Help needed - Foaming issues from Corney Keg

Hello,

I am a first time homebrewer. I have an all-grain setup, with a kegerator system for serving. Brewing process went awesome, but kegging has been a disaster. I have yet to be able to pour a beer - every pour is pure foam except for the beer in the line.

My kegerator uses a 20lb CO2 tank and I used a mixture of set/forget and force carbing to carbonate the beer. It is still under-carbonated, but has been under pressure for at least 2 weeks and I am desperate to get it pouring for Xmas, but can't figure out what is going on. I'm using 10' of beer line, and can only think that maybe something is wrong with either the tap/shank or the keg?

I have thought about swapping my beer from the current keg into a new one to see if indeed it is the keg? Does anyone have any ideas as to why it is still foaming?

What PSI are you set to? Temperature in the fridge? What is the inner diameter of your beer line? These are the parameters for resistance along the run. If these are all in the right range, it's possible that you have a restriction inside the keg itself, like some hop bits stuck in the post, or something stuck to the dip tube.

Is the beer line 3/16" ID? What is the temp of the beer? At what PSI did you carb?

Sounds overcarbed to me. Shut off the gas and purge the headspace in the keg. Wait a few hours and try a pour (do not turn the gas back on - the CO2 that came out of solution and filled the purged headspace will provide the push). If still too foamy, repeat the process. Do this until you can get a good pour. It may take 3-5 cycles or so. Once you get a good pour, dial down the gas a few PSI and turn the gas back on.

What psi is the co2 regulator? What temperature is the kegerator? If you were to pour several pints right in a row does the foaming decrease?

Most issues are caused by the temp difference between the fridge portion and the tower portion of the kegerator. When the cold beer hits the warmer tower and taps the co2 comes out of the solution causing the foaming.

You can setup a small computer fan to blow the cold fridge air up into the tower to help cool those parts down. This helped decrease my foaming to almost perfect pours.

A fee pictures of the setup....
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PSI is currently set to about 18 PSI. Beer line is 1/4" reinforced PVC. Currently just storing in cold garage at 48 F.

Foaming does not decrease - very constant full foam with no beer once the beer line is cleared.

And the entire setup is in my garage, which is all the same temp at 48 F - so temp difference should not be an issue as the tap and shank is the same temp.

Okay, it's pretty clear now that you have an overcarbed condition for your setup. 18 PSI is too high for 12' of 3/16" tubing. For 1/4", it's off the charts too high. You'll need to reduce the carb level substantially to get a good pour with 1/4" line. Do as I stated above to decarb. I'm not sure what PSI you'll need to run for set and forget, but it will need to be low, maybe 5-6 PSI. I'd consider changing out the line for 3/16" ID, which would require 10-12 PSI for S&F.

See this is strange because before I only had about 4' of 1/4" beer line and it was still foaming essay too much. And if the beer is generally under-carbed, won't it just go flat if I reduce the PSI down to 10 or so?

I will try the carb-reducing tonight and leave it for a day and see if it changes anything.....

If anything else it'll be fun to try (might have to consume what I pour....! )

Have you used something like this excel sheet to calculate where your settings should be? Should give you a good starting point at least.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f84/beer-line-length-pressure-calculator-35369/

Due to the 1/4" line, your system won't be able to tolerate as much carb as a similar system that uses 3/16" line. So, yes, you'll have to keep your beer flatter to be able to pour it without excessive foam. To be able to carb to proper levels (e.g., 2.3-2.8 vols), you'll need either a lot more length of 1/4" line (like 25' total for each tap) or 10-12' of 3/16" line.

Llbean - from what you are saying it sounds like I should be using 3/16" line for beer line..... Is this standard? Or would it help to cool the beer down even more?

3/16" is the recommended size for most homebrew applications. It offers quite a bit more resistance than 1/4", which slows down the pour and reduces the tendency for excessive foaming. As far as cooling, that's another issue. I'd change the line first and then see how it pours. Since you carbed at 18 PSI, I'm pretty sure the beer is overcarbed for even 3/16" line, so you'll need to reduce the carb level currently in your beer regardless, but with 3/16 line you'll be a lot closer to where you need to be.

For Keezer/kegerator setups 3/16th is the standard and usually 10-12 feet as has been mentioned. larger line has less resistance and therefore the beer comes out faster, resulting in more foam in the glass.

I would switch to 10 feet of 3/16th first, I buy Watts brand at home depot in 20 foot rolls. Give the pour a shot and then address your over/under carbed issues afterward.

I also had a problem with dirty poppet valves causing excessive foam in the line. I doubt this is your problem here, but its not a bad idea to check and clean them when you clean the keg prior to filling it with the next batch.

Ok - I that makes the most sense. I'll try that and let you know. Not sure how long it will take to get that beer line in my part of the world...... But this has been great help. Man I love this forum!

eelgerg said:

Llbean - from what you are saying it sounds like I should be using 3/16" line for beer line..... Is this standard? Or would it help to cool the beer down even more?

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18 psi is ok for 48 degrees- see this carbonation chart: http://www.kegerators.com/articles/carbonation-table-pressure-chart.php

The thing is, you need about 1 foot of 3/16" line per psi for a proper pour in most cases, especially when the beer is warm-ish as warm beer foams like heck.

If you change to 15-18' of 3/16" beer line (not 1/4 vinyl stuff), that should fix you up. I"d go longer, as you can always shorten the lines but you can't grow them longer.

Question - is the barbed fitting on most ball lock and pin lock kegs suitable for both 3/16" and 1/4" tubing?!?!?

Yes. The barbs on the liquid side are usually 1/4", which will accommodate 3/16" line with no problem.

LLBeanJ said:

Yes. The barbs on the liquid side are usually 1/4", which will accommodate 3/16" line with no problem.

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Correct. I sometimes have to boil the tubing a bit to get it to slide on nice and tight, but it does go on with enough pushing and swearing.

Ok I have ordered 20' of 3/16" tubing. We'll see how this works!! I am very optimistic.

Funny cause I thought that 1/4" would be better - I thought it was the resistance that caused the foaming!!!!!!

Holy Hanna! It definitely is over-carbed. You can tell when you pour beer from the glass. The residue produces CO2 on the edge of the glass!

Oh yeah - I put about 20' of silicone 3/16" tubing on to act as beer line, and it works much better. Will off glass the overcarbed beer and see if that helps for tomorrow. Things are looking positive for tomorrow!

Thanks everyone for the help! As I've said before this forum ROCKS!

So I have about 20' of 3/16" silicone line on right now, and it pours about 1/2 foam and 1/2 beer. Should I should shorten the line? Try 15'? Then 10' if still foaming???

So far so good with the silicone tubing!!!!!

3 pours like this:

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