95% foam out of "foam free tubing"

OK so I have let my keg sit for about 24 hours at 30 psi, then 10 hours at 20 psi, and finally let it sit for 12 or so hours at 10. All of this with a temp around 38 degrees and I shook the keg at the 20 psi mark. I have the foam free tubing from northern brewer with the "party tap" handle. Every pour so far whether I pull the switch all the way or just a little, it is 95% foam and I have to wait for the bubbles to dissipate so I can drink it. Is my beer over carbed? It doesn't taste like it but maybe all the carbonation dissipates when I fill it. Any advice or help is appreciated!

How long is your tubing? What size is the tubing? Sounds like short lines or overcarbonation.

I think you may have over carbed by shaking it, I do 48 hours at 30 psi and then 12 for 3-4 days (never shake) and every pour is perfect. I serve at 8-10 psi with 10 feet of line.

It's overcarbed. Between the high pressure, and the shaking at high pressure, it's going to be overcarbed even with "foam free tubing".

The fix is going to be to keep it at 10 psi, but pull the pressure relief valve often to release the excess c02.

The other thing- the "foam free tubing" they sell with their picnic taps is too short if you buy the setup all together. You need to get more like 10' of tubing for this to work well, and I think their set up is 5 or 6'.

Well with standard tubing 5 ft is the minimum where the back pressure meets the forwards pressure of the beers carbonation... Assuming your not at 30 psi how ever...
Ps im experiencing the same problem my resolution is to unhook gas Pull the release till its all gone and let it sit over night it will equilibriate then repeat again until it's done then just hook up 10 psi and winner winner chicken beer

I would say the tubing is 5-6 foot which I thought was too long? Isn't it better for the beer to have as much in the keg as possible? I disconnected the gas and bled the pressure for the day and I will bleed the pressure when I can. I did not realize it would carb up that quickly and this is my first keg so lesson learned. Thanks a lot for the quick replies! Lastly can someone explain why longer tubing is better?

biohaz7331 said:

I would say the tubing is 5-6 foot which I thought was too long? Isn't it better for the beer to have as much in the keg as possible? I disconnected the gas and bled the pressure for the day and I will bleed the pressure when I can. I did not realize it would carb up that quickly and this is my first keg so lesson learned. Thanks a lot for the quick replies! Lastly can someone explain why longer tubing is better?

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Long lines mean a less turbulent trip to the glass which means less gas is "knocked out" of the beer. A short line and a highly carbed beer would mean foam, and since the co2 goes into the foam, the beer is seemingly undercarbonated but in reality is overcarbed.

I have 10' lines on my kegerator at 40 degrees. I started with 6, then went to 8, and finally went to 10. I get perfect pours now on all taps.

Really longer is less turbulent common sense would lead one to believe more distance traveled= more turbulence overall but I guess its the fact that it moves through more tubing instead of going right from keg and out

Also you don't want to open the tap part way. This will give you a glass full of foam even with a perfectly carbed beer on a perfectly balanced system.

Good to know the reason I opened it halfway was to see if it would serve better but it was way overcarbed and I thought something else was messed up.

Yooper said:

Long lines mean a less turbulent trip to the glass which means less gas is "knocked out" of the beer. A short line and a highly carbed beer would mean foam, and since the co2 goes into the foam, the beer is seemingly undercarbonated but in reality is overcarbed.

I have 10' lines on my kegerator at 40 degrees. I started with 6, then went to 8, and finally went to 10. I get perfect pours now on all taps.

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Nope, not a turbulence issue. Longer lines drop more of the pressure so that when the beer exits the tap it's at much lower pressure than the keg. Of course, if the beer is overcarbonated then none of this will help much.

Other ways of reducing the serving pressure are smaller diameter lines, and dropping a paint stirrer into the "beer out" dip tube. I use those stirrers in my dip tubes.

passedpawn said:

Nope, not a turbulence issue. Longer lines drop more of the pressure so that when the beer exits the tap it's at much lower pressure than the keg. Of course, if the beer is overcarbonated then none of this will help much.

Other ways of reducing the serving pressure are smaller diameter lines, and dropping a paint stirrer into the "beer out" dip tube. I use those stirrers in my dip tubes.

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Yet another way is to use a piece of stiff 1/4" OD polyethelene tubing in the out tube or slide in the serving tube and it will act the same as the mixer insert.

Good to know the reason I opened it halfway was to see if it would serve better but it was way overcarbed and I thought something else was messed up.

I would say that you've over carbed the beer. but you can fix this in two shakes of a beavers tail! just purge your keg and relieve all of the pressure and than hook the co2 gas line to your liquid out post at 12psi until it stops bubbling and than relieve the pressure and repeat about three times and bam. just hook everything back up like normal at 12psi and your good to go. I hav used this method with great success and it's so easy and quick. saves a week of bleeding pressure.

Yeah I bled the pressure and let it shut for 8 hours then hooked up at 10 psi and it pours like a dream and a good carbonation level. Now my ale doesn't taste flat as a beer that's been sitting for and hour.

Yeah, I know some people manage to get it down to a science but unless you're willing to deal with a lot of fizzy beer until you figure it out, I would not advise shaking your kegs to carbonate.

If you just have to get your beer carbed up quickly, then crank up the pressure and let it sit for a couple hours instead. It's still relatively dangerous compared to set and forget, but it slows down the absorption of CO2 at those high pressure enough that it becomes a bit more fool proof...