Christ I need Keg Balancing help!

&*%^@*!!!!!!!

This is stupid. Guy's, I've been brewing for 5 years and I just started to keg.

I cannot for the life of me can't stop my beer from foaming.

I need a keg foaming exorcism!

Here is was I have.

Fridge temp = 41 Degrees

Beer Line = 6.5 Ft

Distance = 1.9 Ft

CO2 = 10 PSI

I fiddled with it left and right, pressure up, down. Calculator, after calculator...Still getting a high flow rate and glass of F'ing foam...I would cry if this was a comp brew.

I need help crew.

Would prefer even have someone that knows keg balancing to come over and show me how much of a dumb ass I am. And I'll even give a bottle of Great Lakes Christmas Ale for you to drink new years eve.

The easy solution? Start with 10' beer lines.

you had me at 'start with'...then what? Trim down to control flow rate?

What is your process for kegging? Did you burst carb? I had 5 foot lines and had similar issues on a party tap. I found I was purging my kegs often in order to try and reduce the flow rate in order to help limit the foam. It was a waste of CO2, which made me sad.

Since I have moved to 10 foot lines, I keep my serving pressure right around 12 psi and rarely have foam issues.

Here's what I will typically do, from the advice and reading on here. I'll carb at 35 psi for 24 hours, purge my keg then set to 12 psi. After a few days, everything is fine and dandy. I'm not sure of the science, but I think shorter lines mean more foam.

I'm sure others will chime in as well. Good luck!

I was hoping not have to got back to the LHBS. It was the guy up front that told me i would only need 6.5 feet. And it was the top-line anti-bacteria line too...OK 10ft it is. I'll give it a shot.

tschafer said:

you had me at 'start with'...then what? Trim down to control flow rate?

Click to expand...

It's not like you're trying to keep a line of paying customers happy with full glasses. Patience!

Knowing you'll get a good pour regardless of CO2 volumes trumps speed every time.

10-12 feet and you'll be set for almost any beer.

Here is the general information I tell everyone when I see this question or problem.

First, know that the line balancing calculations are mostly crap and should be ignored.

Now keep the answers to the following in mind.
How do you carbonate? Pressurize and shake? priming sugar (use far less than you would with bottling)? set and forget?
How is the foaming exhibiting iteself? First pour is foamy as hell and subsequent are good? All pours come out fast and foamy? Pours are slow and foamy?
What kind of faucets are you using? Plastic party taps (cobra taps) or a through the wall or tower metal faucet?
Before making a pour feel the faucet (if it is metal), is it warm or cool? Look inside your kegerator and look at the serving lines. Are there bubbles? Where are they located? Near the keg or near the faucet?
Pour a beer, do you notice bubbles forming in the lines or coming out of the keg into the line or do you have air throughout?

Now here is the troubleshooting portion.
Plastic cobra taps seem to be more violent and cause increased foam.
Carbonation: The best way to keep foaming to a minimum is to do the set and forget method. Basically you hook the beer up at serving pressure and give it a week and a half to two weeks to carbonate over time. Then you know you are serving at the same pressure you are carbonating to. Some people have success in Burst carbonating, which is put it on high pressure, shake or wait 24 hours, then bleed off excess pressure and hook up at serving pressure, but this has the potential to overcarbonate the beer which will cause foaming. Priming sugar has some of the same issues as you have to dial in the volumes of carbonation well.
Pour speed. General consensus is 20 seconds to a minute to pour a glass of beer. If it is quicker than that, it can knock the CO2 out of solution as it pours and cause foam.
If the first pour is foamy and the rest aren't you probably also have bubbles in the lines.

Bubble position:
By the faucet - Most likely have a warm faucet. You probably have temperature stratification in the kegerator or not enough airflow. Add a small fan of some sort to the kegerator and aim at the faucets. This should alleviate this part of the problem.
By the keg posts/bubbles coming out of keg posts after a pour - Beer is overcarbonated for serving pressure. Detatch gas in and purge pressure from keg. Wait 30 minutes or so and repeat. Do this every now and again throughout the day. Hook it up again tomorrow and try another pour. Rinse, repeat. If it gets undercarbonated let it sit for a couple days on serving pressure.
Throughout the lines. Overcarbonation/temp stratification. Follow above suggestions most likely overcarbonation though.

Now, what I set up and seems to work well for me is this.
I have 10-12 foot serving lines. I keep my keezer at 40* F and set the pressure to 11-12 psi. I put my uncarbonated kegs on pressure and wait a week or so to carbonate before serving. Foaming is not an issue for me.

The general consensus is to start with 10-12 foot serving lines (tubing is pretty darn cheap after all) and trim down to where the beer flows fast enough to fill a glass and still be not foamy if temps are happy. And questions or such, feel free to ask.

Apologies for the wall of text. I just figure you want more information rather than less.

You didn't mention the ID of your beer line. If it's bigger than 3/16", then even 10' lines won't be enough. The only line length calculator you should ever use is this one.

Also, you need to be sure that the temperature is uniform within your kegerator/keezer, and that the beer lines are also at close to the same temp. Beer that warms up going from the keg to tap tends to foam a lot. If you have taps on a tower, then you need to cool inside the tower. Well placed fans usually do the trick.

Brew on

doug293cz said:

You didn't mention the ID of your beer line. If it's bigger than 3/16", then even 10' lines won't be enough. The only line length calculator you should ever use is this one.

Also, you need to be sure that the temperature is uniform within your kegerator/keezer, and that the beer lines are also at close to the same temp. Beer that warms up going from the keg to tap tends to foam a lot. If you have taps on a tower, then you need to cool inside the tower. Well placed fans usually do the trick.

Brew on

Click to expand...

Great point. With what I typed above, most people go with the 3/16" beer serving line. 1/4" just takes too darn much.

but most calculators do not take into account the restriction from the taps or connectors and the keg output and diptubes, etc.

DrunkleJon said:

Great point. With what I typed above, most people go with the 3/16" beer serving line. 1/4" just takes too darn much.

but most calculators do not take into account the restriction from the taps or connectors and the keg output and diptubes, etc.

Click to expand...

The problem with most beer line calculators is that they think the flow resistance at reasonable serving flow rates is 2 - 3 psi/ft, when in reality it is only about 1 psi/ft. Thus they calculate lines that are too short. If the taps, shanks, QD's, poppets, & dip tubes really added significant flow resistance to the system, then shorter lines would work better.

Brew on

I'd go with 12' lines. That may be a little long, so it'll take a couple of seconds longer to pour a pint, but that is the only "disadvantage" to having them longer. You can always cut them if you want (you won't), but you can't make them longer. So go with longer, especially if you ever want to have a more highly carbed beer on tap. In general, for most homebrew set ups, 1 ft of 3/16" beer line for every 1 psi on the regulator does fine.

Perlick flow control faucets. I had the same thing until I broke down and put them on

When to the home brew store. Bought 10 feet of 3/16 ID line. Hooked that up to the keg and to my per lick 630ss tap. The flow rate is slow. That that is cool with me.

But, still after dumping 16oz or more, i still have foam issues.

After every pour I have a allot of CO2 bubbles in my lines. And I know that they are just going to foam again.

I checked every my lines nothing is leaking, CO2 or beer.

Should i go to 8psi, and if so, would that foam do to lack of resistance?

Just frustrated.

tschafer said:

When to the home brew store. Bought 10 feet of 3/16 ID line. Hooked that up to the keg and to my per lick 630ss tap. The flow rate is slow. That that is cool with me.

But, still after dumping 16oz or more, i still have foam issues.

After every pour I have a allot of CO2 bubbles in my lines. And I know that they are just going to foam again.

I checked every my lines nothing is leaking, CO2 or beer.

Should i go to 8psi, and if so, would that foam do to lack of resistance?

Just frustrated.

Click to expand...

Did you ever have the regulator above 10 psi, at any point? It could be overcarbed.

The other thing to check is to pull off the "out" side (black) quick disconnect and depressurize the keg. Then remove the post and inspect the poppit and post for any debris that might be there- that can create some bubbling out in the lines if it's partially occluded.

You can also take apart the QD. I'd do it over a piece of white paper. Just use a flat head screwdriver and take it apart. There are three inside pieces- a clear plastic pin, a spring, and the little black gasket. The gasket may be hard to find- it's either stuck on the top that you remove or around the "hole". Inspect that little gasket, and make sure it's ok. Rinse the big part out, to make sure it isn't full of crud, and then you can put it back together.

I would have went with 12' lines but 10' should be ok.

Oh, one other thing. When you pour the first beer, and then immediately pour a second, is the foaming better, or the same?

I did force carb for 4 days at 20 - 30psi. I was using a crappy reg at the time, so it would jump here and there.

Then I purged the keg. Set the reg two 12-8psi for dispensing.

All the QD are brand new, so i hope that nothing was wrong.

Really tough to get them to connect those. Had to put some muscle on them (In and Out) to get them to fully connect. O-Rings all look good.

The second glass is better, just still allot more foam than expected. At times I just want to fill a 6 to 10oz glass.

I've got a nut brown that will be ready to keg sunday. I'll won't force carb that one. I'll stick to the 2.0 vol and let that carb slowly over time. If I still get an extreme amount of foam, I going to lose my mine.

"Force carb" means to use Co2 instead of priming sugar- so even if you just "set it and forget it", that's force carbing since c02 is being forced into solution.

I think you meant "burst carbing" when talking about having the regulator at 20-30 psi at first. It probably is overcarbed, as more than about 36 hours at 30 psi will be overcarbed at fridge temperatures.

You should NOT have to muscle the QDs on. You have the black on the "out" and the gray on the "in", correct?

You possibly have the posts reversed if they are so hard. Look at the base of the posts. Which side has the notch?



Also, definitely overcarbed. Disconnect the gas lines and purge purge purge pressure. Heck, pour a few glasses this way too to help relieve pressure.

Gotch'a - I carb bursted this IPA for more than 36 hours. More like 48-52

Everything is connected correctly. But they we're tough to connect. I assumed that was due to new QDs, no keg lube and cold posts.

If I over carbed, wouldn't the ale look close to 'champagne in a glass'? As it is, it tastes and feels right on target; other than excessive foaming out of the tap.

I have always noticed with high carbonation levels I get a lot of head in the glass. even with a slow pour. When you have serving pressure below the carbonation levels solubility for the temperature you will notice the bubbles occurring in the lines when not pouring

So the keg has been tapped. I cleaned everything and look what I found…Possibly the culprit of my foaming issue.

nice find. Hopefully that takes care of it for you.

One added piece of advice. It may not apply to your problem, but I found that in my early days of kegging, I wouldn't open the valve all the way. I guess I was hesitant to go too fast, but the result was foamy beer. When I learned to snap the valve open and shut, and let the beer flow, my foam issues went away.

Also did you install your new line then leave it to chill for a few hours? I have a party tap line which I use for pulling samples or when I have too many kegs for the number of taps, and if I just install it and pour a pint it's always foamy as the line is warm. Leave it for a couple of hours to chill and all is well