Draft Beer Blog

If your draught beer dispenser is leaking at some point in the system, you are going to have a bad beer day! Whether it is either the beer or pressure, do not walk away until you are certain that they are both intact and not seeping out somewhere. Foam issues, beer spills and excess gas use will result. No need to bother with fine tuning your system until you fix all leaks.

Not knowing if the beer is leaking, the entire keg can empty! Possibly ending up into a crack or crevice outside of the kegerator that may be difficult to get to for clean up. You do not want to know what grows in the presence of warm beer and air.

Always visually inspect every beer connection throughout the entire dispense system. Be certain that you have washers and they are intact above and below the coupler. Check for damaged or missing seals at the faucet and assure that all beer line clamps are secure. Evaluate the beer line for punctures.

Unlike beer leaks which can be visually detected, pressure leaks are not that obvious. These leaks will drive you to the funny farm since it will be difficult to accurately adjust your regulator. To determine if the pressure system is intact, simply turn off the cylinder valve while all other valves from the regulator are open and the keg coupler is on. Do not dispense beer. Watch the regulator’s high pressure gauge. If the pointer does not move, you are in great shape. When it drops, you have a leak.

Turn the cylinder back on to begin isolating a leak. With the pressure adjustment backed out all the way, turn the cylinder off. If the pointer drops, your leak is somewhere in the high pressure side of the regulator. Possibly the seat capsule assembly or the connection to the cylinder itself.

If the pointer holds position, turn cylinder back on and adjust the regulator to your desired setting but keep the regulator shut-off valve in off position. Again, turn the cylinder valve wheel off. If the pointer drops, possibly the diaphragm is damaged or the bonnet is loose. If the pointer does not move, the leak is further downstream.

Repeat procedure with regulator shut-off valve on and keg uncoupled. Eventually you will isolate where the leak resides. A common culprit is the coupler’s pressure connection. Do not rule out the keg itself. Although rare, keg valves have been known to leak. Inspect pressure line. Use a soapy water solution at a suspect area. The soap bubbles will pinpoint the leak.

Good luck hunting for your leak. Let us know if this has helped you solve problems.

If you are not quite certain as to your beer’s carbonation level or temperature and find yourself without a thermometer, there is still hope in determining your keg pressure. A flashlight can be used to determine if your beer’s gas content is staying put with the applied CO₂ pressure to the keg.

It is not an exact science although you will be surprised to how accurate it can be. It will not correct a warm tower issue. This test works best on a fresh keg that has acclimated to your kegerator. A risk would be to go overboard and increase the pressure to far, causing over carbonation of your beer. A dim flashlight will not cut it.

Follow these steps:

1. After turning your regulator shut- off to the off position, reduce your pressure to a low five to six PSIG (pounds per square inch gauge).
2. Couple your keg and then relieve the keg head pressure using the coupler’s safety relief valve.
3. Turn the regulator shut-off on pressurizing the keg.
4. Open the faucet for one second and close. Immediately shine your flashlight through your beer line just above the coupler. You may see a couple of large bubbles rising. Do not pay much attention to these. Look for very fine, small bubbles that are rising out of the top of the coupler through your line. This is the actual gas in the beer breaking out.
5. Raise your pressure one to two pounds and and after a few minutes, repeat step four. You should notice that the break out of the gas bubbles are becoming less frequent. You are becoming close to what is called gas equilibrium. But if you still see the bubbles, you are not quite there.
6. Repeat step five and continue this procedure until gas bubbles no longer rise out of the top of the coupler. Be careful not to raise the pressure to high. Once the gas bubbles disappear, you can be assured that the pressure you are applying to the keg is keeping the beer’s carbonation where it belongs - in the beer!

You will be surprised to find out that you will stop raising pressure right around 13 to 14 PSIG if your beer temperature is 38 degrees Fahrenheit and you are working with a 2.6 gas volume beer. Most certainly it would be much easier knowing your beer temperature using a calibrated thermometer and the carbonation level. Not necessarily the case all of the time.

As usual, the keg must be acclimated to your system before you perform this test. Be aware that it can take hours for a keg’s temperature to drop - even a couple of degrees. If you attempt this test, let us know how it worked out.

It is amazing how often I have encountered situations with draught systems where the regulator is turned way too low because the beer is too fast. This fast flow is not even clear beer but foam! Instead of addressing the issue as to why there is foam, a natural inclination would be to somehow slow down this perceived fast flow so beer will go into the glass.

Over the years I have had numerous experiences working with draught systems at retail and was baffled at why many of the systems using 100% CO2 had pressure settings to the keg around 7-8 PSIG. After discussing this with these retailers, it was not long before I understood what was going on. They indicated that at the recommended 12 - 14 PSIG, a fresh keg that was just coupled would foam like the dickens and this foam was shooting out of the faucet. Come to find out this keg was just delivered or was a backup in warm storage. Beer temperature was not 38 degrees, maybe closer to 50 degrees or worse.

If they lowered the pressure to 7-8 PSIG, the beer (foam) was easier to catch.  As a matter of fact, they claimed that eventually the beer would clear. No wonder! All that foam that was dumped out of the faucet was the actual carbonation in the beer. The beer’s gas content was probably reduced from a 2.6 volume to  1.5 volume or so - flat! But the retailer is now happy because the beer is going into the glass versus down the drip tray.

These stores actually began to believe that the low 7 - 8 PSIG to the keg was ideal and the kegs should always foam when first coupled. The retailers’ pour cost of dispensing in this fashion sky rockets since most of the beer was going down the drip tray. Not to mention their resale just took a dive. Who likes flat beer? They would be better off placing a cup on top of the tap marker and wait until the next day to dispense. It takes that long for a warm keg to acclimate to the keg cooler.

The reason that tapping warm kegs results in foam is simple. The gas in the beer is very, very sensitive to temperature - particularly warm temperatures. This carbon dioxide gas is looking for any reason to jump out of the beer. More so when the beer is warm since gas expands when heated. By the way, this applies to those who dispense at home as well.

The bottom line for keeping pour cost low, resale high and to enjoy beer as the brewer intended is to manage your  inventory to avoid dispensing from a warm keg while applying the correct PSIG.  So, keep your fingers off of that regulator if foam is barreling out of the faucet. Be patient and once the keg has acclimated, clear beer will appear. And remember - beer has gas and temperature trumps everything when dispensing.

Comments welcome!