FAQs

Instead of being mostly liquid with just the right amount of creamy head on top, the glass is filled with wasteful foam. Here’s what might be wrong:

The temperature is too warm. Lower the temperature in the refrigeration unit that holds your kegs (ideally, to between 36º and 40ºF). If using glycol to dispense, ensure that your glycol bath is set to dispense at that range as well.

The CO2 pressure is too high. Adjust your regulator to lower the CO2 pressure.

The faucet is dirty or broken. Inspect faucet and washers and replace both as needed. Every few weeks, remove and disassemble your faucet, then clean it with hot water and a brush.

The beer hose has kinks or obstructions. Inspect your hose and make corrections, if necessary.

The beer was poured improperly. Be sure to follow the five easy steps laid out in “How to Pour a Perfect Pint.“

Which can be found online.

Serving flat beer, or beer that doesn’t have the right level of carbonation.  Beer at its best has a certain effervescence that helps enhance the drinking experience. In many ways, flat beer is the exact inverse problem of beer that is too foamy (or over-carbonated). If your beer is coming out flat, here are some potential problems to address:

The temperature is too cold. Raise the temperature in the refrigeration unit that holds your kegs (ideally, to between 36º and 40ºF). If using glycol to dispense, ensure that your glycol bath is set to dispense at that range as well.

The CO2 pressure is too low. Adjust your regulator to raise the CO2 pressure.

The glass is dirty. Grease is the enemy of carbonation. Ensure your glasses are “beer clean,” and rinse with cold water just before pouring.

Cloudy or hazy beer is unattractive and offputting to say the least. You wouldn’t want to drink a glass of cloudy beer.  If you’re experiencing this problem, try this:

The temperature is not remaining steady. Check your refrigeration unit to ensure that your keg isn’t being exposed to alternating warm and cool temperatures. Never let your keg get above 45ºF.

The beer lines are dirty. For best results, you should clean your beer lines between every new keg, or approximately every 2-3 weeks. For more information, check out “The Basics of Beer Line Cleaning.”

The beer is old. Beer doesn’t stay good forever. Check the expiration date on the keg and/or institute an inventory management system that helps you keep track of your kegs.

 

After you have checked all these and done all trouble shooting if you are still not happy with the product and only after checking all the above please contact us and we will arrange for the keg to be returned if less than 5 pints has been taken out of the keg.

After lots of research this always seems to be a contentious issue with many people saying a lager will last 2-4 weeks aking people worried they would end up wasting some of a keg as 88 pints can be a large amount if running just a small garden bar, but this after plenty of research seems very miss informed.

The freshness and shelf life of a kegs is very dependent on storage, beer style, and how you dispense the alcohol ie manual pump, kegerator, cooler system.

A good site i found even though american and mainly looking at a kegerator system still has really good info

https://learn.kegerator.com/how-long-does-a-keg-remain-fresh/

A kegerator system using CO2 to dispense your beer will keep it fresher for much longer. This is because the keg remains pressurized, but avoids oxidation.

In this instance, your beer can remain fresh for months, but the overall time really depends on the beer itself. If your beer is pasteurized, then it will likely last for at least three months, maybe even six if you store it at the correct temperatures.

If it is not pasteurized, then it won’t last as long even if you store it at recommended temperatures. For non-pasteurized beer, you’re looking at maybe two months, give or take.

At this point, you may be asking yourself, “how do I know if it’s pasteurized or not?” This is where you would need to either contact the distributor/brewery or do some research online. If you can’t figure it out, just assume it’s non-pasteurized and treat it accordingly.

But most uk brewed lagers and beers are pasteurized, i do believe its more likely the craft ales that are not.

 

Storage Temperature Matters

No matter what kind of pump you have on your keg, if you don’t store it at the right temperature you will notice a decrease in quality. The recommended temperature to store your keg is 38°F. Try not to go too much above or below that temperature.

If the temperature rises above this, your beer may become foamier as the warmer temperature liberates carbon dioxide too quickly. Not only does this cause excessive foam, but also leads to stale beer. If the temperature rises above 55°F, then it’s likely that bacteria will start to grow which will spoil the beer pretty quickly.

If you keep the temperature too cold, the beer will retain its carbonation. If this happens, you won’t be able to experience the true flavor and aroma of each pour. If the temperature falls below 28°F, then your beer will likely freeze. Obviously, you want to avoid storing it at this temperature.

It is recommended to store your keg of beer in your kegerator, or perhaps a converted refrigerator, so that it maintains this desired temperature at all times.

 

The Key to Keeping Draft Beer Fresh

The trick to keeping your keg of beer at its best is to keep oxygen out of the keg and keep it stored at the right temperature. If you can do these two things, you will have fresh draft beer for months.