Too Carbed - First pour of the day only!

Good Morning All
I've been a long time viewer of HBT forums and have learned an incredible amount of information over the last couple of years. This, is my first post...

My question, the last two kegs I've filled have had an issue with pouring over carbonated beer for the first pour of the night...maybe 1.5" - 2" of head in a standard pint glass. All pours after this are absolutely perfect. The following evening, the exact same thing...this will continue until the keg is empty. Not a huge issue, except the first pour also dumps all of its carbonation during the pour and is then somewhat flat after the head subsides....again, all of the next pours during the night are carbed beautifully. Thoughts? Liquid out line too long/short (mine are probably +/- 4 ft)?

I generally carb all my kegs with the 30 psi - 48 hours, bleed, follow with +/-8-9 psi serving pressure for the life of the keg, method.

Thanks!

1st pour warms upon the tower.

Also longer lines would help. 10-12 feet.

I'm in the process of building a kegorator and have been reading a ton over the last few weeks. And everything I keep coming across seems to say "Beer Lines need to be 5-6 feet or more."

In fact I've come across a couple threads (wish I could link them, but everythings a blur) of folks having the same problem as you, first pour foamy everything else fine, and folks were saying the lines need to be over 5 feet. And also to make sure the lines were just laying loose in the kegorator or keezer, not coiled.

The other threads like the above said, mentioned temp inside the tower or the temps of the taps initially being too warm.

I'll have to search out these other threads. I just took a look at my beer out line, it's probably right at 5 ft. Maybe going 7-10 feet would be a solution. Also, my faucets are on the front of the fridge...no tower. The faucets are very cold to the touch.

Thanks for the replies so far..

There are only three things that could cause the first pour of a session to be foamy, and later pours to be fine. The first is that the faucet and shank are significantly warmer than the beer, and some CO2 gets knocked out of solution as it passes through until they cool off. The second is that you have some serious temperature stratification in your fridge, and the lines are several degrees warmer than the beer in the keg. As it sits in the warmer lines, some CO2 comes out of solution and forms small pockets of gas in the lines. The last possible cause is that the beer is carbed slightly more than whatever carbonation level corresponds with your serving pressure and temperature. In this case, the CO2 wants to come out of solution over time, and once again will form small pockets of gas in the lines.

Based on the fact that you say your shank and faucet are ice cold, and that you use a burst carb method, I'm betting it's the last one. If you like the level of carbonation (after the first pour), then you need to increase your serving pressure to match it. If on the other hand you want the carbonation to match your serving pressure, you need to disconnect the gas and bleed the excess pressure from the keg multiple times until it comes down to match your serving pressure.

While longer lines are good, and can cure a host of foaming issues, they won't help in your case. They will help balance a system, but if you get good pours after the initial one, then your system is balanced for your current serving pressure and temperature. That said, I'd still consider getting longer lines since you may decide to serve beer at a higher temp or higher carb level sometime in the future, in which case you're sure run into foaming issues with a 5' line.