Inconsistent Head

Hi All,

I've only had my kegorator for a little while and have emptied about 6 kegs with it. I have 5 ft standard lines and carb at 30 psi for three or so days and serve at about 8psi. The first 5 kegs had a nice 1 or 2 inch head consistently. Now, every beer I pour, half of the glass is foam. What gives?
I haven't changed anything with the setup. I'm afraid to turn down lower than 8psi as I'm afraid the lid may not stay sealed.

Anyone have ideas? I know longer lines will solve my problem but it doesn't make sense that all of a sudden I have a glass full of foam when I haven't changed anything with my setup.

Cheers

Look for kinks in the hose and/or bubbles forming somewhere in the line. Other than that, I got nothin'

If the keg is sealed now, dropping to 8 won't make it loose it's seal. The only concern then is your beer loosing proper carbonation levels. I assume you are using the same lines/connections as before, but what about the keg? Maybe your out post isn't sealing properly? Have you cleaned your taps? Sometimes crud will build up constructing the flow and will cause this...

Hope you find an answer (and post it). It's always a pain, especially when you have 5 go perfect and then have that one that just wants to be a pain in the a$$... Good luck!

MoRoToRiUm said:

If the keg is sealed now, dropping to 8 won't make it loose it's seal. The only concern then is your beer loosing proper carbonation levels. I assume you are using the same lines/connections as before, but what about the keg? Maybe your out post isn't sealing properly? Have you cleaned your taps? Sometimes crud will build up constructing the flow and will cause this...

Hope you find an answer (and post it). It's always a pain, especially when you have 5 go perfect and then have that one that just wants to be a pain in the a$$... Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thanks for your replies

I'm going to try cleaning the lines with some BLC. I was drinking from the keg last night and noticed that it seems to be pouring inconsistently from the faucet (i.e. it's not an even flow). I'm thinking that my faucets must be gunked up. When I kick a keg I clean it with hot water and starsan and then I hook that keg up and run the starsan through the lines - I would have thought that would do the trick but I guess that's not enough.

Maybe perlicks will solve this?

Well, if you've been married for awhile then I think it's not an uncommon occurrence. Try getting a girlfriend on the side.

Er, wait. Wrong forum.

I concur with a good cleaning of all faucets and hoses. Does the beer seem properly carbed, other than the excessive foaming? Maybe the regulator is drifting off and you're actually at a higher PSI. I'd release all the pressure in the kegs and set them to 10 PSI then leave them undisturbed for a couple of days.

StunnedMonkey said:

Well, if you've been married for awhile then I think it's not an uncommon occurrence. Try getting a girlfriend on the side.

Er, wait. Wrong forum.

I concur with a good cleaning of all faucets and hoses. Does the beer seem properly carbed, other than the excessive foaming? Maybe the regulator is drifting off and you're actually at a higher PSI. I'd release all the pressure in the kegs and set them to 10 PSI then leave them undisturbed for a couple of days.

Click to expand...

The beer is properly carbonated, aside from the foaming. Last night I actually released the pressure in my kegs and turned down to about 8psi. It's possible that my regulator isn't working properly. We'll see if this makes a difference. I won't be able to get around to clean the faucets until this weekend. This will give me a few days with the lower pressure...I should know by the weekend whether the regulator is putting out a higher pressure than it reads on the guage (It was a new regulator so I hope this is not the case).

I have to get to the bottom of this soon. I had 5 of my friends pouring beers yesterday. When someone doesn't know how to pour a proper pint to start with, the foaming is even more of a problem - I only get about 1/3 glass of foam...they're getting like 3/4 foam


Thanks for your ideas!

Bopper359 said:

The beer is properly carbonated, aside from the foaming.

Click to expand...

Well, if it seems properly carbonated, then it seems unlikely (to me anyway) that the regulator is malfunctioning. Five feet of line seems short to me (I have 10 ft) but then again it's odd that your earlier kegs would have been OK. Maybe the inside surface of the tubing changes over time? Yeah, farfetched.

I'd pop the top from one of the cornies and see if the beer inside the keg looks foamy at all. I had a single keg that produced excessive foam and when I looked inside it was foamy in there too. I never did figure it out.

Since the lines didn't give you a problem on the others, I'm thinking (hoping) pressure drop will help. As Stunned Monkey (and I said) maybe it's the keg? Have you served this one before? Try out the lower PSI once it settles and let us know... Hopefully we can help find a solution!