Portable Tap

Jake · July 13, 2011, 08:52:46 PM

Does anywhere in Fredericton sell the portable plastic picnic taps for ball lock kegs? I would like one next weekend for my gf's family reunion ,... if this doesn't get me "in" with her family, I'm giving up.

JohnQ · July 13, 2011, 09:29:08 PM

If you have a way of putting gas in, then I can lend you one of my portable picnic taps that pop on to the post.

http://www.homebrewing.org/Keg-Faucet-Adaptor-Assembly_p_909.html

If you have a regulator but need portable gas, I have a 5 lb bottle you can borrow, others might have the paint ball conversion system, not sure.

JW

Jmac00 · July 13, 2011, 09:29:55 PM

do you need just the tap? or do you need the QD + hose + tap ? I most likely have both..will dbl check though once i know what yer lookin for.

Jake · July 13, 2011, 09:51:34 PM

Yea I'm looking for something that I can attach, I've got the CO2 ... so the attachment, hose, tap, the whole meal deal. I just have the keg and CO2. My taps are bolted onto my bar and I'd need to take em apart, which would be a real pain in the ass. I'm going to get something online if I can't find anything reasonable in the city but fear it won't arrive before next Friday. John, if you don't mind lending me that one, I'd appreciate it very much; I don't mind making the drive out to my old stompin grounds at all to pick up. In terms of CO2, I have a small portable tank with regulator that'll work justtttt fine.

JohnQ · July 13, 2011, 10:07:56 PM

No problem, let me know when you want to pick it up.
JQ

Jmac00 · July 13, 2011, 10:54:24 PM

Not to get too far OT(seems its sorted out now anyways), but question for JohnQ...is your setup the same as that link you posted? curious if you got any foaming issues with it? with there being no bev line at all.....or do you just turn down your pressure...just being curious is all. :?:

JohnQ · July 14, 2011, 08:47:32 AM

I use them in my cellar temp area which doesn't have CO2 plumbed so I gas up a keg and move it into the cool room then use it until it slows down too much, then I go back for a little gas...So I can't really tell with any accuracy since I start out with a little too much gas which is a little foamy, and at the end it's no problem but it runs slowly. I guess if I used them at the same time as my picnic taps on the tubing I might need to reduce the gas pressure on the taps. I can't really try and do a direct comparison since the tap makes it just a little too tall for the cooler with it mounted.

Jmac00 · July 14, 2011, 02:50:03 PM

right on....i have a picnic tap with short hose and haven't used it in a while, but want to see how it manages with foam. Also picked up a couple of those bayonet mixers that's supposed to help reduce the foam with short hoses...or in your case..no hose at all.

JohnQ · July 19, 2011, 08:06:11 PM

Quote from: "Jake Saunders"Yea I'm looking for something that I can attach, I've got the CO2 ... so the attachment, hose, tap, the whole meal deal. I just have the keg and CO2. My taps are bolted onto my bar and I'd need to take em apart, which would be a real pain in the ass. I'm going to get something online if I can't find anything reasonable in the city but fear it won't arrive before next Friday. John, if you don't mind lending me that one, I'd appreciate it very much; I don't mind making the drive out to my old stompin grounds at all to pick up. In terms of CO2, I have a small portable tank with regulator that'll work justtttt fine.

Dropped it in your mailbox on the way by this evening.
JQ

Jake · July 19, 2011, 10:20:39 PM

That's awsome. Thanks a lot John!

So I tried it and there is a lot of foam. I had it set around 10psi, so should I just bring it way down? If I do bring it way down and end up using it at a very low psi, does it at all change the beer? When I hook up a fresh keg (that I plan on drinking that night, should I hook it up at a higher psi and roll it around a couple hundred times, then bring it way down? Not too sure how this will work. Any advice from anyone?

Jmac00 · July 19, 2011, 10:30:22 PM

what pressure did you carb it at? did you bleed off any excess pressure first? basically with little to no line resistance(no line, or too short) you're gonna get foam.....longer line equals less foam pending carbination, temp, etc.

if all else fails, you could try these...
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-yo ... es-100151/

Is this a newly kegged batch? or did you just throw the portable on a keg you were already dispensing that was fine beforehand? if its a new one, it could be overcarbed....i'd disconnect gas, bleed off excess gas from keg, lower serving pressure on reg to about 6, reattach and try again. I usually serve with 10-12 with 10' lines though, you won't need as high with no line on that portable.

Richard · July 19, 2011, 11:21:04 PM

If you force carbed give it a little while to settle.

JohnQ · July 20, 2011, 08:22:33 AM

The biggest thing is to bleed off keg pressure to 0, open the tap, turn on gas with regulator down to 0 and SLOWLY add pressure to get a flow/foam balance that your happy with.
You won't lose any significant amount of carb in the beer over a short period of time if it's kept cool, and you'll probably find the sweet spot is around 6 psi like JMAC said. I never use more than 6 for serving/storing.

JQ

Jake · July 20, 2011, 08:39:22 AM

I orinally force carbed it around 10 and it's been around there for a couple week. I jusst hooked it up to a full keg as a test run. Going to be used on a new batch that I'm kegging this weekend. Once I hook the new one up I'll hook it up around 4- 5 then and roll it around to force carb, and go up from there depending on what I'm looking for.

Another thing is that the beeer isn't that cold that I hooked it up to. Warm beer equals a lot of foam correct?

Kyle · July 20, 2011, 09:40:34 AM

After much reading and experimenting, I find the best balance of preformance, time requried, and ease is:

put beer in keg
put keg in kegerator
hook up to C02 at 30psi for 48 hours
bleed pressure, set at serving pressure (for me, 10psi with 15' of 3/16" hose)
wait an hour, sample, if needed: turn back up to 30psi for 2 hours, sample, repeat.
works every time.

With the short connection between keg and tap you were using, 10psi is way too high, you would take a fully carbed keg and then bleed off pressure and serve at about 3-5 psi, whatever will move the beer without creating a massive amount of foam. For portable setup, I use a Perlick tap on a 12' line of 3/16" hose, C02 set at about 8psi, and keg in a big, ice-water filled cooler. No foam problem.

Also, the "solve your short hose troubles" idea on HBT is clever, but not food grade at all.