Foam is starting to drive me crazy

[IPAAAA]

So I have a little kegerator I built that holds 2 cornies. I have a two faucet tower on it that is insulated and I run two coils of 10 foot line for each faucet. I just let the beer lines sit coiled up on top of each keg.

I usually carb the kegs when they are around 45 degrees and I do the force carb method of 30 psi and roll the keg on the ground for a minute or so. I then turn the keg down to about 10 psi and just let it sit.

This last time I let it sit a little longer on 30 psi but before I still had the same issues. I leave the psi around 10 and serve with it that way about a week after the keg has been hooked up.

I also don't have a temp controller on in the kegerator but have measured with a infrared temp gauge and it seems to be around 45-50.

Am I just over carbing these beers? What in my setup could be causing me to have foam issues? Do I need to turn the kegerator temp down? Man this is frustrating.

 

[jmo88]

With 10' lines and 10spi at 45*, I'd say you're overcarbing the beer when you roll the kegs on the floor. You can get it carbed at about 40psi for 24 hours, purge it, and set to 10psi.

 

[JonK331]

Yup sounds over carbed to me too.

 

[day_trippr]

What inside diameter are your beer lines?

Cheers!

 

[ozzy1038]

Your temp may be a little high. Also, why not just set it at 10# and leave it? You leave it sit a week anyway. If you carbonate cooler, the CO2 will go into the beer easier (faster) as well. Are the first pours foamy and then pour good? If so your beer lines in the tower may be too warm. Another thing to try is an epoxy mixer tip insert placed into your dip tube in your keg. That worked wonders for me. You may want to bleed off the pressure on your kegs a little too to help with over carbonation if that is in fact the problem. I like my beer to pour at 35-38. When it hits the glass that warms it slightly to the temp I like it to be. I have read that serving it over 40F out of a draft tower can cause some foam issues.

 

[IPAAAA]

With 10' lines and 10spi at 45*, I'd say you're overcarbing the beer when you roll the kegs on the floor. You can get it carbed at about 40psi for 24 hours, purge it, and set to 10psi.

Ya I was thinking of setting and forgetting on this next keg.

Yup sounds over carbed to me too.

Ya...just pouring foam on every drink right now....guess I gotta deal with it.

What inside diameter are your beer lines?

Cheers!

Honestly I don't remember. Gonna guess 3/16.

Your temp may be a little high. Also, why not just set it at 10# and leave it? You leave it sit a week anyway. If you carbonate cooler, the CO2 will go into the beer easier (faster) as well. Are the first pours foamy and then pour good? If so your beer lines in the tower may be too warm. Another thing to try is an epoxy mixer tip insert placed into your dip tube in your keg. That worked wonders for me. You may want to bleed off the pressure on your kegs a little too to help with over carbonation if that is in fact the problem. I like my beer to pour at 35-38. When it hits the glass that warms it slightly to the temp I like it to be. I have read that serving it over 40F out of a draft tower can cause some foam issues.

Ya I think I will just set and forget from now on. I need to get a temp controller in the fridge but I'm being lazy. Maybe some of those stick on temp stickers on the keg will hold me over for now.

 

[solbes]

Is there significantly less foam on the second pint you pull? If so then you still have a temperature imbalance. I really liked the suggestion of putting the beer line inside a length of 1/2" copper (I also used pipe insulation over the copper in the tower portion). The bottom 3" of bare copper is in the fridge, which conducts the heat away from the entire length of copper inside the tower. Keeps the beer inside the tower cooler and I get much less foam due to temperature shock. Whoever came up with that idea deserves a prize. No fan needed either, love it. I run 8' of 3/16 and have minimal foam on 10-12 psi serving pressure.

 

[IPAAAA]

On this beer there is a ton of foam on every pull so it has to be over carbed. The previous keg was not as bad but I still did the roll carb method.

My tower has a foot of ss tubing that runs down it to near the base and then the beer line is hooked to that. It is also insulated inside the tower so I think that should be enough to keep the beer cool in there but who knows.