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I recently started working at a distributor with a long draw system. I'm used to direct draw. We keep the pressure at 20 and seem to do okay with that. Temp is always a bit on the cold side in the keg room, and the system is so long that the beer is constantly on the foamy side, but we manage to get good pours knowing that ahead of time (just lose a lot of beer).
Additional: Using 12 faucets, most are IPAs and pilsners, one is a stout. 70/30 Co2 and nitrogen.
I had an issue where the PSI dropped on the regulators overnight - they were fine the night before, next day they were around 15. Key detail: I was not "allowed" to adjust the pressure, so I had to figure something else out.
Out of 12 faucets, 2 were sputtering. I shut those down. Both of those had been used more often recently. But I needed to continue to sell some beer, couldn't shut the whole thing down, my supervisor wasn't there, so I decided I could probably get a few good pours out of the remaining lines that had not been recently used - the stout, for instance, isn't popular and hasn't been sold in a while, so here's where I made an assumption that is possibly false: Some built up gas must have remained in the lines or keg, explaining why these were still pouring well. But I figured that meant there was a limited a amount of time before carbonation started to decline.
So I sold someone a stout into a growler and another person a pilsner that ended up not filing to the top, and gave them a discount.
First question: Was I right to think I could get a few more pours out of the kegs that hadn't been used since the pressure dropped? They seemed to pour good for a little while. Because I can't taste the beer at work, couldn't tell if I was losing carbonation, but there was a head and it took longer to pour because I'd have to pull the glass a way every time it got too foamy. Customers were okay with waiting and I explained we only had a limited supply that night.
Before closing I poured myself a beer into a growler and took it home to test it out. This was from one one of the taps that hadn't been used prior to the pressure drop. It of course stopped pouring well after 24 oz. The beer ended up being low in carbonation (expected for low pressure) and did not have good head retention when poured into a glass later that night. So maybe those customers did get flat beer, even though it looked fine?
Edit: By looking "fine," I mean that the small tasting glasses I poured were fine and customers were happy with those. Pouring smaller amounts from less-used lines, everything looked pretty normal except for burps of extra foam every now and then.
Second question: Should I have shut down all draft beer until pressure was brought back up, or did those few customers get a good pour (it looked like a good pour) for the small amount in the kegs not recently used? Is that theoretically possible?
What should I have done? Shut it down, or are there a few good pours left when the pressure on the regulator drops suddenly? As I said, it appeared some were pouring fine but I limited them, thinking there might only be some trapped gas left to keep them carbonated sufficiently for sale.
Extra question I haven't found on the forum: Why would the pressure suddenly drop overnight without warning? It was great on Sat night, by Sun afternoon the most-used lines were barely functional. This isn't normal for our system.
Thanks! I'm fairly new to this so my explanation may be a little provincial.
Additional: Using 12 faucets, most are IPAs and pilsners, one is a stout. 70/30 Co2 and nitrogen.
I had an issue where the PSI dropped on the regulators overnight - they were fine the night before, next day they were around 15. Key detail: I was not "allowed" to adjust the pressure, so I had to figure something else out.
Out of 12 faucets, 2 were sputtering. I shut those down. Both of those had been used more often recently. But I needed to continue to sell some beer, couldn't shut the whole thing down, my supervisor wasn't there, so I decided I could probably get a few good pours out of the remaining lines that had not been recently used - the stout, for instance, isn't popular and hasn't been sold in a while, so here's where I made an assumption that is possibly false: Some built up gas must have remained in the lines or keg, explaining why these were still pouring well. But I figured that meant there was a limited a amount of time before carbonation started to decline.
So I sold someone a stout into a growler and another person a pilsner that ended up not filing to the top, and gave them a discount.
First question: Was I right to think I could get a few more pours out of the kegs that hadn't been used since the pressure dropped? They seemed to pour good for a little while. Because I can't taste the beer at work, couldn't tell if I was losing carbonation, but there was a head and it took longer to pour because I'd have to pull the glass a way every time it got too foamy. Customers were okay with waiting and I explained we only had a limited supply that night.
Before closing I poured myself a beer into a growler and took it home to test it out. This was from one one of the taps that hadn't been used prior to the pressure drop. It of course stopped pouring well after 24 oz. The beer ended up being low in carbonation (expected for low pressure) and did not have good head retention when poured into a glass later that night. So maybe those customers did get flat beer, even though it looked fine?
Edit: By looking "fine," I mean that the small tasting glasses I poured were fine and customers were happy with those. Pouring smaller amounts from less-used lines, everything looked pretty normal except for burps of extra foam every now and then.
Second question: Should I have shut down all draft beer until pressure was brought back up, or did those few customers get a good pour (it looked like a good pour) for the small amount in the kegs not recently used? Is that theoretically possible?
What should I have done? Shut it down, or are there a few good pours left when the pressure on the regulator drops suddenly? As I said, it appeared some were pouring fine but I limited them, thinking there might only be some trapped gas left to keep them carbonated sufficiently for sale.
Extra question I haven't found on the forum: Why would the pressure suddenly drop overnight without warning? It was great on Sat night, by Sun afternoon the most-used lines were barely functional. This isn't normal for our system.
Thanks! I'm fairly new to this so my explanation may be a little provincial.
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