to recommend putting on 12 feet of line and cutting off 6 inches at a time until Nirvana is attained. That seems wasteful to me, but on the other hand, if the length turned out to be 5 feet that's 14 pours and you can't put it back in the keg...
I think somewhere around a gallon a minute would be enough flow. So, What hose length accomplishes that? How do I figure it, or is trial and error the best method?
By the way, this was just a carbonation check. I'll serve the beer at 46 deg F and 15 lbs, (2.5 Vols of CO2, per Beersmith's recommendation), so I'll have to go through the line length thing again in Nov.