How do those of you that keg control your volumes of CO2 over the long term? I've got 5 kegs hooked into a manifold, but it's difficult to nail the volumes of all of them (say if I have an oatmeal stout and a weizen on at the same time.) Any tricks other than getting several kegs or different regulators for each outlet? I will usually just average across whatever is on, but that sometimes leaves a certain beer a bit under or over carbonated versus style. Thanks.
you can only apply the pressure the regulator delivers. there is no trick or work around. if you have multiple kegs on a single regulator, they will all be under the pressure set on the regulator. you need a secondary regulator for each keg that you would like to adjust independently. Cheers.
There are only two types of problems . . . those than can be solved with money, and those that can't. Fortunately your problem is the former. Secondaries rule.
You can always disconnect the stouts and lower CO2 beers for a few pours. Hook it back up for a few seconds, and remove it again. It's a lot of work, inconsistent, and probably cheaper than another regulator. I think I'd rather pour aggressively into a larger 20 oz glass and let it settle for a minute.
You don't want to keep a beer hooked up to gas that is set to a different pressure than is appropriate for that beer except, perhaps, for a very short time. It will equilibriate to whatever pressure it's set to. As long as the beer is properly carbed, it's safe to disconnect the gas between parties. (is 'equilibriate' a word?)
If I'm understanding this idea - carb up to right number of volumes for one keg, then disconnect entirely and connect to the next keg, change pressure, carb up to right number for the next keg, etc.? That makes sense, until it comes time to dispense the beer, and then everything would get messed up again wouldn't it? Or, would you set pressure for dispense a bit lower, dispense what you need, then set high again? It is seeming like this would work, but to inchrisin's point, maybe a lot more work than it is worth. Sounds like most of you out there drop the cash for the additional regulators.
That's probably a reasonable enough compromise between convenience and quality if additional regulators are not practical. The carbonation level of the beers will not change appreciably during the few hours your're serving them at the slightly lower or higher pressure.
yeah, i've never met you of course and could be wrong, but you're not going to be happy with that situation. if you want different carb levels for different kegs, your only practical solution is get a few secondaries. you went ahead and bought the kegs, made the beer, got a kegerator, probably a temp controller, not to mention 100 other items... now you need secondaries. bite the bullet. throw away the receipts. Cheers.
That's what I do for now (and the foreseeable future). Of course, I've never really had more than 2 on at a time and some styles have large ranges that overlap or are close to overlapping.
if you're force carbonating then you will carbonate each one individually, but once thats done and they are on the dispense side I think you delivery pressure is the only one to worry about..once you place x amount of CO2 in solution, its there. I don't think that bars have a separate CO2 tak for each tap..maybe I'm wrong..I'm sure someone will elighten me..
Not exactly. If you reduce the serving pressure (as compared to the equilibrium pressure that was used for carbonating), the beer will de-gas into the headspace. The more you serve, the lower it will get.
I think perhaps that is partly true..some degassing will occur....certainly as the OP is looking for a long term solution, the only way is to charge and disconnect i think, or have multiple regulators..
The serving pressure is critical to maintaining equilibrium. The beers will eventually all end up with the same volumes of CO2 if they're all set to the same serving pressure, regardless of how high you carbonated them originally.
if you have check valve on the highly carbonated kegs, then you could keep those maintained at a higher volume. My system has a two body primary regulator. First body is set at 35psi and has two outputs, one going to seltzer keg and second going to a secondary regulator. Secondary regulator runs my manifold and is set at 12psi which is good for 90% of my hbs. Second body of my primary regulator is then my specialty regulator and can be set at 8psi for a barleywine or RIS or 15psi for a weizen. I also can drop it down to 4 psi to flush kegs or carboys w/CO2. Has worked really well for me now for 2 years and haven't run into major conflicts yet.
But you would still need to shut off the valves to the lower carbed kegs before restoring pressure to the higher carbed kegs anytime you pour a pint. A few sessions of that, I think, would create ample justification for additional regulators, as you seem to have already done.
seems pretty obvious: dick with it over and over again or spend the money. such is the way with most brewing stuff.
correct... mattbk, just to throw it out there, this regulator is bad-ass: http://www.homebrewstuff.com/co2-regulator-dual-gauge-heavy-duty-pro-series.html I had them make it a 2-body system and used my original regulator as my secondary. I also had homebrewstuff put on y-splitters on the outputs of each body. Good luck with your system!
