Another beer line length question

[bwomp313]

I know this has been beaten to death, but I couldn't find the exact answer to my questions so here it goes, bear with me. I'm pretty new to kegging so I didn't really know what to purchase, but I trusted that the kit from kegconnection would come with what I needed. Well, their kits come with 5 feet of line standard and I'm reading that you should really have 10. Well when I pour at 10 psi, I get almost all foam. Just a little bit of beer at the bottom. #1. How difficult is it to replace the lines on the tower with new, longer lines? #2. Would it just be easier to turn it down to like 5psi for serving and then turn it back up to 10? Would this even work? The other odd thing is that out of my two taps, one of them pours more foam than the other. Neither are even fully carbed yet, and the one that pours more foam is the one that is much less carbonated. Is that normal?

 

[bowiefan]

I know this has been beaten to death, but I couldn't find the exact answer to my questions so here it goes, bear with me. I'm pretty new to kegging so I didn't really know what to purchase, but I trusted that the kit from kegconnection would come with what I needed. Well, their kits come with 5 feet of line standard and I'm reading that you should really have 10. Well when I pour at 10 psi, I get almost all foam. Just a little bit of beer at the bottom. #1. How difficult is it to replace the lines on the tower with new, longer lines? #2. Would it just be easier to turn it down to like 5psi for serving and then turn it back up to 10? Would this even work? The other odd thing is that out of my two taps, one of them pours more foam than the other. Neither are even fully carbed yet, and the one that pours more foam is the one that is much less carbonated. Is that normal?

1. longer lines= better... to a point. The rule of thumb is 1' per 1 PSI
2. no, go ahead and get longer lines, you will be happier in the long run.
2b. yes it would work, but every time you turn down and vent, you will waste a ton of co2.
3. lots of things that can cause that. Is the foamier on more hoppy or a higher gravity brew that is big and chewey? most likley just because it is a different beer, but could be a bad poppet, kink in the line,gunk in the dip tube, faulty QD, burr in the faucet, slightly warmer beer line...... probably just different beers on too short lines though, so correct that first.

Good luck and as long as you take a systematic approach to it, you will find the issue soon.

 

[bwomp313]

turned it down to 5 psi for serving and am still getting a ton of foam. thing's prolly serving around 40 degrees. if it's colder should there be less foam? or will it not be enough to make a difference?

 

[LakewoodBrew]

turned it down to 5 psi for serving and am still getting a ton of foam. thing's prolly serving around 40 degrees. if it's colder should there be less foam? or will it not be enough to make a difference?

Colder will reduce foaming to a point. But that's not the answer to your problem.

Reducing serving pressure doesn't really help either, because you still have 10PSI @ 40 degrees worth of CO2 in the beer and it's trying to come out.

The longer the beer has been at temp and pressure the less foaming. So if they are both in the process of carbing (sounds like they are) then i would expect you to pour foam party glasses. Give the beers at least one if not two weeks at serving pressure before trying to pull a pint and you will be a lot happier.

Bottom line, 5ft of hose isn't going to be balanced for you system. You'll need to get at least 9 ft of 3/16 before you get good stable pours. and you still need to wait for proper conditioning even at that.

 

[devilishprune]

How did you carbonate the beers? Did you do the whole shaking thing? If so, I'd wager that they're overcarbonated and that by the time all the foam settles there is no CO2 left dissolved in the beer.

 

[bwomp313]

No, I didn't shake. I put them at 30 psi for like 2 days and then down to 10psi.