First time kegger, somewhat sucessful...

I decided to take a sample from my keg last night to see where it was at. It's only been on the gas for 6 days (30psi for first 24 hours then reset to 12psi). I am getting quite a bit of foam. From my searching on here, it seems to be due to my line length (4 feet). Would using a 10' line fix this problem?

Also, the beer currently in the keg (APA) is still pretty hazy which suprises me because I cold crashed for a week before transfering to the keg. So it has been around 40 degrees for nearly two weeks. How long does it usually take for beers to clear in kegs?

Other than those two small issues everything has gone well. My biggest problem is that I need more kegs! I think I'll be buying a few more here soon.

As long as the beer has really settled down to 12 PSI then your problem probably is the line length. So yes on 10ft.

The line length really depends on the internal diameter of the line, but four feet is generally too small. The other thing to consider is what (if any) sort of cooling you have going in your draft tower. I assume you're running a standard tower setup, and they can be poorly insulated which will cause foaming in the first pour.

Have you tried multiple pulls to determine if the foaming settles down after the lines cool?

It should be clear if you cold crashed prior to transferring and had it sitting at 40F for 2 weeks. Carbonating it could have roused it up some though, especially with all the shaking you need to do with the quick carb 30lb method. The shaking and/or the short line could be the culprit - the short lines definitely are producing the foam, although I had less problem with foam on short lines with picnic taps. The haze could be chill haze too, in which case finings will help drop that out.

modernlifeisANDY said:

The line length really depends on the internal diameter of the line, but four feet is generally too small. The other thing to consider is what (if any) sort of cooling you have going in your draft tower. I assume you're running a standard tower setup, and they can be poorly insulated which will cause foaming in the first pour.

Have you tried multiple pulls to determine if the foaming settles down after the lines cool?

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Current line I.D. is 3/16". I am using a standard store-bought kegorater. The tower has foam insulation. Is there any way I can improve the insulation in the tower?

I haven't tried multiple pulls yet. The beer really needs more time to condition, this was just a "test pull" to make sure everything was working properly

Everyone always jumps to longer lines as the solution to your problem, and in a lot of ways they are right - 4 feet is short, even for 3/16 ID. However, 5 feet of 3/16 can work just fine - take a few pulls, see if the foaming calms down. If it does, your problem is tower insulation. That foam crap that they put in commercial kegerators doesn't insulate worth a damn. If you want proper tower cooling, you need to run a small computer fan into the tower, or get some copper tubing and sleeve the beer line inside the tower.

First step would be check the foaming issue after multiple pours, second would be adding some line.

modernlifeisANDY said:

Everyone always jumps to longer lines as the solution to your problem, and in a lot of ways they are right - 4 feet is short, even for 3/16 ID. However, 5 feet of 3/16 can work just fine - take a few pulls, see if the foaming calms down. If it does, your problem is tower insulation. That foam crap that they put in commercial kegerators doesn't insulate worth a damn. If you want proper tower cooling, you need to run a small computer fan into the tower, or get some copper tubing and sleeve the beer line inside the tower.

First step would be check the foaming issue after multiple pours, second would be adding some line.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I will test it again this weekend. I want to give it some more time anyway.

Update: put the 10' line on tonight. Problem solved! I am in keg heaven now!! Pours are perfect. Thanks for all the help. I need to work on tower insulation though because the first 1/4 pour is foamy from warm beer near the tap. But wow, what an improvement.