Awesome Head Retention-Too Awesome

I'm on my seventh batch of kegged beer, this particular one seems to come out all foam. I have done the force carbing method as usual-30psi for 24hours, then drop to 10 psi for 4 days. My 3/16 ID line is only about 48 inches long-could this be my problem? All my other beers carbed up and poured perfectly, now all I see is bubbles in the line. Yes I have done the obvious-checked for good seals at both ends of the line and they are good. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

48" does sound short - I run about 10' of 3/16. It is technically longer than it needs to be, but the only downside is a slightly slower pour, and unless I overcarb by a lot I don't get foam. I'd try a longer line, and if it is overcarbed, you will want to pull the pressure release valve periodically to release the excess CO2 coming out of solution until it's back to where you want it.

You seem to have an overcarbed beer on your hands, I have 60" of 3/16" line on all of my taps, with proper carb levels I dont get excessive foaming at all, if I overcarb a bit I get a nice glass of foam and like you I have noted bubbles forming in the beer lines. shut off the gas and purge, keep purging every half hour or so until your pressures are ok and you no longer have excessive foaming, then set to the proper pressure and enjoy. I also suggest looking into balancing your system so you have less issues like this. and using the set and forget method of carbing is a surefire way to avoid overcarbing problems.

Also make sure that you have clean beer lines. Lines with deposits can create more turbulence, and more bubbles.

Thanks for all the help, I'm going to get six foot lines to help out. As far as "balancing" I'm not really sure what that means. I will try a search to see what it brings up!

Balancing means that your tap lines are long enough to have the right resistance to give you a proper pour without blowing all your CO2 out of solution, and without having to drop your serving pressure.

For example I like to carb at about 12-14psi, at 42F. That requires me to have about 8 feet of tap line to give a good pour. I started at 6 feet but the pour was too fast and i lost carbonation...too much foam too. I could either drop my psi just to serve a couple pints (venting the excess and thus wasting some CO2) and then turning it back up to 14psi at the end of my session to keep the keg at the same carb level....or....increase my line length.

There's also a little spiral paint stick thing that some guys put in their tap line that'll add resistance. They can run 14psi and have just 2 feet of tap line and a perfect pour.

I use the epoxy mixer things in my kegs, I use 2 per keg and have a perfect pour without a ton of beer line, there are concerns about them not being food safe but I could really care less about that, too many other things out there that will kill me faster than a chunk of plastic that causes cancer in the state of California.

LOL AZSCOOB, how is it that certain things only cause cancer in one state in the union and not all of them? I think that I will extend to 8 feet per the previous reccomendation. The tap and lins setup was a prefab unit for a very low price from a local brew shop. Maybe I should have read other forums before buying the cheapest option.

You can always shorten a line but once you cut it you can't easily make it longer again (without fittings, etc.). Also, if a line is too short you'll get too much foam but if it's too long it'll just pour slow (BFD). And with slow/non-foamy pours you can always get more head by just barely pulling the tap and letting it 'spray' for a half-second (or just let it hit the bottom of the glass hard when starting the pour). My point is that imo too long is waaaayyyy better than too short.

kmk1012 said:

LOL AZSCOOB, how is it that certain things only cause cancer in one state in the union and not all of them? I think that I will extend to 8 feet per the previous reccomendation. The tap and lins setup was a prefab unit for a very low price from a local brew shop. Maybe I should have read other forums before buying the cheapest option.

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I think everything is known to cause cancer in Cali, or maybe its the state of California that CAUSES the cancer, I dunno. As a mechanic I am exposed to all sorts of solvents, nasty chemicals and fluids, brake and clutch dust ect, I am sure all that will snuff me out first. Mostly I just did not have the room for crazy long lines in my kegerator, this is my kegerator and with 3 corney kegs and the co2 tank in it, there is hardly any room left for vast coils of beer line piled up so I went with the mixers as my solution, also allows me to have a higher carbed beer on tap alongside a lower carbed one without having to constantly change lines to have proper resistance to serve without excessive foam or a 5 minute pour by adding or removing mixers, 3 for a high carbed hefe, 1 for an ESB ect.
That was my solution that I am comfortable with, if you have the room for long lines, go for that, but try to tune the lengths to get the best pour for your favorite beers.
There are also some guys who have a smaller dia hose inserted inside their lines to do the same thing as the mixers do, I think there is info in this thread about the hose size ect.

Considering that if they lived long enough every human being would get cancer...just being human causes cancer.

azscoob said:

I use the epoxy mixer things in my kegs, I use 2 per keg and have a perfect pour without a ton of beer line, there are concerns about them not being food safe but I could really care less about that, too many other things out there that will kill me faster than a chunk of plastic that causes cancer in the state of California.

Click to expand...

Also, the concern is that the manufacturer said that, while they're made of delrin, a food safe material, they are made in a non-food safe environment. Kind of sounded like a CYA answer on their part. I douse them in StarSan before using them and, once installed, run off a half a pint to clear any yeast at the bottom of the keg. They seem to work great. I use one at 12 psi and a five foot line with a picnic tap and they work great. For higher pressure beers it takes two or three. Some of my low carbed beers only get pushed at about five pounds of pressure. So, I don't really bother using them at that point.

I know this is an older thread, But I have been using this formula that I found on a kegerator site to balance my system. Works perfectly with my system and 3/16" line. I use 6 foot beer lines and have never had an issue:

P = L * R + H ÷ 2

P = Pressure in the keg in PSI
L = Line Run in feet
R = Resistance of the line per foot
H = Height from the middle of the keg to the tap/faucet in feet


Here is a resistance table for the most common line types
Line Type: Resistance:
3/8” OD stainless beverage tubing .2
5/16” OD stainless beverage tubing .5
1/4” OD stainless beverage tubing 2
3/8” ID plastic beer line .11
5/16” ID plastic beer line .17
1/4” ID plastic beer line .7
3/16” ID plastic beer line 2.7