trying to beat the system if that makes sense

[ttrowbridge795]

I am really new to to having draft beer (kegerator) I am using hand me downs that I cleaned very well and new 5/16 line. I understand that the proper temp is 38 degrees, but I like my beer very coldI actually froze my lines twice. oops. anyways I have about 20" of line that runs outside of the fridge to my shank and faucet that is built into my bar. I currently have my tem at about 28 deg measured with digital thermometer in the fridge can I just bump my pressure down ( which I have done) to around 7 psi to overcome the over carbonation and foaming which I think I have a handle on now?? or am I just fighting a battle I can't win to have really cold beer?? any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[bonefish]

Having the coldest...

...beer in town, means you don't have the best tasting beer in town. It is going to overcarbonate because of your low temp. Or its going to go flat because of your low pressure.
Balance your system, and you won't have problems, and you will have really good beer.
SEAN

[bkl63]

You might as well be serving "water on the rocks" if you are serving beer that low in temperature. All you are doing is masking the taste as they don't fully come out when it's that cold.

[cubby_swans]

I am really new to to having draft beer (kegerator) I am using hand me downs that I cleaned very well and new 5/16 line. I understand that the proper temp is 38 degrees, but I like my beer very coldI actually froze my lines twice. oops. anyways I have about 20" of line that runs outside of the fridge to my shank and faucet that is built into my bar. I currently have my tem at about 28 deg measured with digital thermometer in the fridge can I just bump my pressure down ( which I have done) to around 7 psi to overcome the over carbonation and foaming which I think I have a handle on now?? or am I just fighting a battle I can't win to have really cold beer?? any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

I have a few comments.

First off, if you have 5/16" line, that's too big. 5/16" line will cause foam because the beer will be pouring way too fast. The line should be 5 or 6 feet of 3/16"ID line.

If you like your beer ice cold, so be it. It's your beer and you can do with it as you please. Macro beer (bud, miller, coors) starts to freeze around 29F, So I wouldn't go any colder than 30 or 31 if you really want it that cold. But your fridge temp is not necessarily your beer temp. To determine your beer temp, pour a glass, chug it, then pour another. Take the temp of the beer in that second glass with a calibrated thermometer.

If you have beer line running outside the fridge, is it exposed? If so, I don't care how cold your fridge is, the beer in that line warms up rapidly if it's in there even for just a minute or two. You need to build a 2" PVC pipe to house that beer line and insulate that PVC real good. Then you need to build a blower and blow cold air from the fridge into that PVC pipe to keep the beer line outside the fridge cold. Otherwise that line will be warm, and the cold beer running through that line will warm up until it has cooled down the beer line. Using beer to cool your beer line is pretty inefficient, and will cause you to dump a lot of beer/foam over the course of a keg.

Last but not least, in order to determine the proper PSI, you need to know what the temp of the beer is (see above). What kind of beer is it? Assuming (bud/miller/coors) something since you want it that cold. If so, you should set it to 12PSI at 38F. If you want it colder, bump the PSI down one for ever two degree drop in temp. If your beer temp is 32, set the PSI to 9.