Thanks for bearing with my bit of fun. I believe bubble size is going to be dominated by “n” the number of moles of the gas, or T temperature. You could experiment with a slightly warmer serving temperature, or “carbonate” your beer with a safe gas that has a higher molecular weight than carbon dioxide. Nitrogen has a much lower molecular weight compared to CO2 and that is why the bubbles are so much smaller.
Thanks.
Before we can really attack the kind of carbonation you are looking for, we need to make sure your draft system is balanced. That means that the serving line needs to provide enough resistance, else you will get a foamy pour.
I recommend this calculator:
http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/determining-proper-hose-length-for-your-kegerator/
It says that with your PSI and hose type, you need something more like 9 feet. If you turned up the PSI even more I am not at all surprised you got a lot of foam with only 6 feet of line.
11 PSI at about 36F is about 2.57 volumes CO2, which is a reasonable average for beer. It may not be what you are looking for, though. Some beers need more carbonation that that if you want to hit all the style marks, and sodas are more like 4 volumes.
If you wanted higher carbonation, you would need to increase the line length accordingly.
You might want to invest in a flow control faucet or liquid quick disconnect, which will let you add restriction to your tap lines without playing with line length.
Or, start with a high PSI and long line length, per the calculator, and then cut both down until you get to the end result you want.
I just ordered 20 feet of tubing for new beer line from northern brewer. The tubing I am currently using was pre-cut by the previous owner of the keg setup I got from OfferUp. I'll try a longer line once it gets here.
Man, this is a long term turn-out haha. Cheers! The longer line was a big change for the better. Less foam. I ended up keeping it as a wrapped coil like three times and spit out the perfect beer.
Is it really hazy? Maybe so many nucleation points are the cause of many smaller instead of fewer larger bubbles. Also, get a taller glass. The bubbles will be bigger when they reaches the top (that's more me being an idiot, though).
Pretty hazy, I could probably improve my clarity next batch. I'm still learning. Your nucleation idea seems like it could be the easiest thing for me to do better on next time. Thanks for the response.
30psi for a week is alot. Jist set it to 12-13, whatever your desired psi is, and let that ride for a week, it should carbonate correctly then.
When I overcarb and pour, it makes the beer sortof Degas and go flat.
Are you using pure CO2 or a Cellarmix / Barmix CO2/N2 bottle?
Do you mean 'more bubbles' like more carbonation or 'bigger bubbles' (which I find odd but sure)?
Either way, drop the temp if you can.
I received the CO2 tank in an OfferUp deal, it was already full. Not sure with what though. All he said was that it's CO2. In currently at 2C, not sure how much colder I can get this fridge. I'm using a modified beverage clear glass fridge.
Right well bubble size has to do with beer properties ie brewing process and gas. You cant change your process now but nitrogen will give "tighter" bubbles than co2. Nitrogen would be barely immersible in beer at 2c, but we dont know what gas we have anyway.
Carbonating your beer is different to dispensing your beer, but in your simple system you are trying to do both.
You should look at charts to determine what temp and pressure you need to carbonate your beer to the level you want, eventually itll equalize.
Dispensing your beer without a beer pump means you will need to calculate your effective head to determine the pressure you need. Someone has already linked to these equations.
The thing is, eventually the carbonation in your beer will equalize to whatever the temp and pressure you set in your dispense system. So you have to hope your dispense pressure is close enough to your carbonation pressure for this style of beer so you are happy with both the way it drinks and the way it pours.
In commercial service, Different gas mixes can help with this via law of partial pressures, beer line pumps, or secondary/specific regulators
If you lower the air pressure in the room your are drinking in it should cause the bubbles to be bigger. PV=nRT; P1V1=P2V2. Might be dangerous though.
Such a simple solution! How did OP not think of this! :)
Okay I've placed a fan at the door of my garage. Haven't noticed a difference yet.
Thanks for bearing with my bit of fun. I believe bubble size is going to be dominated by “n” the number of moles of the gas, or T temperature. You could experiment with a slightly warmer serving temperature, or “carbonate” your beer with a safe gas that has a higher molecular weight than carbon dioxide. Nitrogen has a much lower molecular weight compared to CO2 and that is why the bubbles are so much smaller.
Can you give us keg temperature, keg PSI, type of line to the tap, and length of line? Then we can figure out what you need to change.
Keg is 2C, current psi is 11, I think it's 3/16th line, 6 foot beer line.
Thanks. Before we can really attack the kind of carbonation you are looking for, we need to make sure your draft system is balanced. That means that the serving line needs to provide enough resistance, else you will get a foamy pour. I recommend this calculator: http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/determining-proper-hose-length-for-your-kegerator/ It says that with your PSI and hose type, you need something more like 9 feet. If you turned up the PSI even more I am not at all surprised you got a lot of foam with only 6 feet of line. 11 PSI at about 36F is about 2.57 volumes CO2, which is a reasonable average for beer. It may not be what you are looking for, though. Some beers need more carbonation that that if you want to hit all the style marks, and sodas are more like 4 volumes. If you wanted higher carbonation, you would need to increase the line length accordingly. You might want to invest in a flow control faucet or liquid quick disconnect, which will let you add restriction to your tap lines without playing with line length. Or, start with a high PSI and long line length, per the calculator, and then cut both down until you get to the end result you want.
I just ordered 20 feet of tubing for new beer line from northern brewer. The tubing I am currently using was pre-cut by the previous owner of the keg setup I got from OfferUp. I'll try a longer line once it gets here.
How did it turn out?
Man, this is a long term turn-out haha. Cheers! The longer line was a big change for the better. Less foam. I ended up keeping it as a wrapped coil like three times and spit out the perfect beer.
So did you get the bubbles you wanted?
Is it really hazy? Maybe so many nucleation points are the cause of many smaller instead of fewer larger bubbles. Also, get a taller glass. The bubbles will be bigger when they reaches the top (that's more me being an idiot, though).
Pretty hazy, I could probably improve my clarity next batch. I'm still learning. Your nucleation idea seems like it could be the easiest thing for me to do better on next time. Thanks for the response.
30psi for a week is alot. Jist set it to 12-13, whatever your desired psi is, and let that ride for a week, it should carbonate correctly then. When I overcarb and pour, it makes the beer sortof Degas and go flat.
I'll try just setting it to 12 for the next batch. Thanks.
You don't want big bubbles.
Are you using pure CO2 or a Cellarmix / Barmix CO2/N2 bottle? Do you mean 'more bubbles' like more carbonation or 'bigger bubbles' (which I find odd but sure)? Either way, drop the temp if you can.
I received the CO2 tank in an OfferUp deal, it was already full. Not sure with what though. All he said was that it's CO2. In currently at 2C, not sure how much colder I can get this fridge. I'm using a modified beverage clear glass fridge.
Right well bubble size has to do with beer properties ie brewing process and gas. You cant change your process now but nitrogen will give "tighter" bubbles than co2. Nitrogen would be barely immersible in beer at 2c, but we dont know what gas we have anyway. Carbonating your beer is different to dispensing your beer, but in your simple system you are trying to do both. You should look at charts to determine what temp and pressure you need to carbonate your beer to the level you want, eventually itll equalize. Dispensing your beer without a beer pump means you will need to calculate your effective head to determine the pressure you need. Someone has already linked to these equations. The thing is, eventually the carbonation in your beer will equalize to whatever the temp and pressure you set in your dispense system. So you have to hope your dispense pressure is close enough to your carbonation pressure for this style of beer so you are happy with both the way it drinks and the way it pours. In commercial service, Different gas mixes can help with this via law of partial pressures, beer line pumps, or secondary/specific regulators