After 7 months, suddenly too much foam

My 4 tap keezer has worked like a charm for the first 7 months - good foam, very few problems. Now, suddenly, I have crazy amounts of foam per pour (80% minimum) on all 4 taps. I've checked pressure - generally 10psi - and temperature - 38F (I've even turned the temp down to 36F). The beers taste great, and they're not flat, but they're crazy foamy. When I watch the pour, the beer coming out of any of the 4 taps seems to burp some gas, then pour a mix of beer, then foam, beer then foam, etc. It's not done this for me before. Can dirty lines do this? I'm using perlick faucets, good equipment throughout the flow. Why the sudden change?

 

I would wonder if the room temp has gone up because of summer?

B

 

A similar problem here ...

Before adding a collar, my taps were inside the keezer - I would open the lid and pour a perfect pint.

Now that the taps are mounted to the collar and on the outside of the keezer, I get mega foam. The only thing that changed is the position of the tube run inside the keezer and the taps outside.

I suspect it is the warm tap (approx 100 deg) & cold beer (38 deg).

 

ahahcreative:

I had a similar issue. I suggest using beer line cleaner with hot water and letting it sit in your lines for an hour or so, flush it would with sani and see where that leaves you. In my case, I believe it was beer stone staring to build up. Admittedly, I rarely clean my lines beyond running Sanitizer through them, not even between each keg though.

After soaking the lines, my foaming issue went away again.

ultravista: How long are your beer lines? I would be sure they are at least 5-7 feet to provide proper line resistance. If they aren't providing enough resistance you will get foam.

Even though it is warmer out I doubt that is the issue. I have my keezer in the basement and run beer lines up to the first floor for a tower in my bar area. I have basic foam insulation around the lines, but that is it. I don't get foam like you are describing. So, doubt it is the heat.

 

I've found some good info in the past on draft serving here. Obviously commercial systems are different, yet some of the solutions are the same.

 

Have you tried cleaning the lines, and faucets well?

 

No, I haven't cleaned the lines or the taps. My beer pipeline has been pretty good so I'm blowing kegs and adding kegs, blowing kegs and adding kegs. That's probably where I need to go next. My temps are very consistent. I have 2 thermometers, one in bottom, one in top, in addition to the external thermostat bulb suspended in the middle. I also don't force carb. I just add a new keg and gas it to roughly 10psi and don't touch it for a week or 2. I do have the 5.5' line runs that the keg kit came with. I've thought about getting longer lines, but it hadn't been a real issue till now.

Thanks again for all the good advice.

 

You are still force carbonating (you are adding CO2 instead of letting it naturally carbonate). You are just patiently waiting 2 weeks to get your forced carbonation versus impatiently shaking the kegs to get your forced carbonation in a day or so. Anyway that is irrelevant.

I think you need to clean your beer lines. You still get beer stone over time (even with constant turnover), and that will cause turbulence and thus foam. If your lines worked before, and now are foaming with no other changes to the system..., you either over carbed (seems unlikely), or your lines/faucets have started to develop beer stone.

My vote is to really soak it with the hot concentrated beer line solution. You can do this by mixing it up in an empty keg, then push the hot solution into your lines through the taps once after another (from your keg). Let them sit for an hour or so. Flush it with sanitizer well (don't be cheap, you don't want to drink beer line cleaner!) and pour at least 4-6 oz of beer out through each line and discard. Then you are good to go.

I used this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=499
used half the bottle, and had enough to clean my two tower taps, my blichmann bottle filler and my two party tap lines.

I didn't have any issues with foaming at first; after about 6-7 months or so of owning my tap system the issues occurred.

As a side note - I have never taken my taps apart. I figured that the beer line soaking would clean the taps pretty well too and it seems to have worked so far. I have perlick 575 Stainless taps