100% foam pour on beergas dry stout.

[b1gmac]

Hi All,

I've been lurking here for a while now and have taken a lot of useful info from the forums. Unfortunately I cant seem to find a solution to my current problem.

I recently did a kegerator conversion and I have my first all grain stout tapped.

The first few pours were perfect, I had the nice cascading effect and a great creamy Guinness style head.

Two days later I poured a few more but with significantly more foam, around half a glass. At first I thought the tower was warm but it was happening on every pour. Then after another 2-3 days I was just pouring straight foam and it has continued that way. I literally end up with a glass full of foam.

In terms of set up I am running 6' lines. I have a 75/25 beergas mixture. I have a stout faucet. I had the reg set at 30psi. I have played around with it a bit but it makes no difference. The keg is naturally carbed. The fridge temp is currently at 36. That's all I can really think of right now.

I have been looking for solutions for this for over a week now. Very frustrating Hopefully someone on here has some ideas for me!

 

[Psylocide]

Your serving pressure is set at 30 psi? Der, beergas.

Ignore me.

 

[LLBeanJ]

It's overcarbed. Sounds like you were in the zone there in the beginning, but time on the beer gas pushed it out of the zone. It doesn't take too much overcarb to ruin a nitro pour. The 6' lines aren't helping. You'd likely be better off with 10-12'.

Take it off the gas and vent the headspace several times over the next day or two. This should decarb it so that you can once again get decent pours. Once decarbed enough to get pours that are not excessively foamy, put it back on the mix and set your regulator lower, say 25 psi, as apparently 30 psi was too high for your system. If it once again turns to all foam, do it all over again and try a lower psi.

 

[masonsjax]

I agree with the above post. Decarb it and try 25 psi. The line length doesn't matter nearly as much with nitro because of the higher pressures but more length might help in your case. The line on my nitro tap is only about 3 feet I think and works fine. I run mine at 30 psi and ~38F also 75/25 blend and get perfect pours, so I don't know. Maybe your line is contacting the inside wall of your kegerator or has a kink?

 

[b1gmac]

I agree with the above post. Decarb it and try 25 psi. The line length doesn't matter nearly as much with nitro because of the higher pressures but more length might help in your case. The line on my nitro tap is only about 3 feet I think and works fine. I run mine at 30 psi and ~38F also 75/25 blend and get perfect pours, so I don't know. Maybe your line is contacting the inside wall of your kegerator or has a kink?

Why would beer line contacting the wall of the kegerator be an issue?

 

[b1gmac]

It's overcarbed. Sounds like you were in the zone there in the beginning, but time on the beer gas pushed it out of the zone. It doesn't take too much overcarb to ruin a nitro pour. The 6' lines aren't helping. You'd likely be better off with 10-12'.

Take it off the gas and vent the headspace several times over the next day or two. This should decarb it so that you can once again get decent pours. Once decarbed enough to get pours that are not excessively foamy, put it back on the mix and set your regulator lower, say 25 psi, as apparently 30 psi was too high for your system. If it once again turns to all foam, do it all over again and try a lower psi.

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually did try this but I didn't change the psi when I reconnected. Live and learn I guess. I'll give it a go and touch base with the results in a few days.

 

[tdbc2011]

I have to set my beer gas at 25. I also only use 1.5 oz of corn sugar to carb the stout for the nitro set-up and I still have a little to much foam (maybe 1/4 the glass).

 

[masonsjax]

Why would beer line contacting the wall of the kegerator be an issue?

The line could be freezing up in one spot if it's touching the wall. That can cause the co2 to break out of solution at that point so you could get foam before it even reaches the faucet. Ideally the line would be chilled to the same temp as the beer from keg to faucet with no warm or cold deviations along the way.

 

[b1gmac]

The line could be freezing up in one spot if it's touching the wall. That can cause the co2 to break out of solution at that point so you could get foam before it even reaches the faucet. Ideally the line would be chilled to the same temp as the beer from keg to faucet with no warm or cold deviations along the way.

Ok makes sense, thanks. It was actually touching the fridge wall in one section.

So I vented the keg for several days and reconnected the gas, set at 10psi this time. It's pouring significantly better now. I'm still getting about two inches of head and it's far from perfect but way better than before.

Why would a pour at 10psi be working though? I thought it had to be set higher to force it through a stout faucet? Could the gas place have messed up the mix some how?