Corny Keg Help!

[GeezyPeezy]

Hi all!

I've got a Cascade Smash dry hopped and ready to be transferred into my first ever Corny Keg (Ball Lock).

After reading about foaming on dispensing. I'm worried that my tap is going to foam like a rabid dog.

I have got the tap that you screw onto the beer out disconnect.

Anyway I am under orders from Mrs Peezy to not spend any money. So I can't purchase a new tap.

With the wealth of wisdom available on here is there anything I can do to reduce the chance of foaming?

I wasn't planning on force carbonation. I am just going to prime with 85g of sugar.

Gaz

[Rogermort]

Use the blow off valve to reduce pressure and keep it cool/cold.

[Rad]

I'm in the same boat until I get a kegerator. What I do now is disconnect the gas, pull the pressure release until it stops hissing. Give it few seconds and start pouring. The beer will come out on its own. I get about 2 pints almost foam free before I need to put more gas in. Once you got your beer, don't forget to reconnect the gas. It does waste CO2 but what can you do?

[Kev888]

If your corny is not in a temperature controlled place, then one of your enemies is temperature variation. When the beer is cooler it will absorb more gas, when it is warmer it will try to get rid of the excess - increasing foam when you dispense. So don't leave the gas connected all the time, just when dispensing (this also reduces gas loss should you get a leak). The corny is then essentially just a big bottle between dispensing sessions. And don't dispense at a high enough pressure that it will increase carbonation whilst doing so.

The other main enemy with such a short beer line and potentially warm environment is the amount of carbonation. As mentioned, warmer beer doesn't like to hold its gas and the short beer line doesn't let the pressure drop gradually en-rout to the tap; sudden de-pressurisation encourages foaming. So go for very modest amounts of priming/carbonation; if you carbonate too highly then 'even' if you dispense at a low pressure, it will encourage foam.

However unless you're lucky and/or have a new corny you may well find that you need a minimum pressure of a few to several PSI to keep the lid sealed. Corny lids are designed to seal due to the pressure pushing them up against the O-ring. So it may be that you have to compromise on the pressure in order to control foaming yet maintain the lid seal. Similarly when priming, you may need to seal the lid with a blast of CO2 otherwise the gradually produced priming pressure may just seep out and never build sufficiently to seal it.

[GeezyPeezy]

I have a recently made a fermenting fridge that I could use to store the kegs whilst it's empty.

What sort of temperature would be best?

[Fil]

wot kev said

my first few keg fuls were naturally conditioned, the only difference being the volume of sediment in the keg that needed to be sucked up n out when it was first tapped resulting in 2-3 dirty pints and a not so clear pull after that either. While if conditioned with co2 and pressure the loss at the start due to sediment is 1/2 a pint at worst..

I keg without a keg fridge, it can be done, but if you have a fridge it will save hours of fiddling as when the ambient temp changes i need to tweak my systems.

http://www.homebrewheaven.com/CornyKegSystem.pdf while american and uses old money temperatures its basically a sound guide..

there was 'sticky' in here with a conditioning chart using real temperatures C i had a quick look but failed to find it..

[alexlark]

Download of Printable Excel File

It's a sticky in the Dispense section

[Fil]

Download of Printable Excel File

It's a sticky in the Dispense section

cheers i should bookmark that now ☺

[Kev888]

What sort of temperature would be best?

If you were to pick one temperature to keep and serve the beer, then for British ales many would say that 12c to 13c (55F) is around the ideal temperature, but for other styles and lagers it can be rather cooler. However, one joy of being a home brewer is that you get to tweak to your personal taste. Generally these temperatures are cool enough to manage foaming too, though highly carbonated styles are IMO easier to deal with at cooler temperatures.

That carbonation chart is often used to gauge force-carbonation pressures, but yes it can be useful with priming too. If you know what level of carbonation you want and prime accordingly, and know what temperature you want to serve it at, then it can tell you what sort of pressure would be needed at dispensing to maintain equilibrium (not increasing or decreasing the carbonation). It may take a little juggling of those parameters to arrive at a decent compromise - don't forget the corny lid seal may require a minimum pressure.

Some charts tend to suggest levels of carbonation that are (IMO) slightly on the high side for British beers so I tend to shoot for the lower end of their suggested ranges. But not sure about this particular one, and that may be just my preference/perception anyway.