A couple of questions

[Backwoodsbrewing]

I am in the middle of my first kegging experience and so far am not to happy with it. I put 4.5 gallons of beer in a 38 degree fridge for 6 days at 9 psi and not much carbonation. I drew about a pint and got about two inches of foam but not much in the beer.I have been reading about guys carbing through the longer tube and letting the co2 flow up through the beer, Rather than applying head pressure. My co2 is going through the shorter dip tube am I doing this wrong?


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[tjmac5071]

From my experience it takes two weeks at serving pressure with the set and forget method. You can try upping the pressure to 15-18 or so for two days then drop it to serving and try the following day. The downside of kegging is you are tempted to test too early...

 

[D-Train]

Dialing in my kegerator has surprisingly been one of the more challenging aspects to homebrewing.

Personally I think 9 psi is a pretty low level of carb to begin with, though 6 days is not enough time at any carb level. If you want to go the set it and forget it route then think bottle conditioning times.

I was able to solve my foam issues by putting in a small computer fan to recirculate air and keep the lines cold. Check the temp of your first pint and subsequent pints to see if you have a line temp issue. Speaking of lines, if you're using 5 foot lines that came with a kit then get some longer ones. You need more resistance for less foaming.

 

[chickypad]

Agree with everything above. At that temp and pressure you'll be at about 2.2-2.3 vols when it gets to equilibrium, which is on the lower side. Then if you're getting a bunch of foam over flat beer something is knocking the CO2 that is in solution out when you pour. As D-Train said, temp stratification and line length are 2 of the usual suspects. With set and forget method carbing through the gas port as you are doing is the most common way so you're fine there.

 

[Backwoodsbrewing]

I am using a 3 foot picnic tap I guess it will not do will have to get 20 foot of hose and make a new serving line I'm fairly sure it's not a problem with Temps and the serving line I keep it in the fridge