Kegs for uncontrolled temperature dispensing?

[Kev888]

I like my faithful cornies, but I'm soon going to lose the ability to control temperature well, and I don't want to go back to the bad old days of excessive foaming in summer so I'm trying to decide on the best (oxygen impervious) conditioning/dispensing vessel.

Its my belief that the foaming was mainly caused by force-carbonating and dispensing pressure during inconsistent temperature; the beer taking in more gas whilst cooler and wanting to precipitate it when serving warmer (I have a suitable length of product line to balance etc.). So I'm thinking that perhaps the stainless pub-type keg would better lend itself to priming and low-pressure dispensing, and so may be the solution; I know some people manage to prime in cornies but its not for me.

Does this seem reasonable?

Cheers,
Kev

[Kev888]

Well having researched and thought about this some more, I'm thinking that the key may be to use some sort of release valve so that excess pressure can't build up during unfavourable/variable temperatures. CO2 regulators are quite good at supplying a pre-set reduced pressure but mine at least will not vent excess back pressure well (at least not until it is very excessive).

The answer may be a cask aspirator, some of which I believe incorporate a release valve to emulate a spile. Though they deliver only about half a PSI, or less, so carbonation would fall over time. Or I could potentially devise something similar which maintains a tiny bit more pressure and reduces the rate of carbonation deterioration (to something more suitable for a home-drinker without pub-like turnover). The challenge would be to have only a small difference between the supplied/regulated pressure and the over-pressure at which it vented - if the regulator or valve were too sloppy (hysteresis) then their pressures would have to be set too far apart to prevent the breather valve emptying my CO2 cylinder.

Or another answer may be to have no carbonation, thereby eliminating chances of foam whatever happens, but whilst I like my beer quite flat, 'too' flat can make it seem lifeless.

Does anyone have any experience of serving warm beer from a cask breather type setup, does it still foam?

Cheers
Kev

[Kev888]

Or, I now recall there was some sort of bag-in-keg system, whereby the CO2 never met the beer directly. IIRC it was designed to get over stubbornness about CO2 blankets making ale somehow become not real in certain people's minds, but it would also presumably prevent excess CO2 being absorbed by the beer in unfavourable temperatures/pressures. Now all I have to do is remember what they were called..


Edit, ah found them. They were ecofass kegs, or others were keykegs. But they seem not to be available in small quantities and there is (especially with the keykeg) a disposable element that costs per brew. Maybe I'm back to an aspirator valve then.

Cheers
kev

[bob3000]

how about keeping the cornies and using flow control?

http://a1barstuff.co.uk/pushfit-flow-controller1

this means you can maintain a high pressure but will not fob as much, an alternative to using loads of beer line to keep pressure, will pour very slowly though.

I don't understand how sankey kegs would work better without temp control.

[FUBAR]

Well since I've swapped from cornies to poly kegs ( got fed up with the faffing around cleaning/sanitising them plus the fact of the lids need a fair bit of pressure to keep sealed) they wont fit in the kegerrator and I've had no problems with fobbing, a very good point is Sankey type kegs need no assistance to keep a seal. My procedure is to gas to 30 psi at kegging then disconnect and leave to condition, I've found then that I can consume virtually the whole keg with only an occasional squirt of gas at 10psi, carbonation for the vast majority of the keg isn't a great deal higher than a cask Ale would be (which I like) the pour rate is a little on the slow side for a lot of the keg, but I can live with that.

[Kev888]

Bob, Yeah, I tried those; they could help, though a long length of beer line (and/or smaller bore) seemed better - presumably because it dropped the pressure more gradually. But there are limits to how much balancing and flow control can go before it takes unrealistically long to pour a pint; if the corny had warmed up before dispensing and/or had previously become a bit over-carbonated during a dip in temperature, then there was just no acceptable compromise to be had.

Well since I've swapped from cornies to poly kegs ( got fed up with the faffing around cleaning/sanitising them plus the fact of the lids need a fair bit of pressure to keep sealed) they wont fit in the kegerrator and I've had no problems with fobbing, a very good point is Sankey type kegs need no assistance to keep a seal. My procedure is to gas to 30 psi at kegging then disconnect and leave to condition, I've found then that I can consume virtually the whole keg with only an occasional squirt of gas at 10psi, carbonation for the vast majority of the keg isn't a great deal higher than a cask Ale would be (which I like) the pour rate is a little on the slow side for a lot of the keg, but I can live with that.

Ah, excellent, many thanks. Perhaps Sanke could be the way to go then.

Obviously, the cause of my previous problems was related to pressure without any control over temperature, but its my perception that contributing factors were the amount of pressure and carbonation involved to begin with and 'possibly' also the corny poppets/disconnects; in my experience it was already fobbing by the time beer was leaving the disconnect not just way down the line. I was thinking that if a sanke style keg could let me carbonate gently and dispense at lower pressures, and if the purpose-designed couplers didn't encourage fobbing as much, they could be more suitable. It sounds like your regime probably helps too, force carbonating only briefly at higher pressure; could be an alternative to priming.

EDIT: I've seen the poly kegs mentioned on here but probably need to consider them more carefully, they sort of arrived whilst I was away.

Many thanks,
Kev