Getting surges of CO2 through my beverage line

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ebj5883

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So I've been mulling over a problem that I've been having for a few weeks now. At first I thought my beer was simply overcarbonated, but that turned out not to be the case. At any rate, my problem is this; when I serve from one of my kegs, the beer comes through the line as expected, but with "surges" of CO2 gas along with it. As a result, I'm getting some pretty bad pours, lol. I've looked at everything quickly, as I didn't want to leave the cover off for too long with a full keg, and haven't seen anything overly obvious, but I have my guesses. Just thought I would field some opinions here before I went in to try and fix this.

My thought was that maybe the beverage tube is being "lifted" by the CO2, and gas is escaping into the line while at the same time pushing beer through. I'll have to make sure that the poppet valve is the correct one, as I am using it as received from Midwest, although I don't see how that would be possible, since the valve resets just fine when removing the adapter.
 
Assuming the brew in question isn't overcarbed as you've stated...

Is the keg in a keezer? If you leave the touchy keg alone for a day or so, then check the beer line from it, do you see obvious big bubbles in it? If so, is it possible the temperature in the keezer is stratified enough that the upper level when the beer line runs is significantly warmer than the bottom level where the beer is being drawn?

If not...it is possible that an Out poppet that is barely opening could cause foaming - but I would expect that to be a pretty unusual condition, and would actually suspect a QD as opposed to a poppet. If you have two faucets and sets of lines, have you tried swapping the misbehaving keg to the other faucet?

Cheers!
 
Yeah, forgot to mention what I've tried, haven't I? Futile efforts are as follows:

1.) Swapped current QD with known good one

2.) Swapped picnic tap with a new one

3.) Replaced dip tube and post O-rings, lubed as well (old ones seemingly weren't)


As far as a difference in temperature from the bottom to the top of the keezer (yes I'm currently using a keezer), I actually have my sensor in a bottle of water, as to measure liquid temperature as opposed to air. Perhaps I'll put a thermometer in overnight to see if there's any difference. Currently set to 35 degrees F.
 
Problem solved, lol... turned out being the wrong poppet valve. Just a hair different. Only reason I noticed was that the "feet" on the beverage line valve weren't as wide out as the other. Must not have been holding down the dip tube. Either way, good pours now :)
 
Problem solved, lol... turned out being the wrong poppet valve. Just a hair different. Only reason I noticed was that the "feet" on the beverage line valve weren't as wide out as the other. Must not have been holding down the dip tube. Either way, good pours now :)

I just wanted to bump this. I just solved a similar problem in a keg of fantastic Belgian Dark Strong (that I've been ageing since Feb). For me it was the fact that the BRAND new keg had no oring on the dip tube. Same symptom. If anyone else googles this problem, maybe this will help.
 
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