The curse of the newb... foamy beer

[Thedude907]

Okay. I've been reading trying to figure out my self what is going on. From what I can gather it's a few things. First off my first two batches are great. They didn't poison me lol. Any way.

I have two kegs I force carbed at 30 psi. Shook them and kept them cool for man days. I have them in a freezer that is temp controlled to 38 f. I have two short 16 in tap lines. They foam. My blonde not so bad but my ipa comes out foamy. So I added a longer tubing. 10 foot. Still foam.
I am using like 3/8 or a 5/16 tubing. I think i should be using 1/4. Don't know


My thoughts are 1 tubing length and diameter issue 2 regulator issue. I think my Guage may be off. Because it hisses at 15 psI the prv on the regulator. Could be a bad orfice plate. Or 3 carbonation doesn't work at my house because it's buit on an Indian burial ground.

Any and all help is appreatianted. Thanks for any replies.

 

[thedon986]

What is your serving PSI? You likely over-carbonated the kegs if you set them to 30 psi and let them sit for many days (how many days is many?)

Are you using a kegerator or a keezer? If a kegerator, do you have a tower chiller?

3/16" or 1/4" are the common beer line tubing dimensions. Either is okay if you have the rest of the system balanced.

 

[Thedude907]

Serving pressure is at 10. I let sit at 30 for about two days.

I'm doing in a keezer. So no cooling tower.

 

[Thedude907]

It may be note worthy that I did use home Depot cheap lines and the diameter is off do to little resistance

 

[thedon986]

Yeah HD lines are a no-go. I also don't think they are food grade. You definitely need a high quality beverage line.

What is your serving temperature?

I still think it is likely that you may have also over-carbonated. Try pulling the pressure release valve a few times over the course of a couple days and see if it settles down. Also, replace that line ASAP.

 

[Thedude907]

My serving temp is locked in at 38 degrees f.
I will try purging Ober the next few days. Also do I need to shut off the co2 to the kegs while doing this.

And those lined will be replaced this afternoon.

 

[Enemygod]

I still think it is likely that you may have also over-carbonated. Try pulling the pressure release valve a few times over the course of a couple days and see if it settles down. Also, replace that line ASAP.

I agree with this. Also you said that you shook them during this time, which would definitely over-carb them. You really need to leave them at 30psi for 24-48 hours and don't shake, OR shake the hell out of them at 30psi for 2 minutes.

I would do some research on how to burst carb and force carb, then pick one, but don't do both. You will definitely over-carb that way.

 

[Enemygod]

Also do I need to shut off the co2 to the kegs while doing this.

No, leave the co2 connected at your serving pressure. the keg will eventually reach equilibrium.

 

[Morrey]

FWIW, getting the correct carb level in a beer by force/burst carbing is kinda tricky. The keg would need to be at correct temps to do this technique properly. And in all my years of carbing/kegging, I still have problems with this technique to the point I simply quit fooling with it.

I much prefer the set and forget method where you put the gas on the keg at your serving pressure and simply leave it be. This method takes a week or so, and unless you have a pipeline of beer to back you up, you may be in a position to push the beer more quickly.

 

[TheMadKing]

FWIW, getting the correct carb level in a beer by force/burst carbing is kinda tricky. The keg would need to be at correct temps to do this technique properly. And in all my years of carbing/kegging, I still have problems with this technique to the point I simply quit fooling with it.

I much prefer the set and forget method where you put the gas on the keg at your serving pressure and simply leave it be. This method takes a week or so, and unless you have a pipeline of beer to back you up, you may be in a position to push the beer more quickly.

I disagree, I have burst carbed every batch and I've never had an overcarbed beer (which is the only real problem that can happen)

It's always better to undershoot than overshoot your carb level, so I never go more than 24 hours at high pressure. My standard procedure is 40 PSI for 16-18 hours, purge the keg, set to serving pressure and give it about 2-3 days to balance out and condition. It's never once gone wrong on me and it's a bit quicker than set it and forget it.

In regards to OP's post, here's the fix:

-Vent your kegs to 0 PSI
-Pull your kegs out of the keezer and let them warm to room temp, and vent them down to 0 PSI whenever you think about it until you stop getting hisses
-Buy 10' of 3/16" ID serving line for each keg
-Replace whatever lines you have on there now with those
-Put your kegs back in the keezer at serving temperature (~38-40F)
-Set your PSI to 30 PSI and let it sit for ~15 hours (normally would be 20 hours, but you will have some residual carbonation left in your beer from the first go-round)
-Disconnect the gas line
-Vent your keg to 0 PSI
-Reconnect your gas line and set to serving pressure (~10-12 PSI) according to the chart below for temperature, pressure, and desired volumes of CO2
-Wait 2-3 days
-Drink beers

 

[LLBeanJ]

Serving pressure is at 10. I let sit at 30 for about two days.

I'm doing in a keezer. So no cooling tower.

Is there a fan in the keezer to move the air around and homogenize the inside temp? I recently build a keezer and had major foaming issues until I added a computer fan.

 

[mongoose33]

1. You're overcarbed. You can try purging while leaving it at serving pressure but that's going to take forever.

2. What you need to do is for the beer to go partially flat, in essence. Shut off the gas, and pull the pressure relieve valve. Leave it open for a couple hours, then close it, turn back on the gas at serving pressure, and see where you are. Rinse and repeat. If you had a lot of headspace in the keg, you might get away with purging repeatedly at serving pressure, but your keg is likely full, so there's little headspace to balance out the carbonation.

3. When beer is cold it holds more CO2 than warm; if you serve cold beer into a warm glass, or through warm lines, or through a warm faucet, the beer will warm up and guess what happens? CO2 comes out of solution in the form of foam. Keeping the lines cold (as per above w/ a fan), having cool or cold glasses, and recognizing that the first beer out of a warm faucet is going to foam a bit are how you deal with this.

4. Beer served needs to be through a balanced system. You need a certain amount of resistance to keep CO2 in solution. One method is to use 3/16" line, about 5 feet of it. If your line diameter is larger, you need more line. Depending on the ID, maybe 10 or 15 feet or more. Best solution is 3/16" line which, among other things, means less line coiled up in the keezer. Another option to create resistance is to use a flow control faucet like the Perlick 650SS or the Intertap flow control.

5. Force carbing can be difficult to do where you get the exact carbonation you want. My typical approach is to force carb at 36 psi for 20 hours, then turn down to serving pressure, similar to what MadKing does above. It's usually pretty close to what I want, and it will balance out over a few days time. Meanwhile, it's drinkable.

 

[Thedude907]

Thank you all for the feedback.

Yeah i got in a hurry and wanted to drink when I got home from work. I work two weeks on and two weeks off. I had too much time away tondwell on the beers.

No fan as of right now. I will be getting one here real soon.

So I did get some new line. Fixing to replace the HD ones and trash them so I'm not ever tempted to uses them.
Another lesson besides lack of patience is don't cheap out on materials like tubing. It cost me more in the long run. Lol
Will post updates in the coming days. Thanks again guys I'm verry confidant this will fix my foam issue