First pour foamy

[TheCondor]

Hey guys was wondering if anyone experiences some foamy pours from the first of the night off the kegerator. I have taps through the door of a side by side fridge. The second pour is awesome. Just the first 1/3 of my first pour is foamy. Fridge is set to 36degrees.

 

[PyroTech]

I'm a novice when it comes to kegging but I think we need more information.

I'm confident that a significant part of your issue is indeed line length. It is tricky to get good, consistent pours with 5ft lines even if everything else is dialed in well. Been there, done that and had similar problems with the first glass being more foamy. When you first open the tap, the beer wants to come out at a higher velocity which causes foaming when it hits the glass. Now I use 12ft of 3/16" line on all three taps. It slows the beer down some and I enjoy much, much better (and consistent) pours.

Line length, warmer tower, service temperature and pressure are all inter-related and all play a part in the issue you are having. What are your temps and pressure?

To blow cold air up into the tower, you can rig a computer fan powered by a 12v wall charger. Simple, cheap and it moves plenty of air.

 

[norrisk66]

Every brew is different in my experience. This is why it is nice to have a separate regulator for multiple tap handles-so you don't have to run 2 or more different brews off the same pressure.

You will just have to dial in pressures for each brew. In my experience, 8-10 PSI is a good rule of thumb for most beer.

Beer lines also come into play-for short runs (like in you kegerator) you should get good results out of 3/16" tubing. Like mentioned above, 12' should get good results. I personally do not like having 12' of line piled up in my kegerators. I run 7' on all my beer lines.

 

[Rockn_M]

I'm thinking since it's just the first few seconds the shanks are warmer than the beer causing the co2 to come out of solution.

Once the shanks cool the beer pours properly?

You'll need to find a way to cool the shanks so the first pour has very little foaming.

 

[LLBeanJ]

I'm thinking since it's just the first few seconds the shanks are warmer than the beer causing the co2 to come out of solution.

Once the shanks cool the beer pours properly?

You'll need to find a way to cool the shanks so the first pour has very little foaming.

+1

This is indicative of a temp problem in the line, shank, and faucet. That first pour cools everything down so that subsequent pours go well. You can try to rig a fan inside the fridge to keep the air flowing throughout the chamber or just live with it, as lots of folks will resign themselves to the fact that the first pour is going to be foam.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

The shanks are short wouldn't the cold transfer through cutting way back on foam compared to a tower?
This is the very reason you need a perlick with flow control.First pour takes a little longer but cuts way back on the foam.

 

[TheCondor]

I have 10' 3/16 lines. Yes after the first pour everything is awesome. Just the first few seconds of the first pour is somewhat foamy. Regulator is set to 10psi. The fridge is in the garage, maybe the tap being warmer is causing co2 to come out of solution? We have experienced a warm trend in central california lately.

 

[norrisk66]

You might try replacing the gaskets between the shank and the nipple where the clear beer lines screw on?

A while back I had one that was sucking in air (without leaking) or causing turbulence. There are 2 types of gaskets-fiber and nylon. Can't remember which is supposedly better.

If you have the shanks with the built-in nipples-disregard this.