bubbles coming out of beer line 18PSI !?!?!?

[pck286]

hey, first post, great forum. got my tower cooled now and was excited but ive had bubbles coming out of the keg into the beer line. i read that the pressure was too low but i've got it at 18psi and theres still bubbles coming out, although not as many. standard 5 foot line, keg is now towards the end of the barrell as ive wasted basically a whole keg tryin to get this thing to work.

anyway, ive pulled the release ring on the coupler to remove some pressure a couple times and i feel that it might be part of my problem. its a yuengling keg. is it fine to leave it at high pressures, maybe even 20psi if this is how my beer pours best?? any other ideas. thanks guys
phil

[pck286]

also i got the fan set up blowing air into my tower. but i have a lower end summit model. theres two 'wires' coming into the fridge from the back of the unit. the one wire is for the refridgerent that connects to the cold plate and the other one, (im assuming but pretty sure) is the temperature reader and was screwed to the bottom of the cold plate. i feel like my fridge itself is too warm because the beer line is barely cold even though the keg and co2 canister are cold. (i dont have a thermometer at the moment to test.)

i unscrewed the temperature reader and put it closer to the top of my fridge so that (hopefully) it will read a warmer temperature and keep pumping cold air. think this was a good move? guess i gotta get a thermometer but in the meantime what do you guys think??

[pck286]

at 19 psi i am still getting a few bubbles. very very few bubbles (maybe 1 per 2 minutes) but still air is building in the beer line. even now that my tower is cooled i am still getting foam and im assuming because its at 19psi

i got bubbles in my line at lower psi but the beer flowed best at around 13-14 psi. it seems like the foam of the 19psi is much lighter than the beer at the 14 psi... this seems logical enough. but when i have it at 13-14 psi i am getting foam because of the air pockets.


seems to me like my keg (or the beer in the keg) either has too much co2 or not enough co2. should i bleed the keg and reset the pressure to 12psi or so and then let it sit for a while??

would it be better for me to remove the pressure and let the keg sit?




GAHHHHHHH this is so frustrating. i am and engineering undergraduate and am currently enrolled in thermodynamics. i wanna ask my teacher no way.

[Scott Zuhse]

Please, please, please get a thermometer now! Being a thermodynamics engineer, I am certain you know how tempermental gas in a solution can be. You need to know what the temperature is before tuning pressure. You can leave it at the higher pressure to acquire a decent pour but risk over gassing the beer.

[pck286]

ha yes i know i need a thermometer. is there a prefered kind for this sort of thing, i'm not trying to spend a bunch of money.


======> in the meantime do you think it would be better to turn the pressure down and let air bubbles come out or keep the pressure high with no bubbles leakage?????

[pck286]

im not a thermodynamics engineer, im a fire protection engineer. just taking thermodynamics, heat engines and such. and thats actually what im having a hard time understanding. does my beer have too much or too little C02 and does my keg have too much pressure?

[guy123]

if you're looking for a cheap thermometer, wal-mart sells a digital meat thermometer that is pretty accurate and will do the job just fine for the price of 13 bucks or so. you want your beer at 38 and psi 13-15 or so, depending on the beer and elevation you're at. if your temp is too high or too low, you will definitely see bubble issues.

[pck286]

so with the thermostat(?) moved to the open air in the fridge, and the fan blowing air in the tower, the fridge actually got too cold and the beer froze at the top of the tower. ha, at least i know it can get that cold now. turned the knob down to about half or standard coolness (like a 5 out of 10) and have just a magnet fridge that i found. not very accurate at all. but it is sitting on top of a tuperwear on top of the keg and says 39 so i might lower the temp a little. i am going to get an actual thermometer that i can put in the beer and measure the temp.

You can leave it at the higher pressure to acquire a decent pour but risk over gassing the beer.

i lowered the pressure to about 13 because i dont want to risk over gassing the beer (although i think my beer is already under or over gassed) and the pour isnt any better (just different) than at 19psi.

[Scott Zuhse]

Cannot help you until you get your hands on a thermometer. Inexpensive dial pocket thermometer that has been calibrated in ice water is ideal. Once in hand, search forum on calibration and testing beer for temp. You may want to perfoe ma pressure leak test as well.

[pck286]

ok, i found a little shitty freidge magnet thermometer. it reads every 5 degrees. i have my fridge now somewhewre between 35-40 and i would say its 38 but it probably cant be read that accurately. i am leaving my house for about a week tomorow. what im wondering is what i should leave the pressure at. if i leave it below like 18psi i get a ton of air coming out of the keg but im scared to leave it at a high pressure for say a week because im not sure what it will do to my beer. i guess my question is what pressure should i leave it on until i come back and can tackle this problem legitimately.