How do I know if I broke my regulator?

I was trying the force carb method and I think I broke my regulator. I have 10 ft lines at 5 celius (41 F) and I now have to turn my regulator pressure down to around 4 to serve beer or I get a glass of foam??

By force carbing did I let beer get back into the regulator and wreck it? Is that even a thing?

Need more detail on your force carbing process in order to help diagnose. Also, is your beer line at the same temp as your beer?

Brew on

For force carbing I cranked it up to about 40 psi, shook rattle and rolled it for about 3 minutes then turned it back down to 12 psi and put it in the fridge all hooked up.

All my lines are in the fridge so everything is the same temp.

Now unless I turn my psi down to around 4 it pours real fast and all foam. with 10ft lines I think I should be able to set it at 12 psi and just leave it.

Cant figure out what to change or what I an doing wrong..

More likely overcarbed than a broken regulator

How long has it been since you put it in the kegerator?

Yeah, likely overcarbed due to the shake, rattle & roll burst carbing. I'm not a fan of that method as it is too easy to overcarb the beer. A safer burst carb method is to put 30 psi on cold beer for 36 hours, and then vent and drop pressure to your target pressure. Beer should be drinkable in 3 days. If the beer is warm, put it in the keggerator/keezer, and set to 30 psi for 48 hrs before reducing pressure.

For a quick fix for overcarbed beer, check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=127655.

Brew on

In response to the overcarbing i went out and bought a 5 gallon keg of commercial beer. Switched over to a sanke style tap setup to see what would happen.

With the perfect carbed keg of commercial beer i still have to run at around 5 psi. Anything higher and the beer is flying from the tap and is all foam. Turned way down its a good pour with good carbanation.

Does not add up?

Any tips before i buy a new regulator?

Unless I missed it, you didn't tell us what the ID of your beer line is. If it is larger than 3/16", then your lines are too short. There are very few situations where a home system should use beer lines with an ID larger than 3/16"

Brew on

Update - Last weekend I bought a commercial keg and hooked it all up. Had a few beers Saturday night and beer was perfect BUT I had to turn regulator down to around 6 to get a pour that was not all foam. Its not overcarbed and was perfect pour with the low psi. I turned it back up to 12 and left it for the week. Now Friday nite, go pour a beer (at 6psi) and lots of foam but FLAT beer..... wtf.. My tank is still full so I'm not bleeding c02 anywhere.. what am I missing
my lines are 3/16".