30% foam

30% foam in glass.
40 degrees
15 psi

Force carbed last night, over carbed, 100% foam. Took of QD, Burped keg, Got the foam to go away for most part, per advice here on site.

Wondering now if I need more force carbing, or should turn down psi to 5-7 to get head to go away and carb into beer.

3 hours to party starts, house full of people, kegs full of flat beer.

You need to get the temperature of the beer. Ambient temperature means nothing in kegerator terms. Pour a beer...chug it. Pour another and take a temperature reading. You need to be at 38'f. Also, what you are experiencing is CO2 breakout. It is normally caused from too warm a temperature and not enough CO2 pressure. You are aiming to balance the system. Depending what kind of beer you have kegged can determine the volumes of CO2 needed.

It sounds like you have plenty of carbonation in the beer. I would purge the 15 psi off, adjust the pressure adjustment screw to as low as possible. You just need to dispense a beer at this point in 20 - 30 seconds. Then you can work out the details after the SB party. Good Luck! Go Steelers!!

BeerBottles said:

30% foam in glass.
40 degrees
15 psi

Force carbed last night, over carbed, 100% foam. Took of QD, Burped keg, Got the foam to go away for most part, per advice here on site.

Wondering now if I need more force carbing, or should turn down psi to 5-7 to get head to go away and carb into beer.

3 hours to party starts, house full of people, kegs full of flat beer.

Click to expand...

How did you "force carb last night"? If you had it at 40 degrees, and 15 psi and shook it, it should settle right down. If you had it at 30 psi and shook it, it'll be overcarbed. If you did, just keep pulling the pressure relief valve until it equalizes. It might not be ok in three hours, though. I'd turn the pressure done to 2 psi or so, just enough to push the beer, and hope for the best.

how long of lines?

Yooper said:

How did you "force carb last night"? If you had it at 40 degrees, and 15 psi and shook it, it should settle right down. If you had it at 30 psi and shook it, it'll be overcarbed. If you did, just keep pulling the pressure relief valve until it equalizes. It might not be ok in three hours, though. I'd turn the pressure done to 2 psi or so, just enough to push the beer, and hope for the best.

Click to expand...

Amber Ale

Lines are about 4 to 5 feet.
Current Beer Temp is 39 degrees (thermometer in glass of beer)

Per the advice of a friend: I "forced carbed" at 15 psi for 5 min (flat), then 20 for 5 (flat), then 30pi for 10 min... Pure Foam.

This morning, took off gas, shook and burped over and over till I got to this point. 1/3 glass of foam, nice looking carb for about 5 seconds, rises into head and is flat to drink.

BeerBottles said:

Amber Ale

Lines are about 4 to 5 feet.
Current Beer Temp is 39 degrees (thermometer in glass of beer)

Per the advice of a friend: I "forced carbed" at 15 psi for 5 min (flat), then 20 for 5 (flat), then 30pi for 10 min... Pure Foam.

This morning, took off gas, shook and burped over and over till I got to this point. 1/3 glass of foam, nice looking carb for about 5 seconds, rises into head and is flat to drink.

Click to expand...

Ah, your friend led you astray. Don't listen to him/her anymore!

I'd purge again, and turn it way down. Try just turning on the co2 until you get beer to dispense and see if that helps serve the beer today.

Also, remember to open the tap fully. Sometimes if it's foamy, our inclination is to just crack it open to slow it down. That doesn't work- think what happens when you pinch a garden hose! Make sure you open the tap all of the way to serve.

After today- keep the keg in the fridge at 11 psi. Get 8-10 foot lines. In 10 days, the beer will be perfect!

Hate to say this but you've got enough time to run out for a few six packs. There is no telling what the actual carb level is at this point. If the beer is rocketing out at 15psi, which I'd expect it to, you either need to dial the pressure back to like 10psi or replace your serving line with 10 feet of 3/16" ID.

It breaks my heart when people serve last minute anxiety brew to party guests. I understand the motivation behind it but it consistently soils the reputation of homebrew.

Extending the line is just masking the real problem. You need to balance the system.

extending the line IS balancing the system, by adding resistance to counteract the pressure in the beer... but i agree with the others, hard to know what pressure you have dissolved in the beer at this point, its been overcarbed then bled out so many times. solution is long term under consistent serving pressure so it can equalize. but, the lines could still be too short in the end,...

Also, you probably know this, but your beer isn't flat, its overcarbed. All the carbonation is comming out of suspension when your pouring, hence the foam. I know this dog has been beat to death, but I always try to avoid force carbing my beer, for this very reason.

We are making progress. You went from 100% foam to 30% foam. Burp the keg again and then turn the pressure way down....just until there is enough pressure to push the beer out. Still sounds like you have a little too much CO2 pressure in there. 15PSI is too much to dispense the beer. If your getting foam there is carbonation. Don't shake it anymore to release the gas....you still have time.

I ended up dropping psi to <5 and serving. It wasn't carbed as much as I would like, but everyone liked it none the less.

The Amber Ale was empty by nights end, granted I poured a lot down the drain via foamy glasses during the carb process... and the I still have some stout.

I think next time around I will try a carb at 30 psi for 32 to 48 hrs and then set pressure to 5 rather than rocking it about for 5 minutes at a time and pissing myself off in the process.

Everyone's advice was appreciated. Thank yoU!

NO, next time you carb at 8-10 PSI for at least a week prior.

-=jason=-

Flomaster said:

NO, next time you carb at 8-10 PSI for at least a week prior.

-=jason=-

Click to expand...

^^^ this

I learned some things reading this Sticky thread from Bobby_M (Thanks Bobby).

Flomaster said:

NO, next time you carb at 8-10 PSI for at least a week prior.

-=jason=-

Click to expand...

In my case, it's 12 psi at 40 degrees. In 7-10 days, the beer is perfect and stays perfect until the keg is empty.

Overcarbing/rocking/etc will only cause the same problems again. If you MUST carb in 3 days instead of 7, you could try setting it at 30 psi for 36 hours, then purging and resetting at 12 psi. No rocking/shaking/etc.

Have one "carb" pressure and a different "serving" pressure is going to cause you problems every time.

Yooper said:

Have one "carb" pressure and a different "serving" pressure is going to cause you problems every time.

Click to expand...

This, in fact, is ideal. To accomplish this you need a beer pump. You set your keg pressure to the precise setting to achieve the perfect carbonation for the temperature you keep it. Rather than dispensing the beer at that pressure (which will be too high or too low for a perfect pour, unless you are lengthening or shortening your beer lines with every type of beer), you want to dispense the beer at the pressure that serves it correctly. for that, you send the beer through a pump and another regulator which corrects the pressure (usually increases) when you pull the tap. That is how you get a beer at 10 psi to travel 30 feet through a long draw draft system, or a spritzy beer at 15 psi to come out of a tap just a few feet away from the keg without being 100% foam (and without adding 30 feet of beer line to the system)

I think being prepared and having more lead time on a big weekend of having company will make all the difference. My kegerator arrived only 3 days before the Super Bowl and I had a ton of people coming over.

So if I wanted to serve the beer I made, I didn't have many options. I just brewed 2 more batches yesterday. Now I'll follow your advice and carb for a week or so. Looking forward to the difference!