Page 1 of 1

Beer serving pipe length and diameter

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 12:12 pm
by darrenw
Hi All,
What's the average length for 3/8 pipe in a normal kegerator setup, do you need to swap it out if your beer pressure changes, ie I have a wheat and a normal bitter?
What other kit do I need to adjust pressure ?

Re: Beer serving pipe length and diameter

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 2:04 pm
by I_used_to_brew
You are aiming for about 1psi at the tap.

I think 3/8" pipe drops 0.5psi per foot. You also lose/gain 0.5psi for each foot above or below the keg the tap is. The equivalent drop for 3/16th line is 3psi.

You can set one pressure with the cylinder regulator and use any number of secondary regulators to reduce the pressure for individual lines - or use a gas management board.

Flow control beer taps can be handy too.

Re: Beer serving pipe length and diameter

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 3:35 pm
by PMowdes
darrenw wrote:Hi All,
What's the average length for 3/8 pipe in a normal kegerator setup, do you need to swap it out if your beer pressure changes, ie I have a wheat and a normal bitter?
What other kit do I need to adjust pressure ?
You are much better of stepping down to 3/16", the conversion is easy and you will only need about a metre of pipe (which is much more flexible than 3/8"). Much better all round imo.

Re: Beer serving pipe length and diameter

Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 9:42 pm
by angusb1
On 3/8" I got a lot of fobbing with a metre from the keg to the tap, swapped it for a metre of 3/16" and no problem.

Re: Beer serving pipe length and diameter

Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 10:08 am
by darrenw
Thanks all (didn't have notifications on),

I've got 4m of 3/16 and a couple of 3/8th to 3/16 connectors from this supplier http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/fluidairproducts, would have needed about 50ft of 3/8th to get balancing right

Calcs I used: http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/de ... erator/#CO that come out at 12.59ft (3.83m) 15psi force carb pressure

or brewers friends : http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/07/18 ... -pressure/

L = (P -(H x .5) – 1 ) / R
L = 15/3 = 4ft (1.2192m)

So slight difference but think 4m will cover all bases