excessive foaming on kegerator

I have this kegerator that i got for a steal of a deal. Ive had a witbier in it for about 3-4 weeks now. It sits very cool at 33 degrees and have had it about 10 psi per the set it and forget it method. Ive used the keg lines balancing calculator and my line is supposed to be 4 feet to be serving 9 psi.

Im pouring entire glasses of foam, and ive wasted several pints on this endeavor.

Ive read in a couple places that people just go 10 foot of beer line and be done with it.

Is it possibke this could solve my issue? I hate bottling beer, but at least i get a good pint in 3 weeks.

Please advise.

Also. Ive tried purging the keg and dropping the psi to like 4 and still get a glass full of foam. Longer lines?

 

I'm new to kegging, but know of three possible things to check. First, I set my pressure around 5 psi. I'm never at 10. Next, make sure your lines are from a brew store and not from Home Depot or alike. Those lines are soft and will expand. They expand because the CO2 releases out of the liquid and foam is created. Lines from a brew store are heavy duty and don't expand. Lastly, you may need to clean the lines. It will foam with dirty lines.

Hope this helps!
John

 

What is your line inside diameter? The length calculators are generally based on 3/16. If you're using something larger that would explain it.

Blow off all the pressure in the keg, then set it to like 2 psi. If you get a foam free beer, then that's telling you that for one reason or another the line isn't providing adequate resistance at your serving conditions.

 

Your lines are almost certainly too short. I've never used the line length calculator but I've read elsewhere that there are some terrible ones out there.

Dropping your serving pressure wouldn't be a great solution since a) people report that serving at a lower pressure than you carbed can lead to foaming problems, b) doing that will eventually drop the carb level in your beer, and c) it's no fun constantly changing the pressure back and forth every time you want to serve a beer.

Instead you should just get longer lines. If you're using standard beer/beverage line people seem to have good luck with 10-12 feet lengths (I use Bev-Seal, which is supposed to eliminate any vinyl taste but you have to use significantly longer lines, so my knowledge of standard beer line lengths comes only from reading on this site). It will slow your pour down a bit but you'll get beer instead of foam, which is generally the point!

 

Went ahead and tried this and still coming out about 3/4 glass foam.

 

Just to let you know, I had a 3ft line on my keg output, and was getting tons of foam with my oatmeal stout. I switched it to my 5ft line, and got a ton less foam. Try switching this to 6ft or so, and see if that fixes it.

 

I guess my next step is to get some new beer lines then. Ill see what happens with significantly lengthening them.

 

Another thing to consider is to buy 10' or 12', and then if you're getting too slow of a pour just trim it back a foot at a time. Beats buying 5', then 6', then 7' etc. Luckily beer line is pretty cheap, so for a couple of dollars you can experiment and find a length that works for you.

 

Yep I agree you may want to go straight to 10'. The only reason I had 3 ft, the LHBS put it together for me, and I didn't pay attention to the length. I have no idea why they only made it 3ft. 5ft works pretty well for me, but I just have a picnic tap right now. Eventually when I go to a keezer, I'll be doing 10'.

 

I would get a good 10-12' of Bevflex tubing, 3/16" ID and it should solve your problem. You also need to be sure that the lines are refrigerated from keg to tap, ideally a consistent temperature, If it gets warm at the tap it will foam up as well, at least the first pint. Your pour will be a little slower but it should eliminate the foam issue.

 

Tthe lines are in he fridge, tap is on the door, survey says longer lines, ill swing by lhbs tomorrow for lines and probly just get new adapters and everything while im there.

Ill report back with the findings.

 

Yep. Can't advocate enough skipping the line length calculators (which tend to be made more for commercial bar applications over the home brew scale) and just go with 10-12 feet to start off. Lowering serving pressure will cause the CO2 to come out of solution which causes foamy first pours, much like warm taps and lines will.

 

I don't really reply much in here but maybe we are missing the obvious, are you pouring the beer correctly? I mean are you opening the tap fully in one quick motion rather than half way?

 

Yup, i have beer taps at work, so ive poured out of kegs before plenty of times, flick it to the on position, no babying it. I give it like a 3 finger slap.

 

Thats kind of how im comparing the dispense rate, its coming out waaay too fast, even at very low psi, im going to lbhs after class tomorrow to get new lines.

 

You'll definitely notice a huge difference. Just going from 3' to 5' on my picnic tap, I noticed a huge difference in pouring speed. Going to 10' you should be good, let us know how it turns out.

 

Stopping by lbhs today after class. Its a smaller one so hopefully they have the proper lines.

 

If not, home depot, lowes, ace hardware, you could probably get lines from there as well.

 

And cheaper lilely too. Others made it seem like i had to be choosey about lines due to enpansion in the lines causing faoming as well. I have a lowes a block from my house and need some type of T valve to hook up both kegs to one regulator. Perhaps ill skip lbhs and head to lowes

 

Just called the lhbs and they have braided 1/4" hose and splitters, so i just gotta check my system and make sure 1/4" will fit.

 

You don't want 1/4", you want 3/16" ID. Big difference.

 

Hmmmm they definately said quarter inch and it seems like that what i have.

She assured me thats what she uses on her kegs. Ill snap a pic real quick of what i have.

 

I use 3/16" liquid 5/16" gas.

1/4" may be way too fast.

 

Thats what they have, maybe ill just experiment with extra long lines and see what happens. 12' is only a few bucks

 

To get the same resistance from 1/4" ID line as you'd get from 3/16", it needs to be 3-4 times longer. Larger diameter line like 1/4" is typically used in long draw systems in bars and restaurants, where the kegs are 20-50' away from the faucets.

As mentioned, thin walled 3/16" tubing from the hardware store will expand slightly under pressure, reducing it's effective resistance, but IME it's not such a large difference that it's likely to cause foaming. IMO the real issue is that it makes the first beer of every drinking session taste like you're chewing on a car tire.

 

That looks like heat resistant tubing, not gas or even beverage line. I could see it working as gas line if it holds the pressure, but for the wet side I would not use anything that large at least in a homebrew application. You would need freaking long lines. I can see it maybe in a commercial bar where you are pushing the product tens of feet from the kegs.

 

Ok, im seriously about to lose it. Ive put 12' of 3/16 ID line on here and im still getting nothing but foam. Theres some bubbles in the line it looks like, i dont think it should be there... im not seeing any signs of leaks. Why is this all foam?

 

Best guess? Either the beer is carbed higher than the level that corresponds with your serving pressure, or you have a bad seal at the liquid diptube o-ring. If you pour two consecutive beers, is the second one less foamy than the first?

 

Ok, i dumped several pints of foam and then purged the keg a bit and seems to be pouring better, i dropped the psi from 12 down to 10, im at about 39 degrees.

 

Sounds like your carb level doesn't match your serving pressure. Turning the pressure down will likely make it worse over the long run. You need to either vent the keg a bunch with the gas off to reduce the carb level until it matches the serving pressure, or increase the serving pressure until it matches the carb level.

 

Did some more experimenting, looks like it gets less foam the more i pour.

 

Ok, ill continue to vent until it pours the way i want it to at pressure.

 

Thanks for the tip. After further testing, you are on to something. Set it at 12 psi and she pours nicely.

 

Ironically after following this thread for a few weeks, I took a homebrew keg offline ( finished it) and put a new D tap on a new pumpkin ale keg. I have a two keg split T co2 system and my new keg poured 75% foam. The other tap poured fine. I purged the keg of pressure and nothing changed. I also had bubbles in line. I swapped taps and the reverse happened. Pumpkin keg poured fine. It must be in the tap, seal, line ir picnic spout tap. I'm going to investigate.

 

Other than the standard troubleshooting like: over carbed, short lines, tap/tower to warm, etc.

Have you checked to see if it is only with one keg? The output seals on a carboy can go and one of them will allow tank air to blend with the dispensed beer when it fails.

The o-ring that goes between the output post and the dip tube is the one I mean.

 

I may have had it overxarbed this whole time. Ive been periodically going and purging it while its disconnected from the co2.

I attached the co2 and set it to 10 psi and got foam at first, but the second half came out fine. It was much less carbed than it was earlier when i set it really low and pulled a somewhat descent pint. Ive got it aet to about 11 psi now and im about to go pull another and see how it goes.

When these two kwgs float i will go through and replace all the seals just for peace of mind, but again it seems like it may have just been overcarbed.

As previously stated im brand new to kegging, and though id like to think i have a logical mind, i didnt think to purge it several times to allow whats it the solution to dissipate before setting it back to the proper psi. Lesson learned hopefully. Ill report back later tonight and see how it is in a few pints.