Seriously, too much foam. HELP!

1/3 beer 2/3 foam... I'm sick of it. My first batch of corny kegged beer is pouring too much foam! It's been 2 weeks and its the same foamy pour every time.

Stats:
5 gal corny
5 ft BEV 3/16" line
7 PSI

My idea:
I replaced all the O-rings but only lubed the lid o-ring. Could the other o-rings be leaking in O2 or something? Baffled, not really enjoying my 1st kegged beer because of the friggin foam! Please help!

What's the rise from the bottom of the keg to the tap? Are your lines all cold?

Has it been at 7 psi the entire time? That doesn't make sense at all!

If you pour another one right after does it get better (less foam)? And are you opening the tap fully and not just partially?

Joemama474 said:

What's the rise from the bottom of the keg to the tap? Are your lines all cold?

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Don't know what this means.

It's the same pour every time, one right after the other.

I started at 12 PSI, then after 2 days forced and shook 30 PSI for 2 min then dropped back down.

I didn't lube any of the other o-rings except for the cap.

try venting the pressure a couple of times.

you aren't using a creamer faucet are you?

DogFlynnHead said:

I started at 12 PSI, then after 2 days forced and shook 30 PSI for 2 min then dropped back down.

I didn't lube any of the other o-rings except for the cap.

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Sounds like you could have it overcarbed. Turn your gass off and bleed all the pressure from the keg, especially if you did not do that after you force carbed it.

Then turn the gas back on and try it. You may have to repeat a few times.

See if that helps.

Do you have a tower?

Download my beer chart in my signature below. You'll be able to use the kegging calculator/how to to get you on pace to properly carbed beer with a balanced serving system. My guess is that you're overcarbed, using too short a line, or both.

Give it a try, it's free. If you have questions feel free to ask.

Cp

DogFlynnHead said:

I started at 12 PSI, then after 2 days forced and shook 30 PSI for 2 min then dropped back down.

I didn't lube any of the other o-rings except for the cap.

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Well, the shaking at 30 psi would overcarb it.

Keep pulling the pressure relief valve until it's not overcarbed any more. Then don't shake it at 30 psi ever again! If it had been at 12 psi all this time, it'd be perfect.

How long does it take to pour a beer? A pour should be slow. If its fast, I'd wager your low pressure gauge is wrong and the psi is higher than you want, thus over carbing and over pressured/unbalanced tap line makes it rocket out of solution.

I run 13psi, 5 foot lines and it takes at least 20 seconds to pour a pint, and I like my beer carb'd!

Although everyone is probably going to frown upon this... I've just popped my overcarbed keg all the way open and let it sit with the lid off for about 45 minutes or so rather than just relying on the little purge valve to bring the pressure down. I figure that opening up more surface area results in a quicker drop of co2 levels (ie a glass of coke going flat faster than a can of coke). Even with all the concerns with oxidation ruining your beer you constantly hear about, I've never had a problem when doing this. The way I see it, if your problem is that you have too much co2 in your keg, that most likely means you've got a pretty hefty blanket of co2 laying on the top of the keg that's going to do a pretty good job of protecting it from oxygen... at least for short amount of times. Seems to have worked well for me to drop the carb levels quickly and then start back from scratch.

get longer beer lines!!!! i went from 5 feet to 10 feet and that fixed my foaming problems. the first pour will always be a bit more foamy cause the line gets warm in the tower. when your pour you beer, hold it up against the tap and sideways as possible. this always helps cutting down on foam for me.

nextt ime you carb your keg. get it cold first. set the psi to 30 lbs. let it sit for 36 hours. set to 10 psi and enjoy! it may take one or 2 more days at 10 psi to get perfect.

if you want to carb faster, i roll the keg on the floor set at 30 psi for 6 minutes. not violent rolls though, be careful. your should roll it alomst one rotation and back in about 1-2 seconds. then wait an hour and enjoy

DogFlynnHead said:

Don't know what this means.

It's the same pour every time, one right after the other.

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Are your lines cold... Are they in a fridge, are they running from a fridge to a tap? If your beer warms as you dispense it, CO2 will come out of suspension and your beer will foam.

What is the rise... What is the distance between the bottom of your keg to the tap? It matters.

Joemama474 said:

Are your lines cold... Are they in a fridge, are they running from a fridge to a tap? If your beer warms as you dispense it, CO2 will come out of suspension and your beer will foam.

What is the rise... What is the distance between the bottom of your keg to the tap? It matters.

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Well, it matters, but I think in this case the whole "shaking at 30 psi" is the problem, not the line length. It's simply overcarbed.

Right.

cold kegged beer+30psi+agitation = violent pours and overcarbonation

Exactly, it is simply over carbed. I turned the CO2 off, purged the gas from the keg several times, then turned gas on to 10 PSI and it's pouring so much better. The foam is just about perfect! You guys really helped! Thank you!

Having a similar issue with my new keg setup. The kegs and lines are all at room temperature.

I naturally carbed the beer in the keg, purged the CO2, hooked up my tank, set the regulator for 2psi and was shooting out flat beer with tons of head.

It was a violent pour. Im using 10 feet of vinyl 5/16 tubing.

PolarisSnT said:

Having a similar issue with my new keg setup. The kegs and lines are all at room temperature.

I naturally carbed the beer in the keg, purged the CO2, hooked up my tank, set the regulator for 2psi and was shooting out flat beer with tons of head.

It was a violent pour. Im using 10 feet of vinyl 5/16 tubing.

Click to expand...

Several things jump out in your situation.

1) It's very difficult to get a good pour at room temp even on a perfectly balance system because the co2 naturally wants to come out of solution. Chill the keg and see if it helps.

2) How much sugar did you use? Because the ratio of headspace to volume is different in a keg, you usually need less priming sugar when carbing in a keg vs bottles. Many people (and most brewing software) say to use half the amount you would to bottle.

3) 5/16" line has very low resistance, about 10x lower than 3/16". To get the same resistance as the 6-10' of 3/16" line commonly used, your line would need to be 60-100' long.

JuanMoore said:

Several things jump out in your situation.

1) It's very difficult to get a good pour at room temp even on a perfectly balance system because the co2 naturally wants to come out of solution. Chill the keg and see if it helps.

2) How much sugar did you use? Because the ratio of headspace to volume is different in a keg, you usually need less priming sugar when carbing in a keg vs bottles. Many people (and most brewing software) say to use half the amount you would to bottle.

3) 5/16" line has very low resistance, about 10x lower than 3/16". To get the same resistance as the 6-10' of 3/16" line commonly used, your line would need to be 60-100' long.

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Thank You for the reply.

1. Best I can get this down to is probably cellar temp. I do not have a dedicated fridge for the keg but I can keep it in the basement to hopefully get it colder.

2. I used my normal amount of sugar that I would use if I was bottling. I dont remember exactly but probably in the 4oz range.

3. Ill swap that out for smaller diameter line and see what happens.

Overall, I need to reduce carb and cool the beer, should be interesting.

PolarisSnT said:

Thank You for the reply.

1. Best I can get this down to is probably cellar temp. I do not have a dedicated fridge for the keg but I can keep it in the basement to hopefully get it colder.

2. I used my normal amount of sugar that I would use if I was bottling. I dont remember exactly but probably in the 4oz range.

3. Ill swap that out for smaller diameter line and see what happens.

Overall, I need to reduce carb and cool the beer, should be interesting.

Click to expand...

Why are you kegging and dispensing beer without some sort of refrigeration?

This batch was for summer outings and taking on the boat. I did not want to be lugging a ton of bottles around so I decided to just fill growlers as needed to take where I want to go.

PolarisSnT said:

This batch was for summer outings and taking on the boat. I did not want to be lugging a ton of bottles around so I decided to just fill growlers as needed to take where I want to go.

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Unfortunately, warm beer will foam a lot more than cooler beer. That's because co2 comes out of solution faster in a warmer liquid. You could try super long lines (I have 30' on my soda in the basement!) and that may help.

here is an instant fix..

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/overcarbed-keg-heres-instant-solution-127655/

I ended up with my psi at 40 ish over night after testing some kegs I was selling. I forget to turn the psi back down to servering temps.

I bleed the keg of co2. then put the gas on the "out" post and filled a few times since I didnt have a fancy bleeder valve.

this worked great for me

-=Jason=-