Help balancing new keg system please!

As the title suggests, I am trying to balance my system with my first keg. For now, I just have the keg, CO2 tank, and regulator in a refrigerator dispensing through a picnic tap with 5 feet of 1/4" tubing. As you can see if the video, I am getting approximately 50% foam in my glass. Once the foam dissipates the beer is carbed. The regulator is set at 9 psi. I've tried altering between around 11 and 8 psi and this is about the best I can get. Any thoughts or recommendations?

http://vid106.photobucket.com/albums/m266/imp81318/Mobile Uploads/20160202_205911_1.mp4

What happens when you turn off the gas, vent your keg and then pour? What temperature is your beer at and at what PSI and duration did you carb?

What temp is your beer? It looks like it's poring pretty fast. If you set your temp lower you can lower the psi with out losing the carbonation volume you have. Also how's the 2nd pint pour? I get more foam one the first pint of the night and perfect pour after that.

I think it is too short and too wide a diameter; you aren't getting enough resistance from the tubing. The oft-repeated advice is 10' of 3/16". I'm not going to do the maths but if you have 1/4" you will need very long tubing.

If you pour, say, a third of a glass and then drink (or dump) the foam, and immediately refill the glass, do you get a nice pour?

I'm going to try to answer a few questions as once:

I'm not sure how well it came through in the video, but the beer starts pouring fine, but turns to all foam as the glass fills.

There is little to no difference between the first and second pours. I have poured 2 beers back-to-back, and both foamed up similarly.

The fridge is at around 38 degrees.

The picnic tap and quick connects that my LHBS had are 1/4" barbs. If I heat the 3/16" line in hot water, can I use it on those, or do I need to buy new picnic faucet and connector for 3/16" line?

After Edit:
I just poured about 1/4 of beer to see how it came out and it was almost entirely foam. This surprised me because watching it flow through the line, I thought I was getting beer initially and it was turning to foam later. This is not the case - it is almost entirely foam right from the start.

imp81318 said:

I'm going to try to answer a few questions as once:

I'm not sure how well it came through in the video, but the beer starts pouring fine, but turns to all foam as the glass fills.

There is little to no difference between the first and second pours. I have poured 2 beers back-to-back, and both foamed up similarly.

The fridge is at around 38 degrees.

The picnic tap and quick connects that my LHBS had are 1/4" barbs. If I heat the 3/16" line in hot water, can I use it on those, or do I need to buy new picnic faucet and connector for 3/16" line?

Click to expand...

You shouldn't be using 1/4" ID beer line, it almost guarantees foam. It should only be used for very long runs. Switch to 10' long lines with 3/16" ID. You can put 3/16" tubing on a 1/4" barb by dipping the hose end in boiling water long enough to soften it. I just swapped my store bought 4' picnic tap line to a homemade 10' long picnic tap line. The pour improved significantly. Both lines were 3/16" ID.

Brew on

I picked up 10' of 3/16" line over lunch today. I'll try swapping the lines out and see how much improvement I get.

Have fun getting the 3/16" on the barbs! I had to do the same for my four way gas manifold and there were more than a few swear words and jabbed fingers.

Once you switch to the3/16 you should have good pours. Just be careful with those picnic taps they are notorious for leaking, ask me how I know how.

Iseneye said:

Have fun getting the 3/16" on the barbs! I had to do the same for my four way gas manifold and there were more than a few swear words and jabbed fingers.

Click to expand...

No reason to use 3/16" for the gas lines. The gas lines have no effect on the pour.

Brew on

I swapped out the lines last night. BIG improvement in the pours. I actually need to up the CO2 pressure a bit now.