Brut ipa pouring issues

[ahouse86]

Soooooo brewed a brut ipa. Came ok pretty good definitely a learning curve. Anyway cannot get this beast to pour at all. I have a 2 tap kegerator made out of a 50s era Westinghouse fridge. Perlick faucets, all stainless shank and other parts. I have it carbed at 30 psi (4 vol CO2) sitting at about 38 to 40 degrees in the fridge. I have 26 feet of 3/16 beer line. I keep getting about 3/4 pint full of foam. It didnt da this at first but it may have not been carbed all the way. Let me know if anyone has any other ideas.

Thanks

 

[day_trippr]

What kind of beer line - solid pvc (eg: Bevlex 200) or a PET barrier line (eg: Bev Seal Ultra 235)?
26 feet of the former should be pretty close to the minimum, but if you're using 235 you'll need a lot more line.

Either way, do you see a lot of foam/bubbles in the beer line inside the kegerator?

Cheers!

 

[ahouse86]

What kind of beer line - solid pvc (eg: Bevlex 200) or a PET barrier line (eg: Bev Seal Ultra 235)?
26 feet of the former should be pretty close to the minimum, but if you're using 235 you'll need a lot more line.

Either way, do you see a lot of foam/bubbles in the beer line inside the kegerator?

Cheers!

Its bevlex 200. I didnt see many bubbles until i started messing with the pressure. But I also think the line may have warmed cause I turned the fridge off to clean it out. What I'm wondering is if the line placement is what causing issues. I coiled the line and placed on top of the keg. I just dont want to waste anymore beer. I took the line off tonight and am gonna clean the faucet tomorrow.

 

[day_trippr]

Dispensing beer at such high volumes makes everything critical.

Certainly the 26 feet of beer line needs to be kept as close to the keg temperature as possible, otherwise CO2-breakout will happen. Just look at a carbonation table for the difference in volumes of CO2 at a given pressure if the temperature rises 10°F from 39°F - over .6 volumes, which means there will be break-out. And bubbles tend to create more bubbles.

If you don't have a fan keeping the air inside the kegerator stirred up, I would strongly recommend adding one. A few weeks ago while swapping kegs I accidentally killed the power to the 120mm fan that keeps my keezer air uniform and it totally screwed up the pours like I had never experienced before...

Cheers!

 

[ahouse86]

So update. Added a fan to the kegerator and added 6 more ft of line. Stiiillllll foaming bad. No bubbles seen while pouring the beer in kegerator. Gonna try a perlick flow control faucet and if that doesn't work gonna chalk it up to the fact it's high carbed and is just gonna foam. If anyone has any other suggestions they'll be appreciated thanks

 

[day_trippr]

You mentioned coiling the lines atop the kegs - and that's what I do as well, as I think it's a best-practice considering the alternatives.
If you pour a glass, wait a minute, then pour a second glass, how would you compare the foam?
If the second glass is a much tamer pour, that could indicate your faucet (and shank, I suppose) were warmer than the beer. The first pour cools them down.

Otoh, if there's no difference, I'll be at a loss on what else is left to consider, aside from dialing the carbonation level down to, say, 3.5 volumes - which is still pretty sprite...

Cheers!

 

[bigdawg86]

What about coiling your beer line around the keg so it's in contact with a more temp stable item? I also run into occasional foaming as my garage gets 100-110 and even though I have fans everywhere in my kegerator and their is literally no temperature stratification, the tap just can't stay cold in that heat.

 

[ahouse86]

You mentioned coiling the lines atop the kegs - and that's what I do as well, as I think it's a best-practice considering the alternatives.
If you pour a glass, wait a minute, then pour a second glass, how would you compare the foam?
If the second glass is a much tamer pour, that could indicate your faucet (and shank, I suppose) were warmer than the beer. The first pour cools them down.

Otoh, if there's no difference, I'll be at a loss on what else is left to consider, aside from dialing the carbonation level down to, say, 3.5 volumes - which is still pretty sprite...

Cheers!

Thanks for the reply. All pours are literally the same. I've never had this problem before. ut have also never made a beer this carbed before. I thought about coiling the lines around the keg wben though it would be below the out post it would be a uniform route for the beer to travel. In the future I may have to just carb less and if I want to get 4ish co2 level to just bottle in champagne bottles