First Keg foam issues

[thabersaat]

So I am having foaming issues with my first keg beer. I have a modified mini fridge in a closet with a home made riser up about 12 inches from the top then it goes about 2 feet through a wall to the faucet. The hose is in a pvc pipe open to the fridge and well insulated with pipe insulation. This is my first time with a keg and we made a tasty hef. my problem is that i am getting 3/4 a pint of foam even after the 2 or 3rd pour. beer line is 7 feet long, temp is 40 degrees. I forced carb at 20psi for a week, tried it and it was not carbed much so cranked it up to 35 for about a day and a half. tried purging the co2 and serving at 7, 10 and 12 psi and get the same foam.

A also tried hooking up a picnic tap and got the same issue and noticed that even after a first pour i could just see the foam start filling up in the line for the next pour.

did i over carb? but if so why does the hef still seem undercarbed for drinking.

the photo is of my new setup. the beer is after i spooned all the foam off a few times

 

[gnef]

That definitely sounds overcarbonated to me.

Think of it this way: because it is overcarbonated, it will flow out of the faucet faster, with a greater change in pressure, which causes the absorbed CO2 to be forced out of solution. By the time it settles to a reasonable level, too much of the CO2 has come out of solution, and it now tastes flat.

The way to make sure to carbonate properly is to measure the temperature accurately, and leave it on the correct pressure for the desired volume of CO2 in solution, and just wait a few weeks (sometimes shorter).

If you are impatient, you need to be very careful with raising the pressure, and you need to figure out more carefully exactly the best way to fast carb the beer with your system. For some, 30 psi for two days works, but that may not work for you.

I also know some that will bring it down to their desired temperature, and apply pressure at the correct pressure, and then just shake the keg until you hear that it can't absorb any more CO2. This should get you very close to your desired carbonation level, but requires a lot more effort.

 

[jww9618]

Do you have a fan blowing cool air though the PVC in the wall? If not, that's part of your problem. Your lines are getting warmer the closer to the tap the beer gets. This knocks beer out of suspension causing massive foaming.

 

[wildwest450]

Do you have a fan blowing cool air though the PVC in the wall? If not, that's part of your problem. Your lines are getting warmer the closer to the tap the beer gets. This knocks beer out of suspension causing massive foaming.

This, that pipe has to be cooled or it will always foam.
Actually you did almost everything possible to promote massive foaming, but that pipe needs to be the first concern.
_

 

[thabersaat]

shouldn't the first pour be foamy if the line was warm, the rest would be the temp out of the keg so would be a good pour? could it have gotten too carbonated at a week out with 20psi? that's when i hooked up the tap and had too much foam.

thanks for the help

 

[thabersaat]

and regardless of the line temp, when i hooked up a picnic tap it was just filled that line full of foam too.

 

[day_trippr]

and regardless of the line temp, when i hooked up a picnic tap it was just filled that line full of foam too.

How long was the beer line to the picnic tap?

Let's assume the beer is gassed roughly around 25psi at this point, and the temperature is 40°F at the keg (btw, that's around 4 volumes - wicked high). Under even the best conditions where the beer at the faucet is still 40°F, you'd need at least 10 feet of 3/16" ID vinyl to have a prayer of holding gas breakout to a minimum. And the same thing applies to your faucet.

You likely proved the problem with the one with the other...

Cheers

 

[thabersaat]

yeah i think the picnic was around 5-6 feet, but when i saw the foam building up in the line after the first pour that it was overcarbed. so do i just leave in the fridge and keep releasing the pressure for a few days to try and lower the carb ratio?

 

[gnef]

Yes. Do you have a bleeder valve? That can help you know the pressure inside the keg, and allow you to bleed off excess pressure.

 

[thabersaat]

all i have is the valve to burp the keg..

 

[day_trippr]

yeah i think the picnic was around 5-6 feet, but when i saw the foam building up in the line after the first pour that it was overcarbed. so do i just leave in the fridge and keep releasing the pressure for a few days to try and lower the carb ratio?

Yup, that's the conventional method. There's apparently a more dramatic way to do it quickly - a thread here describes connecting CO2 to the Out post and shooting some gas into the keg via the dip tube, which provided oodles of nucleation sites to pull the dissolved gas out and set it free (I'm assuming either the In post was removed or the keg had the relief valve set open).

Haven't tried that one myself, but it sounds like the quickest was to get the job done...

Cheers!

 

[thabersaat]

well it worked! beer has a good carb to it and not too much foam after the first pour. thanks for all the help guys!