Force carbonated and now have foam

[javajo91]

Hey guys -

Yep..I force carbonated and now i've had foam in my keg for a week now. I shook for a few minutes total while set at 20psi. Then released some of the CO2 and set at 10 psi or so. Now I cant get a nice pour from my tap. Spits out foam..ALOT. I read elsewhere to try de-carbonating by shaking the keg and releasing the CO2 from the top of the keg. I did this a few times. By the third time i could tell the beer had pretty much foamed up inside the keg because i couldnt here the beer inside anymore when i went to shake it. I also wasnt able to release any more CO2 from the top.

Ugh...

Should i take it off the CO2 all together for a day or so?

Thanks guys!

 

[Yooper]

Hey guys -

Yep..I force carbonated and now i've had foam in my keg for a week now. I shook for a few minutes total while set at 20psi. Then released some of the CO2 and set at 10 psi or so. Now I cant get a nice pour from my tap. Spits out foam..ALOT. I read elsewhere to try de-carbonating by shaking the keg and releasing the CO2 from the top of the keg. I did this a few times. By the third time i could tell the beer had pretty much foamed up inside the keg because i couldnt here the beer inside anymore when i went to shake it. I also wasnt able to release any more CO2 from the top.

Ugh...

Should i take it off the CO2 all together for a day or so?

Thanks guys!

"Force carbonation" means using co2 to carb up a beer, which I do all the time at 12 psi in my kegerator. I think you did some "burst carbing" which means a higher psi and shaking. In any case, the only fix is to keep pulling the pressure relief valve until it calms down. I'd turn off the gas and keep releasing the pressure until it's right.

How long are you beer lines? Often, even an overcarbed keg pours better with lines of sufficient length. Mine are 10 feet of 3/16".

Oh, one other question! Are you opening the tap fully? I've had some foaming when friends want to pour just a small glass and so don't open the tap all of the way. It's counterintuitive, but opening the tap just a little causes foaming, bad. It's like what happens to a garden hose- pinch it off and it shoots like crazy!

So make sure the tap is fully open, and that the lines are sufficiently long.

 

[javajo91]

Hey again -

OK..now its getting a bit annoying. I had thought the issue had been over-carbonating due to my lame attempt at burst-carbonating. A couple of de-carbonationslater and still getting "spitty" foam from out line. i thought that perhaps i had mixed the in and out lines but no. i had thought that perhaps my keg post assembly and poppet perhaps were mucking with the beer on the way out so i changed them out....no luck.

The only thing i have not done yet is thoroughly clean my lines which i have not done since my last kegged batch.

The best way I can describe my issue is that the beer comes out not in a solid stream but almost as if there is air being introduced somewhere in the assembly causing a "spitty" flow...and it sounds like that as well. Could it be possible i have air trapped inside my out tube inside the keg?

Ughh..

I just want a nice pull!

Thanks for any help guys!

 

[Yooper]

When you removed the "out" post to check it, did you pull out the long diptube? If not, I would do that and hold it up to the light and "eyeball" through it. I wonder if you've got some hops debris in there clogging it up.

 

[javajo91]

Yooper -

No and good idea!! could that be causing the poor "spitty" flow? All I'm getting is inconsistently dispensed foam..

 

[Yooper]

Yooper -

No and good idea!! could that be causing the poor "spitty" flow? All I'm getting is inconsistently dispensed foam..

Yes, that could be causing the problem. That, or the poppit in the post has hops debris clogging it (but you said you changed that).

 

[javajo91]

cool Yooper - I'll give that a shot tonight.

 

[javajo91]

ok - hopefully this post will help out the next person that goes through this.

Yooper - you were basically in a way correct by saying that I may have had some hop debris in my out tube..

Back a couple weeks ago when I was carrying my carboy full of my delicious Pale Ale upstairs from the basement to my kitchen for racking I hadn't been as careful as I probably should have been and inadvertently shook the beer more than usual.
My theory is that this caused much of the sediment at the bottom of the carboy to end up in my keg after racking...

Yooper - I took out the "out" tube but didnt really see much. I even filled another keg with warm water and ran clean water through my tap lines to clean them up a bit. No good.

After all this I said to hell with it and racked it into a different keg. Voila! Problem solved. I still wasnt sure what the issue was until I rinsed out the troublesome keg... and what did I find? Globs of sediment getting rinsed down the kitchen sink drain. ....

So basiclly Yooper you were right. My out tube was sticking into a layer of sediment causing the spitting flow I was seeing out of the tap. This would also explain why after pouring a glass of foam - and letting it sit I would have a layer of sediment on the bottom of my glass...I should have known then!

Oh well...will never make that mistake again!

Perhaps I should construct a dumb waiter system to hoist my carboys from the cellar to the kitchen


Thanks Yooper! Cheers!

btw..saw the pics of your brew rig! Nice!!

 

[day_trippr]

That is why I always crash-cool my carboys before kegging, and put a sanitized square of nylon hop bag over the end of my autosiphon when I do keg to keep the dry hopped pellet mush in the carboy and not in the kegs.

One of these days I'll try to take a picture of the bottom of one of my kicked kegs to show just how little trubby/hoppy goo there is laying there. I doubt there's even a quarter cup - it really just looks like about an eighth inch coating - and it doesn't matter whether it's an APA or one bodacious Stout...

Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Yooper! Cheers!

btw..saw the pics of your brew rig! Nice!!

It really IS nice! This is the first time I've been totally satisfied with my brew rig. Before, there was always "something" I wanted to change. Not anymore- it's perfect for my needs and I love the indoor all-electric part the best!

Glad you fixed your issue with the foaming/spitting keg!