Hi everyone! (Apologies in advance for the long post)
Since I have a great love for beer when I got my basement bar built I wanted to have cold brew on tap, which is where my kegerator came in. Even though I've only made 4 batches so far (which have all been good), as you all know bottling the beer was a PIA. Having beer on tab and not bottling killed two birds with one stone. To get to the point I bought two used kegs from AIH one was a corny and one was a Challenger/Firestone. For my first keg I decided to just go down to the local pub (get an IPA) and get them to fill the corny with one of their beer, as I knew the initial keg setup wasn't going to be plug and play (so I figure I might as well go through the motions with someone else beer instead of mine).
I've got two Perlick 650SS taps with the flow control and when I hooked up the regulator made sure there was no leaks I kept getting nothing but foam, and a lot of foam, unless I took the flow control down really low (which isn't ideal). I took all the corrective steps cleaned the keg thoroughly, replaced all o-rings, changed the beer line from the included 5ft to 10ft, etc. I don't have a tower cooler as the beer temps on my first and following pours are pretty consistent. But it was STILL foam. I let it sit for a good portion of time in between changes. Ended up just letting the beer sit in the glass after the foam messes and then drinking. Needless to say the beer wasn't as enjoyable as it could of been. Now the beer is gone and my 5lbs CO2 tank is empty as well (mostly my fault as I wasted a lot of CO2 bleeding the keg and refilling - I know I shouldn't have in hind sight).
Now when pouring I noticed that on the beer line closest to the beer disconnect I would see air bubbles and then after awhile a pocket would develop (maybe about 2 inches or so) if I let it sit for about 30min in between pours in the beer line. This would also cause the beer to sputter out on almost every pour. I figured that the valve was probably nicked or something and bought a new valve to replace. After the keg was empty last night I took off the beer disconnect and unscrewed the valve to notice that the poppet sprint was stuck inside the valve (pic below). I also noticed when comparing the spring that was originally on the keg and the new one I bought; the older one was really short (older valve and spring on the left in the pic below and newer on the right). I could see how it could get stuck inside the top of the valve because its so short with less tension on the little spring.
My questions are:
1. The older poppet with the shorter spring (on the left in the pic below); could this have been a reason why I seeing the gas bubbles getting into the beer line (because it was stuck at the top of the valve) and more than likely not opening/closing properly?
2. Could this have also been the reason why I was constantly seeing foam?
3. Is the spring for the valve supposed to be the shorter one (that was stuck) or the longer one that I received with the new one?
Just trying to isolate my problems, so with the next keg I get (before using my own beer) I can thoroughly enjoy it.
Thanks again everyone, I know it takes time to balance the system, and willing to put the time in, to learn but again I'm just trying to make sure its right.........at the end of the day this isn't rocket science.
Since I have a great love for beer when I got my basement bar built I wanted to have cold brew on tap, which is where my kegerator came in. Even though I've only made 4 batches so far (which have all been good), as you all know bottling the beer was a PIA. Having beer on tab and not bottling killed two birds with one stone. To get to the point I bought two used kegs from AIH one was a corny and one was a Challenger/Firestone. For my first keg I decided to just go down to the local pub (get an IPA) and get them to fill the corny with one of their beer, as I knew the initial keg setup wasn't going to be plug and play (so I figure I might as well go through the motions with someone else beer instead of mine).
I've got two Perlick 650SS taps with the flow control and when I hooked up the regulator made sure there was no leaks I kept getting nothing but foam, and a lot of foam, unless I took the flow control down really low (which isn't ideal). I took all the corrective steps cleaned the keg thoroughly, replaced all o-rings, changed the beer line from the included 5ft to 10ft, etc. I don't have a tower cooler as the beer temps on my first and following pours are pretty consistent. But it was STILL foam. I let it sit for a good portion of time in between changes. Ended up just letting the beer sit in the glass after the foam messes and then drinking. Needless to say the beer wasn't as enjoyable as it could of been. Now the beer is gone and my 5lbs CO2 tank is empty as well (mostly my fault as I wasted a lot of CO2 bleeding the keg and refilling - I know I shouldn't have in hind sight).
Now when pouring I noticed that on the beer line closest to the beer disconnect I would see air bubbles and then after awhile a pocket would develop (maybe about 2 inches or so) if I let it sit for about 30min in between pours in the beer line. This would also cause the beer to sputter out on almost every pour. I figured that the valve was probably nicked or something and bought a new valve to replace. After the keg was empty last night I took off the beer disconnect and unscrewed the valve to notice that the poppet sprint was stuck inside the valve (pic below). I also noticed when comparing the spring that was originally on the keg and the new one I bought; the older one was really short (older valve and spring on the left in the pic below and newer on the right). I could see how it could get stuck inside the top of the valve because its so short with less tension on the little spring.
My questions are:
1. The older poppet with the shorter spring (on the left in the pic below); could this have been a reason why I seeing the gas bubbles getting into the beer line (because it was stuck at the top of the valve) and more than likely not opening/closing properly?
2. Could this have also been the reason why I was constantly seeing foam?
3. Is the spring for the valve supposed to be the shorter one (that was stuck) or the longer one that I received with the new one?
Just trying to isolate my problems, so with the next keg I get (before using my own beer) I can thoroughly enjoy it.
Thanks again everyone, I know it takes time to balance the system, and willing to put the time in, to learn but again I'm just trying to make sure its right.........at the end of the day this isn't rocket science.
