A kegerator is a draft beer system that is housed inside a refrigerator. The main parts of a kegerator include the refrigerator, beer keg, CO2 tank, regulator, shank, draft faucet, beer line, and air hoses. On the CO2 tank regulator, there will be either one or two gauges. If there are two gauges, one will be the low-pressure gauge that reads from 0 to 60 psi, and measures the amount of pressure that the gas is being dispensed, while the other will be a high-pressure gauge ,psi that shows how much pressure is left in the tank, indicating the amount of CO2 left.
When dispensing draft beer, the goal is to keep the CO2 level prescribed by the brewer. But - there is no problem that cannot be fixed! Step 7: Watch for beer line dipping below the level of the top of the keg. Coil beer lines on top of the keg. If you are having consistent foam over problems, you should first understand that it takes time for a keg of beer to settle after transportation. The agitation of a full keg of beer releases some of the absorbed CO2 into the head space of the keg just from traveling a few blocks by car.
You can attempt to release this pressure using the bleed valve on the keg coupler or if homebrew on the keg lid. If the keg temperature has changed during transportation, you may have a temperature-related problem as well. Once a keg is installed into your kegerator, you should give it at least two and preferably four hours to 'settle in' before pouring. Also, make sure you are pouring with the glass at an angle , and this will help reduce foam from an improper pour.
A proper pint glass is helpful as well. Pressure Now that we've gone over the basics, check your CO2 regulator settings. You should compensate for the size of your beer lines - the bigger the inner diameter of the beer line, the more pressure that should be used to push the beer. The basic settings above are a great starting point for those that have kegerators or a direct-draw draft system. Things get a little more involved when it comes to complex long-draw draft systems.
We have to take into account the path the beer takes from keg to tap to help determine the appropriate pressure PSI. Luckily, there is a rather simple formula to determine this. This section will walk you through how to determine each of these factors, and thus, the ideal pressure for your draft beer system:.
You will need this measurement to be in feet. This just means the amount of pressure being pumped through a line. Every foot of beer line has a set, average Line Resistance. Below are two charts of Line Resistance for various common diameters of both vinyl and stainless steel beer lines. A successful kegerator has to be balanced. What this means is that the pressure in the keg, is equalized in the beer line as it travels to the tap. The length and diameter of the beer line play an important role in creating the necessary resistance required for the perfect pour.
If your beer is pouring slow and flat, the issue is most likely in the line. Lines that are too long or too thin, or both, will slow the flow of beer down too much, and knock too much co2 out of solution before it reaches the tap. So, as you pour, your beer will be less carbonated than it is in the keg. To fix this, be sure to balance your system properly, use shorter runs of beer line, or a wider hose.
This can be incredibly annoying as you pour glass after glass of foam, and end up pouring most of your beer down the drain. This common problem is normally caused by the following issues. Often, the lines are too short or too wide to slow the flow of beer down enough before it reaches the tap, leading to a frothy pint.
A good rule of thumb is for a keg at 12 psi serving pressure, between 3. Your system may differ, so buy extra hose and experiment with it until you get a good flow. An over carbonated keg can also be detected by looking at the beer line for small bubbles coming up from the keg, as co2 tries to escape the head space.
To fix this, unhook the co2 and purge the head space. Leave the gas unhooked, and allow the dissolved gas in your beer to escape and fill up the head space, which typically takes a couple of hours or so.
Hook up your gas at serving pressure and try again. As your beer gets warmer, more co2 is knocked out of solution, resulting in foam. Temperature is more of an issue in kegerators in which the beer line leaves the refrigerated area, i.
As beer sits in the line, it warms up to room temperature, causing the first beer out of the tap to be a foamy mess.
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