Having pour troubles. Please Help!

[smugdawgmillionaire]

I purchased some perlick flow control faucets last spring and finally got around to using them over the summer with two commercial slim barrel sankey's. With these commercial kegs each and every pour was a foam bomb atop flat beer. I'd keep pouring though, and as the tower began to condensate via cooling (I have long neglected a cooling fan. Yes, I do understand how dumb that is) the pours would begin slowly resembling something decent and carbonated without excessive foam. Now, I've been homebrewing a long time and have never had an issue with my carbonation process. My system was stored in a basement that remained very cool year round until this past summer in which I have moved into a new place and now keep the system upstairs. Was always 5' lines with front sealing faucets and worked like a charm until the faucets kept gunking up, thus I bought the new flow control guys.

Basically, I've been homebrewing just fine for quite some time, but am now having to reconcile with one of the more important aspects of beer making that I never really had to deal with. I would always set my beers at 30 psi for a couple days, slowly back the pressure down to serving after those first couple of days, and would always find that that did the trick. A total 'carb' time of 7 days. If the carb wasn't where I wanted it, I'd either bump up the pressure a touch, or bleed it and let it sit a day or two, using 'feel' to dial in my beers. I never worried about line length or learning about ideal pressure.... until now, as this issue is costing me precious elixir.

SO, I need some help and solid educating. My specs: 10 feet of line, 1/4" ID, approx 2.5 feet from the middle of the keg to the faucet. My ideal pressure determination is thus 7.75 #'s. I now have a homebrewed saison on that I kegged three days ago at 30 psi @ 40F. This beer is thus overcarbed when compared to the 7.75. I can also see the carbonation separating from the beer line in the kegerator. How have I gotten away with neglecting this for so long? Is it the flow control faucets or is it the difference in ambient temperature of the basement it was once stored and the room is it now in??

In closing, I dumped a fair amount of the commercial brews off the sankeys to get passed the foam, thinking it was the temp or faucets. What I have on tap now is doomed to the same fate unless I act. From now on I will be using the BeerSmith carbonation tool to carb my beer to a profile via temp and psi, and I will then push the beer at the ideal pressure equation that states 7.75 psi for my system.

Please offer me and advice/criticism/corrections/etc!

 

[acidrain]

The flow control faucets may be part of the problem... I have no experience with those, but I don't like the theory that restricting flow at the faucet is beneficial.

You sound like you've been around enough to know about carbonation charts and understand colder beer absorbs C02 better, etc. etc...

You probably also know that the length and diameter of the delivery line controls the flow rate.

I like my beer cold, and keep my fridge at 34 to 36 deg F.
To achieve 2.5 volumes of C02 (normal/my carbonation preference) I need the pressure set at 10 psi.
To control 10 psi of pressure, I use 10 ft. of 3/16" line.
The glass lined beer-line is a little different, but that's not what I use. I'm just giving an example of what works for me.

I see you use 1/4" line. I would change that to 3/16".
Your temperatures and pressures are way different than mine, but working from the chart, if your temperature is higher, you also need more pressure, and therefore more flow control.

The reason I don't like the flow control faucets is that any turbulent restriction will have higher pressure in front of the restrictor, and lower pressure after it.
When the beer suddenly goes from high to low pressure, C02 will come out of solution (foam + flat beer).

It's a tried and proven formula that using 3/16" beer line will restrict without adding turbulence at 1' per 1 psi of beer pressure.

I would change:

• Colder beer

• Stable, correctly carbonated beer

• Get rid of the flow control faucets, or maybe try opening them all the way

• Consult the chart, and use the correct delivery pressure for the C02 volumes of the beer

• Use 1' of 3/16" beer line per lb of psi (more for glass-lined beerline)

Here is a link to a C02 volumes chart: https://www.kegoutlet.com/media/uploads_ckeditor/Carbonatin-Chart.jpg

Good luck!

 

[day_trippr]

Mister "Sanke kegs and flow control faucets are the recipe for a perfect pour every time" should be along any moment...

Cheers!

 

[LLBeanJ]

I see you use 1/4" line. I would change that to 3/16".

This ^^^^^

I am running the 650s on 5 of my taps and they work great, but they're not the answer to a system that's not set up properly. With 1/4" ID line, the beer is simply flowing too fast. Get 3/16" ID line and I think you'll have much better results.

 

[smugdawgmillionaire]

Thanks for all the replies. I will be swapping over to 3/16" beverage line after my next LHBS trip.

Funny story: Just made it home from work and I decided to do some personal research. I swapped my unoccupied second flow-control faucet for one of my old rear sealers that it had replaced. I took a pour from the first faucet that is still flow-control and received the same excessive loss to super foam that brought me to postin' last night.

So, I disconnected the keg from that flow-control line and tapped it on the unoccupied second line that now has the ole standard faucet. While the carbonation profile leaves something to be desired, the pour was fine. No excessive waste to foam.

My game undoubtedly needs to improve with properly carbonating & serving my beers, and better understanding my system. For that, this has been a beneficial experience and you who have commented have helped!

HOWEVER, with the observation of these two pours from these two faucets types of the same beer from the same keg, within 30 seconds of each other, I now feel I splurged money on a gimmicky feature that was completely unnecessary. These may work for some, but I've see enough to stand convinced I don't need features like these. To be replaced....

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Definitely the flow control is not the problem. I know you say you switched kegs and you got a better pour but something else is up. Nor should you need 10 ft of line with sanke kegs. I would start by taking it apart and giving it a good clean. Could be an obstruction. The 5 ft lines you were running ( maybe came with the tower and 3/16") should work fine. I run 4 ft lines with sankes and room temp of around 74 and almost never need the flow control so I would think your room temp has nothing to do with it. I do have my beer set to around 36 degs though. The flow control is a nice option to have when you want it. Like filling growlers or to dial down your first beer which will always be a little foamier with the tower being warmer. I'm going to say you have over carbing issues. 30 psi for three days is a lot. Most go 30 for 36 hours and your double that. I carb at 40 for 24 hors and drop to serving pressure with good results. Not going to find many complaints, virtually none, about flow control faucets and lots of people use them. That alone would lead me to believe something else being the issue.

FWIW when I buy a commercial keg I let it sit for a day in the fridge then purge before hooking it up. Seems to work. I've had issues with foamy beers hooking them up straight after getting them home...car ride and the fact that the beer distributer keeps the kegs on the warm side in the summer doesn't help.

 

[smugdawgmillionaire]

Point taken, man. I didn't read many complaints on the product review when I bought my flow controls. I definitely have a seat-of-my-pants carbonation approach that has created my issue but I can guarantee you there's nothing obstructing the lines. Deep cleaned the set up this past weekend. I'm swapping to 3/16" this weekend and getting the carb profile corrected via the pressures I calculated in the carb profile tool I used and patience. Got plenty of stuff to sip on in the meantime.

Over the summer I was a production assistant at a local spot which is where I got the commercial kegs described. I have a cold room in my new crib and left them in it for a week before tapping. I didn't bleed the kegs head pressure before tapping like you did, tho.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Dial in your carbing method and your issues will most likely disappear. Save the seat of the pants approach for financial decisions and marriage....put a little more effort into the things that matter.