Hi all, looking for advice. I have a home built kegerator using a MicroMatic door-kit. Current beer is Port City Porter, temp is 37 (verified), 5' ft line, PSI is at 10 and it's been tapped for approximately 3 weeks. For the first week it was great, poured perfect, low foam, everything was fine. I didn't pour any beer for about 4 days and I noticed when I finally had one, it came out a little slower and poured choppy. Checked the pressure and it was down to 7ish. I turned it back up to 10 and heard a large wooshing sound of gas going into the keg. Let it settle down for a day, came back, pressure steady but beer is quite foamy and tastes a bit different than I remember. I have noticed I have large air pockets in my beer line, especially by the coupler but also right where the hose goes through the door to the faucet. If I have a few beers, the line remains full, but if I check it the next day the pockets are back. I had a faulty regulator but I just upgraded to a Micromatic Premium single gauge prior to tapping this keg. I've turned up the pressure and checked for leaks but haven't found any. I'm a bit stumped as to what could be causing this. Bad coupler? An o-ring I haven't checked? Help!
You probably don't have the pressure high enough. You're regulator fell to 7 psi and that does not help. Keep an eye on it, it might be a bad gauge. Brand new out of the box regulators do fail, even the MM "Premium" brand (which are a bit more complicated than standard regulators but not immune to failure. And not really premium either). If the keg gets screwy towards the end it is most always pressure related, as the liquid space decreases the open space increases, and the beer will de-gas until equilibrium is met. If you have low applied pressure it is going to get worse and worse as the keg gets emptied. The bubbles in the beer line directly above the coupler is a classic case of an under pressurized keg. Might be too late for this keg. Keep the pressure up a bit, 12 psi. There is also a chance that the top of the kegerator is not as cold as the bottom, and the line is degassing because of the temperature increase. And you might have both issues. Cheers.
