Air in liquid line keezer

[therackman]

First keg on tap in newly built keezer and I am trying to troubleshoot foamy pours that I believe are resulting from air in my liquid lines. The first pour is always foamy. Below, I've included a couple pics of my liquid line.

I am running 5 ft of 3/16" bev line at 38-40 degrees around 10 psi.

I thought it was likely from a leaky out post or poppet, so I cleaned, relubed and pressure tested and the outpost held pressure fine. Now I don't think this is the problem. Other suggestions have been that it's due to the line being too warm, but I have a fan circulating air and the line and shanks feel cool to the touch.

Please offer any thoughts on how to troubleshoot this. Thanks in advance!

 

[raouliii]

5 feet sounds a little short. How fast is the pour with wide open tap? Seconds per pint?

 

[JuanMoore]

There are only three causes of gas pockets forming in the liquid line. Temperature stratification is one, but as you said that's not likely the issue since you have a fan going. A bad o-ring on the liquid side dip tube can sometimes let gas into the line, or a pinhole in the dip tube can do the same, but these are both fairly rare. The other common cause is that the serving pressure is lower than the pressure that corresponds to the carbonation level of the beer. How did you carb the beer, and to what carb level? What's your serving pressure?

 

[therackman]

5 feet sounds a little short. How fast is the pour with wide open tap? Seconds per pint?

After running off a half pint of foam, I poured this pint in 8 seconds with wide open tap. What does this mean? Thanks.

 

[therackman]

There are only three causes of gas pockets forming in the liquid line. Temperature stratification is one, but as you said that's not likely the issue since you have a fan going. A bad o-ring on the liquid side dip tube can sometimes let gas into the line, or a pinhole in the dip tube can do the same, but these are both fairly rare. The other common cause is that the serving pressure is lower than the pressure that corresponds to the carbonation level of the beer. How did you carb the beer, and to what carb level? What's your serving pressure?

Serving pressure is 10 psi. The beer is called block 15 Aboriginale from a local microbrewery so I'm not sure how carbed and to what level. I had them fill my keg as I didn't yet have any homebrew ready to fill it with. It sounds like it might be more highly carbed than the 10 psi my regulator is set at and this could cause the air in the lines? Any suggestions on how to fix? Thanks.

 

[DanH]

Serving pressure is 10 psi. The beer is called block 15 Aboriginale from a local microbrewery so I'm not sure how carbed and to what level. I had them fill my keg as I didn't yet have any homebrew ready to fill it with. It sounds like it might be more highly carbed than the 10 psi my regulator is set at and this could cause the air in the lines? Any suggestions on how to fix? Thanks.

Just turn the gas up to 15 and see if it helps.

I really just posted to say nice keezer though!

 

[JuanMoore]

Serving pressure is 10 psi. The beer is called block 15 Aboriginale from a local microbrewery so I'm not sure how carbed and to what level. I had them fill my keg as I didn't yet have any homebrew ready to fill it with. It sounds like it might be more highly carbed than the 10 psi my regulator is set at and this could cause the air in the lines? Any suggestions on how to fix? Thanks.

Most commercially kegged beer is around 2.7 vol, which will require 14-15 psi at your serving temp. The problem is that turning the pressure up that high is likely to create a firehouse of foam with that short line. It's already pouring slightly fast as it is IMO.

You have three options to eliminate the foaming. You can bleed the excess pressure from the keg for a few days to lower the carbonation level, buy a longer beer line and turn the pressure up, or get the keezer much colder.

 

[glugglug]

Make sure your hose clamps are really tight. Second guess is bad o ring in Bev side.

 

[DanH]

Where'd you get the boneyard tap handle? That's awesome!

 

[Begin2Brew]

I would agree that the keg is carbed to a higher level than the serving PSI. The CO2 is coming out of solution and pushing beer back into the gas line. Hopefully you have a back check valve to keep the beer from entering your regulator.

Depending on your preference you have a few options. If you like the higher carb level then turn your serving pressure up until you push the beer back into the keg, then calculate the serving line length based on the PSI on your regulator.

or

Purge the keg until the beer is pushed back into the keg without adjusting the regulator. This will balance the system ad should reduce the foaming.

I had a wheat beer a few months ago that I set to 30 PSI to carb and kind of forgot about it. I hooked up my serving line and had nothing but foam and noticed beer moving up the gas line when I changed to my serving pressure. Needless to say it was over carbed so I purged the keg for a few days and added a longer serving line to balance it out.

 

[therackman]

Where'd you get the boneyard tap handle? That's awesome!

My amazing wife ordered it as a gift for me. They sell them online at http://www.boneyardbeer.com/boneyardbeer/GEAR.html

Now if they would only fill 5 gal corny kegs! I called and they only fill Sanke style which I'm not set up for.

 

[morticus]

Serving pressure is 10 psi. The beer is called block 15 Aboriginale from a local microbrewery so I'm not sure how carbed and to what level. I had them fill my keg as I didn't yet have any homebrew ready to fill it with. It sounds like it might be more highly carbed than the 10 psi my regulator is set at and this could cause the air in the lines? Any suggestions on how to fix? Thanks.

I thought that color scheme on your kegerator was OSU. Then the Block 15 confirmed it. Go Beaves!