Help with foam

[millsware]

Hi everyone. I recently built a keezer with a tower and CMB faucets. I am having an issue with crazy foam. My CO2 tank is in the keezer. I have the regulator set to 1 psi and I am still getting tons of foam. I have 10 ft lines. I don’t know how to fix this.

 

[day_trippr]

- What is the inside diameter of your ten foot beer lines?
- How was the beer carbonated, and to what volumes of CO2?
- What is your dispensing temperature?

Unless you're serving still beer, you don't want to run dispensing pressure so low that it actually allows carbonation in the beer to escape.
Ideally you use a combination of temperature and pressure to maintain the desired carbonation level of the beer - then tune the dispensing system to handle that pressure.

So let's get some details down and go from there...

Cheers!

 

[millsware]

Thanks for the reply. I force-carbed at 8-10 psi at 38 F. My beer lines are 1/2 OD so I assume the ID is 3/16. I got the kit from kegconnection.

The thing is that I have gotten good pours but the last few days have been all foam.

 

[day_trippr]

Did you get good pours from this keg or an earlier one?

I'm going to guess your lines are actually 7/16" OD which would correlate with 3/16" ID solid PVC tubing. That's a good start.
If you are dispensing at 38°F you should keep your regulator set to the same 8-10 psi you carbed with to maintain the carbonation level in the keg, and your lines should work well. If you reduce the CO2 pressure below that it will cause CO2 to break out of solution in the keg (and lines) which can cause cascading problems with foam.

Next, what does your dispensing system look like? If you are running a tower is it getting warm as summer approaches?
Warm faucets and tower lines will often cause "first pour" foam issues as the beer cools the tower bits - a second pour immediately after the first is just as often satisfactory. A tower cooler can be handy in such cases...

Cheers!

 

[millsware]

Okay, adjusted psi back up to 8 this morning. After work I pulled off about a pint of foam and then it poured okay. Still a little foamier than I would like. Should I up it to 10 and see what happens?

 

[day_trippr]

Give it a try, it won't hurt anything.

According to our favorite carbonation table at 38°F 8 psi would eventually result in 2.2 volumes of CO2 while 10 psi would end up at 2.38 volumes. Assuming this is a typical ale I'd opt for the 10 psi (actually, 11 psi at 38°F as I like a bit more carbonation)...

Cheers!

 

[millsware]

At just over 10 psi it is crazy foam. No clean pour at all. There are air bubbles in the beer line. Is this normal. What is the next thing to do?

I don’t have temp control in the tower but it is only a foot high and the lines are insulated inside some pipe insulation.

One the foam settles the beer doesn’t seem overcarbonated but I wonder if the pressure gauge is off. Is there a way to test it?

 

[day_trippr]

Ideally you'll never see bubbles in the beer lines, as they're indicative of CO2 breakout (not "air").
One thing that can cause that is too little CO2 pressure being applied vs the actual carbonation level of the beer.
Eg: if you carbed the beer to 2.5 volumes but set your dispensing pressure too low to maintain that level, CO2 will leave the beer, and the only way out is through the beer line.
It's undeniable physics, so matching the dispensing temperature/CO2 pressure combination to the carbonation of the beer is of primary import.

Another cause of bubbles in the beer line is a damaged or missing O-ring under the Out dip tube flange. If that small O-ring isn't perfect it can allow CO2 from the keg head space to be injected into the beer stream at the Out post. They can fail to varying degree - it's not binary mode (unless it's missing) - so inspection is worthwhile when battling dispensing issues.

As for "once the foam settles the beer doesn’t seem overcarbonated", you're losing the carbonation to foam, so for sure it's not going to appear overcarbonated any longer if it ever was...

Cheers!