Help with foam problem!

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italynstallyn44

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So I am having a problem with excessive foam on my pours. Here is a little bit about my setup. I have a two tap tower on my kegerator. 10 ft. of beer lines, perlick faucets, and 11psi (used set it and forget it method to carb). Temp is ~38 degrees.

Usually my first pour after not using the tap for a day or so goes just fine, no foam. But my problem is the subsequent pours. I open the tap quickly and fully open, and The first second of the pour seems very pressurized (little hiss sound when opening the tap) and it pours mostly foam for the first second. After that it slows and pours nicely. But that first second of the pour is producing about 3-4 inches of foam in the glass. Can anyone give me some suggestions on how to fix this? Thanks.
 
Your system looks pretty well balanced and at the correct temps and pressures. If I had to take a wild guess I'd say the beer line in your tower is not chilled. If the line in your tower is warm the co2 will come out of solution in that part of the line giving you the hiss and foamy pour. As the cold beer from the portion of the line inside your kegerator comes up into the line it is cold and cools the line in the tower and the rest of your pour is fine. If I'm correct the solution is to deal with the first part of the pour being foamy, or chill the line inside the tower. There are some DIY threads around here and elsewhere that you can probably find with Google. You most likely have to get a fan blowing some air from your kegerator into the tower, or use chilled glycol lines run into the tower. Sometimes upping the insulation in the tower will do the trick also.
 
i do have two copper lines running into the fridge up to about 3 inches below the shanks. I also have insulation around the copper lines in the tower.

With that said, my pours in between beers is no more than 30 min. Even with a poorly cooled tower, i wouldn't think the beer could warm up dramatically in that time. But it's possible I guess.
 
Hmmm. Sounds like you do have something of a tower cooling solution in place. Still that could be the area of the problem It is difficult trying to sort of envision what it could be without being there and watching and seeing the system. I did think of one other thing it could be. Most people coil their lines up inside the kegerator. If you do this you should try to set the coil horizontally. If the coil is vertical it can create zones of different pressure within the lines. As the beer is traveling uphill in the loop it encounters more resistance/pressure than when it is traveling downhill. This can create foam in the pour, although I would think the foam would be more consistent throughout your entire pour if that was the problem.
 
I'm still getting a burst of foam in the first second or two of the pour. After that initial burst I get a nice slow pour of beer. But that burst is producing 3-4 inches of foam. Any other suggestions?
 
Any chance you are having problems with a wheat beer? I've got a perfectly balanced system that pours great except for wheat beers... they always foam.
 
One of my beers is a wheat, but the other is a Irish red ale and I'm having problems with both. If it were tower cooling related wouldn't it be the first pour that would produce the most foam since the beer was sitting in the tower for days? But that's not my problem. My first pour after a couple days is fine. It is the pours that happen after that first pour.
 
HELP!!!!! I'm still getting foam. My fridge was at 38 now I just turned it down. My keg and picnic tap are all in the fridge so everything is cold. My flow was fine for about a week at 10psi. Now all I'm getting is foam and flat beer. Did I have my temp set to high? I don't have a leak that I can see. My beer line is about 5' and coiled up on the keg. Also I now have bubbles in the beer line that I didn't have before. &@#% is my brew bad now? I need this to be ready for a party in two weeks. Help help help.
 
One of my beers is a wheat, but the other is a Irish red ale and I'm having problems with both. If it were tower cooling related wouldn't it be the first pour that would produce the most foam since the beer was sitting in the tower for days? But that's not my problem. My first pour after a couple days is fine. It is the pours that happen after that first pour.

Try dropping your serving pressure way down to ~5 psi right before your first pour. I doubt your beer is overcarbed but this could slow down your pour enough to reduce foaming. Just remember to set it back to carbonation level when you're done drinking. :mug:
 
HELP!!!!! I'm still getting foam. My fridge was at 38 now I just turned it down. My keg and picnic tap are all in the fridge so everything is cold. My flow was fine for about a week at 10psi. Now all I'm getting is foam and flat beer. Did I have my temp set to high? I don't have a leak that I can see. My beer line is about 5' and coiled up on the keg. Also I now have bubbles in the beer line that I didn't have before. &@#% is my brew bad now? I need this to be ready for a party in two weeks. Help help help.

If your beer is coming out flat then something is knocking all the co2 out before it comes out of the tap. Your line at 5' long is a bit short, but would not cause your beer to come out completely flat. Eventually you will want to get that line length up to about 9 or 10'

You say you turned your fridge down. Do you know what the temp is in there? Try putting a glass of water next to the keg and checking the temp after several hours. You could have frozen your beer.

Other things I would look for would be a restriction in the line. Maybe your beer out connector is not on the post correctly and not openiing the poppit valve enough, or you could have some sediment blocking the dip tube inside the keg. You could try back flushing it by swapping the posts and briefly putting the co2 on the output side.

I would definitely first make sure you did not freeze the beer.
 
My temp is at 35 so I don't think my beer is frozen. 9 to 10 foot of line? Am I asking the right people here? It seems as if everyone does different stuff.
 
Thanks To all for the help....I I think my Fridge temp may have been off but I also tightened down all my connections and now i'm receiving a nice belgian tripel 9% ABV brew flow with a perfect head! Thanks for the help, I hope to be able to help a newbie some day.
 
I would go with 10 feet of serving line. I have two taps, both get the same CO2 pressure (around 12 psi usually). One line is 5 feet, the other is 10. I NEVER have foamy pours with the 10 foot line. In fact, sometimes I need to agitate the glass just get a 2 inch head on it.

The 5 foot line will spurt foam for the first second, then the rest of the pour is fine. The reason it foams is bacause the warmer faucet and lines knock the co2 out of solution. At a higher pressure out the faucet, this causes turbulance and the entire glass will be filled with foam in no time.

I combat this by dispensing the first second of pour into a seperate cup. This is enough to cool the lines and the rest of the pour goes into my drinking glass. I then take that first spurt, and pour it right on top of my drinking glass. No waste, and it usually results in a perfect head. Subsequent pours do not need this treatment as long as the tap and lines havent warmed up too much.

I do believe that all of this could be fixed by replacing the tap line to 10 feet, but I am lazy.
 
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