Eep, excessive foaming!

I just tapped my first keg and after 3 glasses I'm still getting 3/4 a glass of foam.

The keg is at 50F; been sitting in the kegerator for over a day and I have 10' of 3/16" beer line. I set my CO2 gauge to 12psi. When I open my tap the beer hisses and foams like crazy.

According to the beer line length/pressure calculator that floats around the forum I should have shorter lines and higher pressure(says 82" lines and 17.5psi) but wouldn't that create MORE foam?

Sorry, I'm a complete noob to kegging; just got everything set up about 30 minutes ago.

I just recently started kegging and had some initial problems too. How did you carbonate the beer?

10 feet? That's some line.

You say the beer has been in there more than a day, but that's not enough for it to carbonate fully. Did you carbonate it prior to putting it in the keg?

My first guess is you don't keep the line cold, could it be that the beer is warming up as it travels the line?

You may have a clogged or sticky poppet. Try taking off the connector and reseating it.

JamesClark said:

10 feet? That's some line.

You say the beer has been in there more than a day, but that's not enough for it to carbonate fully. Did you carbonate it prior to putting it in the keg?

My first guess is you don't keep the line cold, could it be that the beer is warming up as it travels the line?

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it's a pretty good size of beer line to have for a keg.

Did you force carb it? If you did, did you release the pressure before setting the 12 PSI serving pressure? Maybe your keg is still much higher than that if you forgt to release it?

Sorry, I forgot to mention it's a keg of craft beer; not my own homebrew.

As far as the lines getting warm; they shouldn't be. The tower is insulated fully and a good amount of cold air blows directly up the tower.

Between myself and a friend we poured 7 or 8 glasses and I noticed that my pour would have tons of foam but pouring his directly after would come out fine for some reason.

I'm sure there is some stupid step that I'm forgetting somewhere. lol

what kind of commercial beer are you keeping at 50?

If that beer was warmer than 50 and you have only been chilling it for 24 hours it could be still be resettling and reabsorbing that co2 that was in the headspace while it was warm.

It is likely that the pressure in the keg would still be considerably higher if you did not purge it before serving. This would not show up on the regulator since that is measuring the pressure from the gas tank to the valve.

Purge it and give it a day or two under chill. You might want to purge it again during that time.

For starters, lower the temp to at least 45F and vent some pressure off the keg. It could be carbed higher than 12psi @ 50F equilibrium.

I was keeping my kegerator at 48 since I'm also going to be using it to ferment lagers.

How do I purge the CO2 from the keg?

If the calculator is recommending me to put 17.5PSI on the beer at 50F with only 82" of line, would I want to increase pressure for 10'?

Auspice said:

How do I purge the CO2 from the keg?

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Disconnect the keg from the gas, and open the relief valve on top (usually you either lift the lever or pull on the ring). If you have no valve on top, use the end of a pen or some other plastic implement to press down on the gas poppet to blow out the pressure. Once it stops hissing (which should only take 20-30 sec or so), close the valve and reconnect the gas.

While you're at it, reseat the beer out connector.

Auspice said:

If the calculator is recommending me to put 17.5PSI on the beer at 50F with only 82" of line, would I want to increase pressure for 10'?

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I don't understand what you're asking. Your beer seems to be already overcarbed, so you don't want to increase the pressure. You could set it at a much lower serving pressure, to reduce the foaming until it equalizes.

I think the problem is that the beer is pretty warm. If it was already carbed up when you got it, and kept colder, that would explain the foaming. Remember, co2 comes out of solution much easier in a warmer liquid. That equals foaming in a keg that was already carbed well at a colder temperature.

So, I'd simply release the pressure as described, and then set the PSI to a very low psi for now- just enough to push the beer out while it equalizes. Maybe 4 psi or something like that.

Sorry, I meant after I get the CO2 under control; don't want to over/under carb it after I get things equalized.

Alright, I purged the excess CO2 and reseated the connection. Wow, that was way easier than I was making it out to be.