Troubleshooting new keezer issue

Yep, I think that will be my strategy, though I am a bit curious as to how it could have gotten overcarbed in the first place. The highest pressure that keg ever saw was 10psi at about 39-42F. Since it's on a splitter with the Porter, I will just turn off the gas and vent, then disengage that coupler (so I can turn the gas back on for the porter). Then repeat those steps a few times over the weekend.

Another side question. For temp control, I am using a Johnson a419 and I have the following settings applied:

SP=35
SF=1
OFS=0
ASF=1
DIF=3

I have the probe wrapped in ziploc bag, then submerged in a 12oz bottle of water in a gatorade bottle through a small hole i drilled in the cap. With this setup, my liquid temp at the tap is 39-42. I was suspecting that the Johnson would be fairly accurate...so I was wondering why I have to set it around 4F lower than my target? Anyone else had experiences like this with the Johnson a419?

 

Another update here. The Stone Go-To has finally settled down and I should be good to go there. Now...the next wrinkle...my root beer. So I have a corny filled with rootbeer that i have made before. When I tapped it in the danby, I would force carb it, vent off pressure then set to serving pressure at about 10psi and all was well for the life of the keg.

For this batch, I force carbed it in the danby the same way I always have and it was pouring great in the danby at 10psi. So I disconnect and move to the keezer, set to 10psi (with the same 10ft line I am using for the other taps) and am getting alot of foam. What is odd to me, is that when I look at the beer line coiled on top of the corny, I can see lots of bubbles in the line:


Any idea what might be causing that? I assume that is the source of my problem as I don't see this issue with any of the beer lines (which all seem to be pouring well).

 

To be honest, I don't actually know the required vols of CO2. This is the sprecher extract. In the past, I have basically force carbed at about 30psi until no more C02 would absorb into solution (using the "rock" method). Then just used the same serving pressure I used for beer. It seemed to work well.

I did do one last "rock" at 30 psi at about 4pm ET yesterday (in the danby). At about 10 pm, I poured a nice glass from the danby at 10psi and figured I was good to go. So I disconnected, carried the keg down stairs and put it in the keezer then set the regulator to 10 psi and went to bed. My first pour was this morning (to test). If I need the rootbeer to settle, should I turn off the CO2 now and vent the blanket of CO2 currently in there? Then maybe let it rest for a day and re-apply 10psi tomorrow?

 

Ok...got ahold of sprecher. He says the proper vols of CO2 are 3.3. So now my fear is that I might have overcarbed when I had it at 30 psi. He said once carbonated, they use 10-12 psi for dispensing. Mybe my next step is let it sit as is and check again tonight. If its still foaming, maybe de-gas the keg and try to shake some CO2 out of solution. Then retap tomorrow morning. Repeat.

 

Is there a specific chart you use that references length of line? All the ones I ever look at are just factors of temp and pressure. What is odd to me is why would he say that they dispense at 10-12psi if at 40F there's no way that will keep the beer at 3.3 vols. Errr....at this point I don't know if I am overcarbed or not dispensing at a high enough pressure. Any suggested next step?

 

Correct...I am using 10ft of 3/16 ID line.

When I moved the keg to my keezer, I vented off all head CO2 then applied 10psi. At this point, I think I will re-check it at about 5pm and see if its getting any better. If so, I will give it more time to equalize. If not, then I think I will try to de-gas it in case I might have overcarbed.

 

I talked to sprechrer again, and basicallly they saying dispense at 10-12psi but store at 17-20psi to maintain the 3.3 vols. So they are assuming that you are not going to "set it and forget it". So I am thinking maybe my best bet is to set it somewhere areoung 14-15psi and maybe extend my line length (longer than 10 ft) to get a proper pour. Hopefully, that could get me to to close to the target vol of C02, but not have to contstantly adjust the pressure whenever I want to pour.

Does that make sense?

 

The more i think about this, I feel like the bubbles I am seeing is CO2 coming out of solution. So say I had force carbed to 3.3 vols (which would take roughly 20psi at 40F). I have no way to measure the exact vols, but per taste, I was pretty darn close. I am now trying to dispense at 10psi at 40F. So the bubbles would be CO2 breaking out of solution to get back down to an equilibrium of 10 psi. I can noticibly tell that root beer is starting to taste more flat than when I initially tapped it.

That makes me think I should set it somewhere around 15-17psi, then just leave it for a few days and see where I end up on the carbonation front. If I am having pour issues, then start looking at extending my line to accomodate the higher serving pressure.

 

This might be a dumb question, but is there any easy way to measure the vols of CO2 in solution? Maybe this should go in the homebrew forum, but say you have a homebrew IPA that you want to carbonate with approximately 2.5vols of CO2. Obviously I can look at the chart and see that at 40F, I should set my regulator at 12-13psi. But how do you now when solution has actually aciehved the proper carobonation levels?

I have been brewing all grain for a few patches now and I feel like forcarbonatiing has so much guess work (especially if you try to expedite the process by using higher pressure).

 

I agree this seems odd. They actually left me a VM so I didn't speak to anyone directly. I called back today and we'll see if I get a response. Maybe the assume that extending line length is not an option for some folks.

I have had the rootbeer in the danby at 17psi since Friday morning and the carbonation levels seem on but it's flying out of the tap (which is expected with the really short run on the danby). I am thinking if 10ft is reasonable for 10-12psi for my beer with the perlicks, then I could maybe try 15-17ft with about 17psi on the rootbeer. That would allow me to maintain proper carbonation (or darn close) and provide enough resistance to slow down the pour. Does that seem reasonable?