I'm having a foam issue with a keg I just tapped. Typically my kegorator runs pretty smoothly, so I haven't had to do much troubleshooting before. Here's a rundown of the data points and symptoms...
I'm lost. Thoughts?
- First, this keg was naturally carbed, which is not my status quo. Actually, never done it before. This was a Bretted batch, and I gave it a dash of priming solution to let it pressurize in the keg.
- To find out what level of carb it had, I put it in kegorator to chill. Then, I bled off the headspace, put about 5 psi back on it to sit, then let it come back to equilibrium over a couple days, all the while with a pressure-tester gage on the gas post. After a couple days, it settled at 15 psi.
- So, I put 15 psi on it, and gave it a pour. 80% foam. I have a hef on tap at the same psi. My lines aren't ideally balanced for that psi, but I know about how much foam to expect, and I'm getting more than I should.
- My tubing is clean, I literally pulled the tube from another keg, which poured fine, and put it on this keg.
- The foam is collecting in the line pretty much immediately. I know if a keg is carbed at a level higher what is being applied to the headspace, CO2 will come out of solution, and you'll see this gather in the line. However, although I haven't experienced this before, I'd suspect that's something that happens as the keg sits in between pours. In other words, that symptom takes time to notice. Because, I know if I bottle from a keg our fill a growler from a keg, I'd bleed the headspace and then put a very low psi on it. In those cases, for the brief time I'm pouring at the lower psi, those beers pour fine.
- I actually tried the same thing with this keg. I figured, if I have foam or deadspace in the line, maybe every time I push new beer, it's just agitating and not getting a good fill in the line, thus foam continues to build. So, I bled the headspace, put a few psi on, and gave it a pour. It didn't fill the line, it continued to give me bubbles in my line.
I'm lost. Thoughts?