Kegging

Just force carved my first brew. Do I need to bleed the keg before I put my serving pressure on it?

If you did the burst-carb thing and don't shut off the gas, release the pressure in the keg head space, then set the regulator to the appropriate carbing/serving pressure, that first pour could be overly exciting

Cheers!

Tanks for the quick response. What if I turned the pressure down already and never burped the headspace. I did try and pour one but it was pretty much all foam. Should I burp it now even though I already turned the pressure down?

Well, yes. Because it can't hurt, and may help.

When you burst-carb at high pressure, once the beer has absorbed all it can that pressure remains in the head space. If you don't drop that pressure down to your serving pressure, you'll likely get a jet-propelled pour or two to start...

Cheers!

Yes, shut off the CO2 in valve, burp the keg. Turn the regulator to serving pressure. Burb the keg again to make sure the headspace pressure is gone. Then open the CO2 in valve. If you don't reduce the headspace pressure to lower than the serve pressure the beer might enter your CO2 line, if you don't have a check valve it could enter your regulator. (very bad). Always when reducing pressure to a keg make sure to burp the keg first.

Thanks guys. I bleed the tank and set psi to 8 last night, burped it this morning and when I got home from work, pored a beer and still really foamy. Possible it's to cold at 38 degrees? I have gas off right now as that is what HBS owner said to do. Leave off and warm up and bleed keg. Any thoughts

First, about that keg:
- When you burst-carbed it, what was the gas pressure, and how long on gas?
- What temperature was the beer sitting at while on the CO2?
- What carbonation level (volume of CO2) are you actually aiming for?

Next, about your serving system:
- What diameter are your beer lines?
- How long are they?
- Kegerator or Keezer?
- Faucets through the door, side, collar, or in a tower?
- What temperature do you usually set?
- Do you have a fan stirring the air inside?

[Man, we really should come up with a template for this]

There are a whole lot of factors that can cause foamy beer. Knowing what we're dealing with gives us a shot at fixing things...

Cheers!

Burst at 30 psi for 10 min while rolling back and forth on floor. Beer was at about 38 degrees for 24 hours prior to kegging and carbing. Might have been sitting a little colder since I carved it. It has been set to 8 psi since 8 pm last night. I burped it this morning and when I got home from work. It is in a kegerator with a tower. 3/16 ID beer line about 4 feet in length. No fan in kegerator. There is not currently any gas on the beer and I have turned the fridge up a little to try and bring beer temp up. Thanks for helping.

It's my first batch so I don't have a "usual temp"

It's highly likely that it's over carbed. When burst carbing it's usually best to either crank the pressure up for 24-36 hrs, or to shake/roll the keg at serving pressure. When you do both at the same time, it's nearly impossible to gauge how much carbonation you're adding. At 38° and 8psi, that's only 2.2 vol of carbonation. If that's the carbonation level and temp you want, the 4' beer line will probably be fine, but if you want more standard carb levels it could very well be too short.

So what should I do now?

I wouldn't warm up the beer, I think that just complicates things. Leave the keg off the gas and keep burping the head space until you bring the carb level down enough to get a half decent pour. With the short lines that may mean fairly flattened beer, but you need to get to a stable starting point.

Once your beer is sitting back at 38°F, if you want that beer to have the most common carbonation level used for ales - around 2.5 volumes of CO2 - you will eventually want to set your gas pressure to 11-12 psi. As JuanMoore mentioned, 8 psi will keep the beer around 2.2 volumes.

Once you do that and the beer has stabilized at 2.5 volumes, you'll likely find that your beer line is far too short to keep the CO2 from breaking out of solution and causing foam.

Many of us use 10 feet of 3/16" ID barrier tubing to balance the line resistance against the carbonation level/temperature combination, and that works very well for those 2.5 volume (and lower) beers. Higher carbed beers (eg: hefeweizens at 4 volumes or more) will require even longer lines or some other form of additional resistance. Folks using the Bev-Seal Ultra series stuff often run 20 foot lines!

Bottom line, there's a better than even chance you're going to need to get some longer beer lines to be able to set your CO2 pressure for maintaining a proper carbonation level while serving...

Cheers!

Gas has been off for 3 1/2 hours. I pulled the relief valve and no gas is being released. .????????????