Brewing Master

Question:

I’m having a devil of a time dispensing beer from Cornelius kegs. Maybe somebody in netland can help. The problem is carbonation. I pressurize my kegs to 15 psi or so at 40F to get 2.5 or so volumes of CO2, which I believe is working just fine. When it comes time to dispense, however, I get a glass of very little flat beer with a great head. I’ve tried dispensing at 2-3 psi, which realy gets the foam going, and at 15 psi, which shoots the beer right out of the glass. 8 psi seems to work best of all, but I still lose most of the carbonation during dispensing. The dispensing hose is at the same temperature as the beer. It’s about 4 feet long; I’ve been wondering if a longer hose would help (no rude comments please)…isn’t there about a 1 psi/foot drop in pressure across the hose? I’d welcome any advice at all about dispensing from the keg. Regards, Perry Donham VMS Course Development

Response:

I’m having a devil of a time dispensing beer from Cornelius kegs. Maybe somebody in netland can help. The problem is carbonation. I pressurize my kegs to 15 psi or so at 40F to get 2.5 or so volumes of CO2, which I believe is working just fine. When it comes time to dispense, however, I get a glass of very little flat beer with a great head.

You are (believe it or not) overcarbonated.  I fought this for my first couple of tanks.  It doesn’t take much (overcarbonation) to exhibit the symptom you’re seeing.  The CO2 is coming out of solution as soon as it’s dispensed..  Do this:  Turn off the CO2 feed and bleed off all the pressure in the cornelius via the pressure relief.  Let it sit for a half day (without CO2 applied) and repeat.  The next day, bleed it off again and re-apply CO2 from the tank (about 5 lbs works best for me).  Try drawing a beer.  If it’s still giving you alot of head and flat liquid, repeat the above process and re-sample the next day. Do this until it gets dialed in.  The dispensing pressure you use will depend largely on the tubing diameters and lengths you use for the liquid line to the faucet. It seems that there is enough turbulence and restriction coming up through the small diameter draw tube and then through the hose connectors (pin lock or ball lock quick disconnects) that the CO2 starts coming out of solution as it travels through them…  by the time it hits the glass, you can have 85% foam and only 15% liquid. Bleeding the pressure in steps as I outlined, allows you to stop when the carbonation is still quite adequate without excessive foaming. Stan

Response:

I’d welcome any advice at all about dispensing from the keg. Regards, Perry Donham VMS Course Development

I like to get my beer colder before carbonation, then warm to serving temp…  Goes something like this…  Chill to 30F, siphon into keg.   Pump to 25-30 PSI and do the keg dance for 5-10 mins.  warm the beer to whatever temps you want, drop the pressure to 5 pounds in the keg by opening the gas valve on the keg.  Dispense at 5 – 10 pounds.  Allways dispense wiht the valve wide open.  I don’t usualy even leave the gas connedted to the kegs…  Just run em up to 10 PSI every day or three.   The maintance pressure is different depenting on the temp.  The pressures for most beers is; Temp       Pressure 30           9.5 35          12.0 40           15.0 45          18.0 50          20.5 55          24.0 60          26.5 65          29.0          Hope this helps !  JB — [] SEANEWS [] Seattle Public Access Usenet News + Mail [] +1 206 747 NEWS []

Response:

I’m having a devil of a time dispensing beer from Cornelius kegs. Maybe somebody in netland can help. . . . .

        I pretty well agree with all the followups given on this problem.  It seems to me that one could think of there being two types of kegging pressures: one for setting up your carbonation level, and one for dispensing.         Carbonation pressure is determined depending on the temperature your beer is at and the desired carbonation level (volumes of CO2).  Dave Miller’s book Brewing the World’s Great Beers has a handy table for figuring this out.         Dispensing pressure is the "post carbonation period" pressure that the beer is maintained at.  3 to 5 psi seems to work well.  As was mentioned in a previous reply, bleeding off all of the initial carbonation pressure seems to be the trick to not getting creamcans full of foam. Good luck and happy kegging. Brent Fordham

Response:

I’m having a devil of a time dispensing beer from Cornelius kegs. Maybe somebody in netland can help. The problem is carbonation. I pressurize my kegs to 15 psi or so at 40F to get 2.5 or so volumes of CO2, which I believe is working just fine. When it comes time to dispense, however, I get a glass of very little flat beer with a great head.

My first attempt at kegging beer in a Cornelius keg went just like that. Rather than attempt to solve the problem by theory, I’ll tell you what I have been doing that works well.  I prime my keg with 1/3 c of corn sugar and flush the keg twice with CO2 to purge the tank of air -charge with CO2 to 5 psi, followed by releasing through the valve on top of the C. keg.  After around two weeks, I re-connect the CO2 tank and dispense at around 5 psi of pressure. I’d welcome any advice at all about dispensing from the keg.

With respect to dispensing, I think it helps to always dispense "full blast". I aim the beer into the glass at an angle that makes it swirl its way in -this gives a moderate head and leaves the beer reasonably well carbonated. Cheers, Eugene W.

Response: