Foam when pouring beer from tap

[Moose1231]

Hi guys,

I have Perlick taps on my kegerator, when I pour my first pint, it foams a lot. There is turbulence in my line but just for the first second. After that the line is clean but it's too late, there is already too much foam.

I remember when I was working in a pub, we were pouring the first drops in the drain and then in the glass to avoid having too much foam. But with my homebrew, I don't want to waste any drops!

Do you guys have any idea how I could avoid that?

Thanks

 

[gibsonmi]

It could be a few things, and probably some combination. If it is like this for the first pour only when you pour consecutive beers it's probably due to the line warming, depending on your setup it might be possible to do something about it, I have seen a few threads about it but haven't done it myself, check the DIY section for keeper builds. The other likely culprits are 1) the beer lines are too short and 2) you have the CO2 set too high. I would recommend no less than 10 feet 3/16 inch line, probably 12 to be safe. The CO2 pressure would also cause over carbonation, the proper setting depends on the volume of CO2 you want in the beer but typically 10-12 at serving temps is about right.

 

[Yooper]

It could be a few things, and probably some combination. If it is like this for the first pour only when you pour consecutive beers it's probably due to the line warming, depending on your setup it might be possible to do something about it, I have seen a few threads about it but haven't done it myself, check the DIY section for keeper builds. The other likely culprits are 1) the beer lines are too short and 2) you have the CO2 set too high. I would recommend no less than 10 feet 3/16 inch line, probably 12 to be safe. The CO2 pressure would also cause over carbonation, the proper setting depends on the volume of CO2 you want in the beer but typically 10-12 at serving temps is about right.

I agree- in a homebrew setting, 10 feet of 3/16" line with about 12 psi at 40 degrees seems to work well for most people.

It could be that the taps/lines are a bit warm, and that also causing some foaming and would explain why the first pour is so much foamier but unless you can do something about that, like with a fan in the kegerator or insulating the lines or taps, that might be harder to fix.

 

[JuanMoore]

If it pours foamy to start, and then pours nicely, there are only two possible causes. The most likely cause is that the shank, faucet, and lines inside the tower are too warm, and CO2 is coming out of solution until enough cold beer flows through to cool everything down. There are a few solutions to this problem, and the most common one is to add a small computer fan to blow cold air up into the tower. That is if it's a tower. If it's a converted fridge with the shanks through the door, using longer shanks that put more thermal mass inside the cold fridge can help.

The other possible cause is that the carbonation level is higher than the level corresponding to your serving pressure. This will cause CO2 to come out of solution and collect in the lines as it sits, forming pockets of gas. Next time it's been at least a few hours since you've poured a beer, check the lines to see if there are any gas pockets that have formed. If this is the problem, then you need to either increase the serving pressure to match the carbonation level, or degas the keg until the carbonation matches the serving pressure.

While the line length isn't the issue in this particular case, I do agree that longer lines in general are a good idea, and they may help compensate for other issues. If the issue turns out to be that your serving pressure is too low, then it might turn out that your lines are too short for the correct serving pressure.

 

[Moose1231]

Ok, so I have 6' lines and this is a fridge, not a tower. There is no bubbles in the line so it might be the temperature. I might try to buy longer lines next time I go to my LHBS because there is not much I can do for the temperature.

Thanks for your answers