What Am I Doing Wrong?

Just started kegging. Generally have no issues with bottle carbonation.. BUT, not so with kegging.

I've put two ales into kegs.. one 5G corny and one 3G corny. Both were initially kegged at 30PSI for about a week. Then I turned the pressure down to 20PSI and got a lot of foam but no carbonation in the glass. Turned it down to 15PSI after bleeding the keg pressure and got a decent pour.. but, little or no carbonation in the glass.. little to no head foam.

I have a 5' length of 3/16" thick walled tubing between the keg and the party tap... 15PSI.. at 40*F

Any thoughts? I don't want to go back to bottling except in rare instances.

Oh yes, another comment. I brought some brew to a friend yesterday. Put the ale in a large brown plastic bottle with Carbonator on the top. Charged it to 20PSI and the bottle was definitely hard.. Put it on ice and brought it over to share. Very little foam and definitely no bubbles in the beer.

Something is just not right after reading all the threads I could find.. and having nice pours at other get togethers.

Helllllllllp.

30 psi for a week will have your beer over carbed. 48 hours is usually the norm at 30 psi. Also 5' of beer line is pretty short. Try 10' and turning down your serving pressure some more.

I do 30 psi for 24hrs, 20 psi for 24 hrs, then turn it down to my serving pressure of about 13 psi. I run 10 ft of 3/16 serving line and get perfect Carb and pour.

Holy Sh*t! You carbed it at 30psi for a week! You should only do that for 24-36 hours!!!! And you set the serving pressure to 15psi? And still you have no carbonation? Sounds like you may have a leak or something in your keg. That thing should be shooting out foam by the pitcher! I typically set my keg at 5-8psi after force carbing it for 24 hours at 30psi. I never had any issues. Not sure what you doing incorrectly.

You are definitely fine with only 5 feet of serving line at your serving pressure and temperature as my keezer is set to the same parameters. If your keg had a leak you would empty your CO2 tank rather quickly, but it wouldn't hurt to check your connections with some soapy water. Dirty glassware and recipe ingredients can affect your head retention.

Are you pressing the party tap serving lever completely for maximum flow or feathering it? The latter can result in excess foam and degassed beer.

First.. I don't understand why I have TWO identical posts.. sorry about that.

I've checked all connections and I have no leaks anywhere.. nada.

Yes, I've left if that way for a week.. and it DID shoot out like a firehose. I did turn it down to 15 and bled it. After bleeding the head pressure off the kegs, I have a friendly pour... no firehose when I open the tap fully. No real head foam when I open it fully.

I probably don't have correctly clean glasses.. I usually just rinse the out under tap water... While that may have issues with head retention and bubbles collecting on the inside of the glass below the surface, , I wouldn't think I should see no carb'ing/bubbles in the beer itself.

I don't really mind not seeing the perfect head in my glass.. but, it would be nice to see the nice little bubbles happily rushing to the surface..

I just looked at a pint that I just poured from the tap and I don't have many bubbles coming out of solution but I do have more than enough carbonation bite.

One other trick you need to do that you may have forgotten about is saturating the beer with the CO2. Meaning after pressurizing it at 30psi, rock the keg and forth and roll it on it's side just to let the beer absorb the CO2. Do this for a minute or 2. Then once that is done and keeping the pressure at 30psi, sit it in the fridge for 24-36 hours. Then release the pressure and set it at about 10 psi. Adjust accordingly.