My Mo$^% @(&*^%$ Kegging system

I'm just about ready to give up home brewing and try knitting!
My kegging system is driving me nuts! I've got 2 brews under the same pressure. My ESB and Honey ale. to get the ESB out, I drop the pressure to 5 PSI and I get a nice stream of beer. When I try to pour the Honey ale all I get is foam. I've tried everything including switching the beer hoses from keg to keg. If I go with 5PSI I can see the foam gathering in the tubing. If I go any higher the beer shoots out in a stream of foam.
If I can't figure this out I'm going to have to dump the whole thing out.

What on earth is causing this?
RDWHAHB isn't helping right now!

I'd bet it is overcarbed. How it got that way with both of the beers under the same pressur eis kind of a mystery, but I guarantee it is overcarbed. Vent it for a day and start over.

Dude said:

I'd bet it is overcarbed. How it got that way with both of the beers under the same pressur eis kind of a mystery, but I guarantee it is overcarbed. Vent it for a day and start over.

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I will give it a try.
Do you think 2 beers with different gravities can carbonate at different levels under the same pressure? Or could it be that some beers are more susceptible to foaming?

RichBrewer said:

I will give it a try.
Do you think 2 beers with different gravities can carbonate at different levels under the same pressure? Or could it be that some beers are more susceptible to foaming?

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I don't recall that being a problem--the only thing I know that could happen is if the temp of the kegs is different, one could absorb CO2 faster, but that shouldn't happen in the same fridge.

How do you have the gas lines hooked up? Do you have valves from each hose so you can regulate how much CO2 goes to each, or are they both always the same exact pressure?

Without seeing your system, another possibility could be the beer lines are too short? Are they the same length on both kegs?

Dude said:

I don't recall that being a problem--the only thing I know that could happen is if the temp of the kegs is different, one could absorb CO2 faster, but that shouldn't happen in the same fridge.

How do you have the gas lines hooked up? Do you have valves from each hose so you can regulate how much CO2 goes to each, or are they both always the same exact pressure?

Without seeing your system, another possibility could be the beer lines are too short? Are they the same length on both kegs?

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I have a T in the gas line so both should be at the same pressure. The beer lines are about 7 feet long and I've tried both lines on the honey ale with the same result.

RichBrewer said:

I have a T in the gas line so both should be at the same pressure. The beer lines are about 7 feet long and I've tried both lines on the honey ale with the same result.

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Don't know HOW it got overcarbed then, but that's my bet.

what you can do to help remedy is get a longer beer line, it will help to drop the pressure. start longer, then cut back as necessary. pretty cheap solution too, just takes a bit of time.

I have a 4 tap kegerator with everything identical between the co2 manifold and the tower... and for some reason I have some beers that foam a lot more than others... I think it may just have something to do with the type of beer...

One of the factors in foaming is the number of nucleation sites in the beer. I bet if you filtered the Honey ale, you'd see far less foaming. There might also be something wrong with the outlet plug and poppet. If the poppet is restricting the flow too much, it will cause foaming. Does the foam start immediately and at the keg?

I had this problem with one of mine not too long ago and it turned out that the valve for the beer line had some "stuff" in it and it wasn't fully opening/closing quickly enough and foaming the beer in the line.

I'd recommend breaking down the keg, once emptied of course, and clean it out real good. I ended up dropping my psi (yes I have two regulators) to that keg to alomst 0. Just enough to get the beer out. It still foamed, but not as bad. I just used a pitcher and let it sit for a few minutes before drinking.

david_42 said:

One of the factors in foaming is the number of nucleation sites in the beer. I bet if you filtered the Honey ale, you'd see far less foaming. There might also be something wrong with the outlet plug and poppet. If the poppet is restricting the flow too much, it will cause foaming. Does the foam start immediately and at the keg?

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Hmmm...yes, if you dryhop in the keg, sometime hop particles get stuck in the poppets. That could definitely be the cause, and makes more sense than it being over-carbed, in your case.

I originally had a tee in my beer line and had similar problems. I'm pretty sure that different beers need different pressures, that's why I added a second regulator for the second keg. Haven't had too much truble since.

david_42 said:

One of the factors in foaming is the number of nucleation sites in the beer. I bet if you filtered the Honey ale, you'd see far less foaming. There might also be something wrong with the outlet plug and poppet. If the poppet is restricting the flow too much, it will cause foaming. Does the foam start immediately and at the keg?

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I believe the beer is pretty clear in the beer line under the carbonation pressure but when I open the tap (which is a cobra type tap) it shoots out as foam. When I reduce the pressure to about 5psi I can see the foam forming in the beer line.
I might try to release the pressure and change out that poppet. Sounds like it would be worth a try.

gnef said:

what you can do to help remedy is get a longer beer line, it will help to drop the pressure. start longer, then cut back as necessary. pretty cheap solution too, just takes a bit of time.

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Dude said:

Without seeing your system, another possibility could be the beer lines are too short? Are they the same length on both kegs?

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Both beer lines I have are 7 feet and work OK with the ESB but create foam with the honey ale. The ESB is a bigger beer so I would think that it would tend to foam more.

gnef said:

what you can do to help remedy is get a longer beer line, it will help to drop the pressure. start longer, then cut back as necessary. pretty cheap solution too, just takes a bit of time.

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I think this is a good strategy.

I lowered the pressure and the Honey ale is dispensing better. I think that is what was wrong. I'm glad too because it is hot out and it is tasting good!
Thanks for the advice!

Another thing that can cause your beer to foam out of your kegs, as I just found out, is partially frozen beer lines.

I ran all the lines around to the back of the fridge and was so happy to have such a clean look. Apparently the beer line partial froze and I was getting three inches of head with only 4 psi. I had to turn the fridge up (gee, it was only running at 42 degrees) and run the lines up front. Oh well, you don't see them as I have a tower now anyway...