Foamy Keg Advice

[J2W2]

Hi,

I have a keg of Nut Brown Ale that I've been battling foam issues with. I'm having a party Saturday, and I'm hoping to get it settled down by then. I'm getting very foamy pours, even when I set my Perlick Flow-Controls at a very low flow rate. By my estimate, the keg has just under four gallons of beer in it.

The big issue is it's over-carbed. Long-story short, I let the keg warm up somewhat and purged the headspace. When I put it back in the keezer, it carbed up to almost 20psi. I've been working on dropping that, but it's still high and I think there's a lot of suspended CO2 in the beer.

Last night I dialed my regulator down to around 8 PSI and purged the headspace on the keg. This morning, the regulator was showing 16 PSI, so the beer appears to still be over-carbonated.

My plan is to pull the CO2 line off the keg, purge the headspace, and unscrew the pressure relief valve. I'd leave the keg in the keezer (like I did last night), so the beer remains at serving temp, but I'm thinking some of the CO2 will come out of suspension if the keg isn't under any pressure.

Any thoughts on this, and any idea how long to let it set before I hook the CO2 back up? My plan would be to set the regulator fairly low (maybe 10 PSI) and see if it stays stable or increases again.

Thanks for your help!

 

[homebrewfinds]

If you have a Spunding Valve this is a great use for it. Based on the temperature the keg is at, figure out what the pressure should be. Set your Spunding Valve to that pressure and wait. I think this works better at warmer temperatures, another way to speed up the process is to periodically agitate the keg.

 

[Dgallo]

You can keep it off the gas and periodically rock it and bleed off the pressure, think back to when you were a kids shaking up your soda bottle and opening the cap and if you did that enough times the soda would be flat. Same concept here but you only want to lose some co2

 

[yoop89]

Last night I dialed my regulator down to around 8 PSI and purged the headspace on the keg. This morning, the regulator was showing 16 PSI, so the beer appears to still be over-carbonated.

Do you know whether or not you have a check valve between the keg and regulator? Only asking because if you do this would point to your regulator being at faultA(i.e. needing a rebuild). My regulator will not show keg pressure if its higher than my set-point due to a check valve in the shutoff.

If it is in fact overcarbed I agree with @Dgallo on getting excess out. I have had to do that once with a keg where I accidentally over carbed. I was able to get it de-gassed a little and pouring right within the same night.

 

[bleme]

I saw a post here a while back where the guy hooked his gas to the out post and just kept pulling the release valve. The CO2 bubbling up through the beer helped de-gas it. It sounds like it would use a lot of CO2 though.

 

[J2W2]

If you have a Spunding Valve this is a great use for it.

Agreed. Unfortunately, I've never had the need so I don't have one.

You can keep it off the gas and periodically rock it and bleed off the pressure.

I believe this could speed it up, but I've read articles saying that is not good practice when trying to quick-carb a keg (although that usually involves shaking the keg). From what I've read the keg gets carbed, but you don't really know at what pressure. Right now I'm hoping it will work without rocking.

Do you know whether or not you have a check valve between the keg and regulator?

No check valves in my lines. I can turn the gas off with the regulator and pull the preassure release on the regulator line. If I have a keg attached, the regulator will drop to zero when I use its release, then the pressure will slowly climb back up as the keg pressurizes the line.

I've disconnect the gas from the keg, bled it, and unscrewed the relief valve. I'm going to give it a couple hours, then hook it back up and see where I'm at.

Thanks for the help!

 

[histo320]

Did you disassemble and clean your out ball lock? Sometimes you get gunk and other debris after the first pours that get trapped in there.