Way too much head from keg.

I have been kegging my homebrews for a while and haven't had any problems with too much head after the first glass or so.

But recently I bought a 1/6 keg of beer that came from a micro brewery. What I didn't think of before is that this keg requires the American Sanke style tap instead of the other style that corny kegs use. Thus, when I put the tap on and then tried to close my kegerator, it was too tall, so I have to lean the keg over in the kegerator so that I can close the lid.

So my problem is that I have a ton of head when I pour my beer. I also notice that before I pour the first beer, if I lift the lid and look at the beer line, about 1/4 of the line closest to the keg has air in the line (the line is 3ft long). I also notice that the pressure on the CO2 gauge is always a little higher, like pressure has built up in the line. I have it set at 5psi, but the next day before I pour a beer it has risen up to 10psi, and if I pour a beer it drops back to 5 as I pour it.

Am I having issues b/c the keg is leaning at almost a 45 degree angle, or is there something wrong with my beer line or pressure?

Sounds like a balancing issue with the length of your line. What size is it? 3 ft sounds pretty short which may be causing the head issue. I dont know much about sanke taps and such though. Should be about the same I'd think though. Every system should be balanced.

Sounds like you've typically served beers at 5psi @ 3' of line length?

If that's so, the answer could possibly be your line. 10 psi for carbonation is pretty standard, which is why your gauge keeps rising to that, and if it is indeed carbonates at 10 psi, your line is too short.

So I need to increase the PSI to 10, and increase the length of my line? Any idea how long the line should be? Is too long of a line a bad thing as well?

The pressure should be set at whatever the carb level you want to drink it at with what temp the keg is in. Then, adjust the line from there to help with the foaming.

The standard seems to be 3/16 line at 10'. That's a good starting point anyways.

You need a longer beer line. The beer line provides resistance against the beer flow, which slows it down, and keeps it from foaming.

For 10-12psi, you want around 10' of 3/16" beer line to get a nice smooth pour. With 3' of line the beer is rushing out too quickly, and causing your foaming issues.

Cool, that helps a lot guys. Thanks for the quick answers!

There's also a thread on here about using epoxy mixer nozzles in the dip tube. I'm not sure if it will work on a sanke or not but it's worth a shot and I can't link to thread from my phone sorry just search leg too foamy

Just start with longer line and go from there. I noticed a HUGE difference going from 5' lines to 10' lines. I get almost a perfect pour every time.

I'm just glad my wife talked me out of naming our second daughter "Keg"!!!!

Thanks for the advice guys. I took off my beer line last night and cut a new 10ft piece of line and put that on. I put the psi up to 10 and it poured just fine.

Unless you match your psi and beer temp with the beers carbonation level(from the brewery) you will slowly lose carbonation. If you have any bubbles in your line, co2 is coming out of suspension and your beer is going flat. 10psi is not a magic number, even though it's thrown about here like it is.


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wildwest450 said:

Unless you match your psi and beer temp with the beers carbonation level(from the brewery) you will slowly lose carbonation. If you have any bubbles in your line, co2 is coming out of suspension and your beer is going flat. 10psi is not a magic number, even though it's thrown about here like it is.

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HEATHEN!! (jk)

scottland said:

You need a longer beer line. The beer line provides resistance against the beer flow, which slows it down, and keeps it from foaming.

For 10-12psi, you want around 10' of 3/16" beer line to get a nice smooth pour. With 3' of line the beer is rushing out too quickly, and causing your foaming issues.

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This issue is killing me, because the above advice contradicts every single beer line balancing formula/spreadsheet/webtool I've found, which tells me given my temp, height, psi, I should have 5.5' of line. But I can't get the damn thing to pour without 50% head. I even installed a fan and everything, so I'm reasonably sure it's not because there's a massive temperature change as the beer goes to glass.