another "please help troubleshoot my foam problem" thread

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TAK

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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...


  • 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?
 
Sounds like an overcarbed keg to me. It's not the pressure you're putting on the line (hence why lowering it doesn't change the pour), instead it's the amount of CO2 in the beer. You'll need a spunding valve to slowly bleed off excess pressure. When moving a keg from ambient temps to serving temps, it takes a good week (or more) for the pressure to equalize in my experience. You said you let it sit for a couple of days.....my guess is it just wasn't long enough. Had this same exact thing happen to me once. After letting it sit another week or two, it finally equalized and was about 8psi higher than I thought.
 
Yeah, sounds overcarbed to me, too.

Take it off the gas and purge the CO2 in the headspace. Leave the gas off and continue to purge the headspace 6-8 times over the next couple of days, then put it back on the gas at serving pressure and try a pour. It should be better, but if still too much foam, repeat. Once you get it to pour like if should or if you overshoot the decarb process, set to serving pressure and let it ride.
 
I'm sure you're right. I cranked my regulator down to 5 psi, just to be sure I keep the seal. I'll purge it once or twice a day for a couple weeks and see what happens.
 
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