First time kegging - excessive foam

[latProd]

lol, i'd probably just crack the keg open and pour it into a glass!

well judging from your profile picture i don't doubt that for a second

 

[bracconiere]

well judging from your profile picture i don't doubt that for a second

auto-siphon, and bottling wand? should fill a drinking glass as well as a bottle.....

and yes that's something i'd do!

 

[#1Vman]

You should search draft beer line calculater. There is a mathamaticle equation that you put all your info in including hieght above sea level and planned keg pressure to get the proper length of beer restriction line 3/16 id 7/16 od. You can also buy a 12 inch up to 30 lb pressure reducing rod each piece you break off removes 3lbs of restriciction.so you can slow the beer and pressure without adding huge lengths of hose see picture 3 to 30lbs of restriction in 3 lb increments. You install close as posible to tap put a clamp on the line so rod doesn't go past connection point.

 

[day_trippr]

This is the only beer line length calculator worth using, imo.

Epoxy mixer sticks are so Year 2000. Been there, done that - did you know they slowly dissolve in beer? Fun with chemistry!

Cheers!

 

[#1Vman]

Interesting we install them in bars and never had a problem yet. They throw erdinger on for Oct fest and it won't pour and that's an easy quick fix. I don't know what their made out of though.

 

[day_trippr]

Delrin.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

soooo everybody is telling him to change the beer lines but nobody explained why.
The beer needs to exit the tap at near atmospheric pressure to minimize foaming. That pressure reduction is *usually* provided by the friction of the interior walls of the beer lines. Bev tubing has a known friction coefficient. PVC tubing is slicker and does not have a published friction coeffecient, so you don't know how much line you need. If its all you have available, you can make it work, you just need an insane amount of tubing. Think 50 feet to start and adjust from there. Your described experience is virtually identical to what I experienced when setting up my kegging operation. 1/4" bev tubing, 1/4" hose barbs and foam city. Changed to 3/16 tubing, ran the calculator mentioned above and added 6 feet to the calculation because you can always cut the lines shorter, its been proven more difficult to cut them longer. As a side bonus, you CAN use 3/16 bev tubing on a 1/4" hose barb. Just dip the end of the tubing in boiling water for a moment and shove it on. Makes a near leak proof seal. The only drawback is it can't be pulled off, you need to cut it. Also added Perlick flow control taps. Don't feel dumb, we've all been there, its part of the charm of home brewing, like growing a beard. If you want a laugh PM me and I'll link you the forum history where I asked these exact same questions.

Oh, and I still have some *extra* 1/4" bev tubing if you need it I use it for the co2 side of the plumbing.

 

[latProd]

soooo everybody is telling him to change the beer lines but nobody explained why.
The beer needs to exit the tap at near atmospheric pressure to minimize foaming. That pressure reduction is *usually* provided by the friction of the interior walls of the beer lines. Bev tubing has a known friction coefficient. PVC tubing is slicker and does not have a published friction coeffecient, so you don't know how much line you need. If its all you have available, you can make it work, you just need an insane amount of tubing. Think 50 feet to start and adjust from there. Your described experience is virtually identical to what I experienced when setting up my kegging operation. 1/4" bev tubing, 1/4" hose barbs and foam city. Changed to 3/16 tubing, ran the calculator mentioned above and added 6 feet to the calculation because you can always cut the lines shorter, its been proven more difficult to cut them longer. As a side bonus, you CAN use 3/16 bev tubing on a 1/4" hose barb. Just dip the end of the tubing in boiling water for a moment and shove it on. Makes a near leak proof seal. The only drawback is it can't be pulled off, you need to cut it. Also added Perlick flow control taps. Don't feel dumb, we've all been there, its part of the charm of home brewing, like growing a beard. If you want a laugh PM me and I'll link you the forum history where I asked these exact same questions.

Oh, and I still have some *extra* 1/4" bev tubing if you need it I use it for the co2 side of the plumbing.

haha thanks for this man, I made the incredible dumb mistake of thinking 3/8 was the same as 3/16 tubing in terms of inner diameter. Living in metric world, these confused the **** out of me. I got some chech flow control taps, but I have to have them on the absolute minimum setting to avoid the worst of the foaming. Sometimes they wont pour at all, and I gotta adjust, and all of a sudden foam spurts into the glass. Fortunately, I talked to a site that hooked me up with some 3/16 tubing and john guest 3/8 to 3/16 adapters, Putting two meters of 3/16 between my 3/8 lines. Which should do the trick, so I am just waiting for those. You live, you learn I guess!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Never knew the pressure reducing rod existed until this thread, so live and learn. One of the counterintuitive side affects of foaming is.... drum roll... FLAT BEER Glad you got a path towards success. I was also glad I had the non flow control taps in my back pocket. I had a pumpkin batch a couple seasons ago that I was forced to spice post ferment. Had a fair amount of sediment and after struggling with veeeeeery slow pours I took the FC Perlick apart and discovered the restrictor bullet had gotten clogged with the initial slug of sediment in the bottom of the keg. Swapped out for a non FC and all was good Don't throw them puppies away!!!