Does Length Really Matter!!

My Wife says no!!...But I think she's lying to me!!!

Anyway, I put my Red Ale into a 5 gal Keg on Saturday, purged out the O2, put it in the Fridge and let it cool, then hooked up the CO2 and adjusted my Pressure to 12 PSI. That PSI at 38F gives me 2.57 volume. Perfect according to the chart.

So I put 7 feet of 3/16 inch tubing on, with a cobra tap (to be upgraded at a sooner rather than later date). After 4 days of force carbination (no shaking) at 12 PSI, the beer is coming out without any problems, but actually doesn't pour like I expected it would. I realized you don't want a foamy beer, but some foam for head would be nice. The head does appear, but only after you allow the beer to sit in the glass for a minute and allow the bubbles to rise.

Could I have too much line? The sheet mentioned 2psi equals one foot of line, but would 1 extra foot make that much difference??

Thanks,
IGOR

Yep, sure can. For further example, I have two kegs on tap. Both are cobra taps, but one has 5' of line while the other has around 6' of line. I run around 12 psi as well. The 5' tends to foam too much unless you are extremely careful (and even then I get a good couple inches of head), while the 6' line is pretty close to perfect.

That said, I wouldn't start cutting tubing just yet. My beers are usually not fully carbed at 4 days - normally takes a good week - so that might be another factor. The nice thing about it "under"-foaming is that if it continues to do so, you can start the pour by just cracking the tab to generate some foam, and then continue to pour as normal. Or do it the other way around: pour, then crack to generate head.