Another foam thread

[Velnerj]

Hi y'all,

I've been kegging for about two years now. And I'm starting to think I've been doing something wrong the whole time... Most of my beers are more foamy than I would like....

My set up:

I have a mini fridge as a kegerator that fits two corny kegs. One keg is dedicated to beer the other is soda water. They are connected to a 15lb co2 tank with a double regulator.

I have a dual head cobra tap coming out of the top of the kegerator. The taps themselves have a flow regulator on them. I have about 6ft of tubing (PE) 9.5mm (6.5mm inside), coiled up inside the kegerator at about 3°C.

The problem :
I know due to the fact that the taps are out of the kegerator the first few ml are going to be foamy because they are warm. My taps do have a cooling coil built in but I don't utilize it. Am I supposed to run a constant pump through there? What kind of solution do I use? Where do I put reservoir exactly? It just seems like more of a hassle than what it would solve.

Anyway, after the initial pour, my beer is still much more foamy than what I have seen other homebrewers pour from their taps at full throttle. I usually have to trickle my beer out slowly by using the tap regulator I usually still get about 1/3 to 1/2 foam in my glass. I clean my glasses and chill them before tapping.

Maybe I overcarbing? I usually burst carbonate for 24 hours and then set the psi to 10 (or so).

Any advice would help.

Thanks.

 

[day_trippr]

At 10 PSI dispensing pressure your 6 foot long 6.5mm ID runs are probably too short for that diameter. You'd likely see a significant improvement increasing the line length to 10~11 feet.

Or switch to a smaller ID line: I use 4mm ID EVABarrier tubing and could have used runs as short as 5 feet if that was long enough to go from keg to tap tower. I have to run 6.5 footers to reach...

Cheers!

 

[tracer bullet]

Agreed, you need to add some restriction to the line heading to the tap, even if it's claimed to do the job itself it never really does it well if at all.

Smaller line, longer line, or both should do it. When I had the 6mm lines I ran about 12.5 feet of tubing and it was perfect.

(I bought a 25' long roll and cut it in half if you wondered where the strange length came from)

 

[day_trippr]

Maybe I overcarbing? I usually burst carbonate for 24 hours and then set the psi to 10 (or so).

I have done that twice, both times used 30 psi for the first 24 hours, and both beers were a little under-carbonated the next day. So unless you used higher pressure I'd be inclined to believe that isn't your problem...

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

I use 4mm ID EVABarrier tubing and could have used runs as short as 5 feet if that was long enough to go from keg to tap tower.

I use 5.5 feet of 4 mm. My tower is insulated by not chilled. No foam at 12 PSI.

 

[Velnerj]

Thanks for all the input! I had some spare tubing that was about 12' long. Who doesn't have that lying around their brewery?

I made a test pour and it worked pretty good... Then the keg kicked... So I'll have to put it through the true test for my next batch... Currently fermenting a heffewizen.

Appreciate all the responses though!

 

[Velnerj]

So my heffe has been in the keg for a week and is nicely carbonated. I can say with confidence that the longer beer line made a significant difference. Thanks!