New nitro setup - lots of foam.

I've kegged over 40 batches of homebrew on CO2 and know all about a balanced CO2 system. I can nail a CO2 system.

After years of acquisition and much procrastination I finally have a few cornys of Fullers London Porter clone and all my nitro stuff hooked up.

I carbonated to an acceptable taste/mouthfeel level with CO2 and happily dispensed the first 8 or so pints on a normal CO2 tap/setup with excellent results.

A few days later I switched the keg to the first run of the stout faucet.

6' of new 3/8" ID line
clean tap and connections (tap has new o-ring and clean restrictor )
tried and true disconnects
cold run the whole way, cold tap
keg near 40deg - I can check exact temp if important
75/25 beergas at 32psi

I get a glass of 100% foam. It pours at a decent rate and I get that nice hissing sound you expect from a proper setup. The cascading effect is really not there - more like falling bubbles. I've poured literally thousands of pints of Guinness back in my bartending days and know what to expect. This setup is taking me around 4 minutes to get down to 2-1/2" of beer and 2" of head in a clean, rinsed 6" pint glass.

It tastes great - possibly a tad flat (but good) but it takes forever to pour.

Where can I start to work towards balancing this system? Thanks VERY much for any insight. I remember it took me a long time to really understand all the variables in a plain CO2 setup.

Not 100% sure of the calculations, but it sounds like you need more line. I know I've heard of people serving soda at ~30 psi using closer to 15 to 20 feet of line.

Interesting. Could be worth a shot. I've also read that the restrictor will knock the pressure down to a serving level and you can use a really short line. Who knows.

As an update - I think I'm running a bit cold. I just went through the ordeal of pouring a pint and when I got back to the kitchen (from the cold garage) the beer was 36deg which would lead me to believe it is colder than that in the keg. Certainly not freezing but I would say somewhere between 33-35

more line or less pressure. i was messing with my stout faucet for a while, before i ended up around 25 psi...perfect cascade.

btw i had 10' of hose connected.

The beer needs to be less carbonated, like 1.2-1.4 volumes. Also, too much pressure for 6' of beer line.

I adjusted the pressure down to 25psi and lengthened the line to 10'. I'll see if there is an improvement. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Looking forward to hearing your final result. I'll be hooking my system up soon and have about 6' line to my tower which was originally a sanke setup, so the line is crimped on to the elbow shank inside the tower, so I'm stuck with 6' of line. I've read nearly all posts on setting up a stout system, and it seems that having a line length like mine should not be all that important, since the higher pressure is required to force the beer through the diffuser plate anyhow. Seems that setting the correct pressure for the temperature at the regulator is the key.

Your line probably still wont be long enough. I have a 6ft line, and @25psi its all foam. I had to add a couple of swizel sticks to keep the foam down but the carbonation up.

Curious what the temp is. If it's as cold as iamsblack has his temps, I would think that the lower temp would lead to overcarbonation (colder beer = greater gas solubility), which would come out of solution as the beer is poured, because the beer is warming quickly as it exits the faucet and hits relatively warm glass.

It's way overcarbed if you had it carbed for co2 dispense. you're going to have to pull it off the gas and start degassing by opening the purge valve regularly. You'll probably have to bring it up to room temp during the process to get enough air out. Once it is almost flat,seriously, then put it back on the beer gas at about 30 psi. You'll get a much better pour then.

I do believe it is overcarbed. I've found now, at 25psi and 10' , I can get an acceptable pour if I barely push the tap handle backwards for most of the pour. I'm down to about 60% of a corny (hey - this takes a lot of experimentation to get it right!) and I think I'll just limp through with the rest of this batch and try to nail the other half of this brew which is sitting in secondary. That will be the batch online at Christmas. I'll barely force carbonate with CO2 and throw it on the beergas to equalize. I'll also experiment with the fridge it's in (a 1950s model) to see if I can get the temp up to a more realistic serving level.

I carbed my breakfast stout clone on CO2 at @60-65F with 6psi for a week. I then put it in keezer with beer gas at 30psi and about 15' of 3/16". Keezer is @37F (a bit too cold) and the next day had beautiful pours.

Follow-up;

Thanks to all who offered advice/suggestions. The first keg certainly was overcarbed. I lightly force carbonated the second keg (corny) and it was night and day. I get a gorgeous cascade and about 1" of creamy head now. The system is working beautifully. I think the beer has to come up in carbonation a tiny bit (taste observation) but it is still extremely tasty and pouring wonderfully.

Excellent! Who did you buy your stout faucet from? I'm going to order one this week. Should have mixed gas bottle tomorrow. Now I just gotta brew me a stout!

Ebay!

Got a genuine Guinness tap handle and a solid brass faucet. Honestly, it was so long ago I forget what I paid but I know it was under $50 (used)

This is all great information. I just finished installing my stout faucet last night. The serving line is 10 ft of 3/16" line. I have a stout that I carbed to 1.2 volumes using 5 psi (of CO2) at 62 degrees for a week. I'm gonna push the beer with straight N2 instead of beer gas though. Some say the beer is going to go flat if I use straight N2, but I don't think I believe this so I'm going to do my own experiment. Besides N2 is cheaper and I believe Yuri is doing it with argon.