Carb issue

I have my first two brews kegged and in the fridge. I did 1 week at 12 psi to force carb them, shaking them once a day to help the CO2 go into solution. When I first started pouring them, the IPA had a huge head, the honey ale was a good head, almost perfect. Now they both have too much head when I pour them, about 4 fingers worth. As I said the pressure was at 12 psi and I have slowly worked my way down to 8psi and I am still having the same issue. And yes I am opening the taps all the way.

Anything you all can think of that I did wrong, or might be able to do to fix the problem?

By the way, they ROCK. Now that I have had a successful 2 batches, my obsession is even greater

what diameter beer line? picnic taps?
how long are the lines?

if you hold them up high when dispensing....better?

They are 3/16 interior diameter regular taps, not picnic types, lines are 5 feet long and about 4-6 inches above the tops of the kegs. There was not much room to make them any higher on my kegerator door.

turn off CO2.
vent excess pressure from keg.
slowly increase psi while test pouring, until you find the sweet spot.

make note of that sweet spot...you'll have to turn psi up after each drinking session to maintain carbonation, and turn it back down to serving pressure when you wanna drink.
too much psi during serving makes CO2 come out of solution...you want close to 1psi coming out of the tap spigot. with distance and friction from teh hose walls, you have to go above 1psi to accomodate the loss.


This is why you'll see some very technical discussions about running stainless draft lines. there's a fair amount of math needed to figure out serving psi, unless you go the 'trial and error' method...which is fine if you didn't spend a lot on draft lines (and just used hoses).

I highly recommend making sure you have a balanced system so you don't have to dork with the regulator. Mine's set and I never touch it. You have to know very precisely what your temperature is so you can get the carbonation levels where you want it. The thing that may be a WAG is your line resistance. It sounds like maybe you've got low(er) resistance in yours and could use longer lines.

If you haven't already, check this page out about balancing. You still may have to go through some trial and error. http://hbd.org/clubs/franklin/public_html/docs/balance.html