Foam in the line

[jfr1111]

I'm at a complete loss here. This is the second beer I've kegged. The other finished up at the bottom of my chest freezer after I put the beer at 20 psi and let the beer line connected with a picnic tap not screwed in all the way...

That was fun to clean up.

I decided to keg my hefe on thursday and use the 30 psi shaking method because I was freaking mad and wanted a beer sooner than later after spending 3 hours cleaning the chest freezer and floor of my beer room. I put the beer on 30 psi, shook the keg three times for about two minutes a time. I made sure to disconnect everything this time. I tried the beer after venting the headspace and I got all foam after setting the serving pressure at 10psi. I searched the forums and found out that my beer lines were woefully short (5').

After reading some threads I found Yooper saying that if she were to start kegging, she would just go to 12' line and not bother with shorter ones. Yesterday was frantic and I didn't have time to mess with it, so I just let it connected to 10 psi.

So, I put in a 12 foot line this morning, set the pressure at 10 psi and all I get is foam too, but the beer serves very slowly as an added bonus ! If I let the foam subside, I get some beer and I can feel it is carbonated.

There are also numerous gas pockets in the line. In some areas, it is solid white foam. When I'll pour, I will get 90% to 100% foam. I see that was is coming out IS foam. The line does clears up and there's is no visible or pockets when pouring for a bit, but I get more of them after coming back to check 10 minutes later. They start from the liquid out in little bubbles and congregate to form gas pockets afterward.

My chest freezer is set @ 34F, I have no fan and the probe is located halfway on the freezer wall, next to the keg. Tempertaure reading from a thermapen in water at the bottom of the freezer and the compressor hump, where the probe is located, indicate about 0.2 F difference. My line is coiled on top of the keg. All gaskets, poppets and disconnets are brand spanking new, atough the keg is used.

Please help. I thought kegging would be much more easier and less time consuming than bottling, but I've probably spent 20 hours in the last week cleaning, assembling, worrying, checking and reading and it still produces crappy, foamy beer.

 

[tstanonis1]

is it possible you over carbed your beer from the start with the 30 psi and soak time? maybe try letting it warm up to room temp and vent the co2 off over a day or two. then start over with the carb process.

the beer line length and diameter need to be right. smaller diameter longer lines are gonna help keep the foam down. the lines should be as cold as possible but it sounds like yours are in the keezer so that shouldn't be a problem.

co2 starts to foam out if its aloud to drop in pressure somewhere. example: if your dip tube is partially clogged by debris. the other side of the clog would be under less pressure and would allow the beer to foam past the point of the clog. maybe not the dip tube but it could be in the quick disconnect. either keg side or hose side. also check all your parts for nicked or sharp edges, burs, anything that can cause turbulence or a vortex.

beer also foams when it warms up rapidly. causing the co2 to expand... cold keg to warm beer lines... warm glass...

If your seeing foam on the keg outlet i'd look from the dip tube all the way to both sides of the disconnects...

 

[jfr1111]

is it possible you over carbed your beer from the start with the 30 psi and soak time? maybe try letting it warm up to room temp and vent the co2 off over a day or two. then start over with the carb process.

the beer line length and diameter need to be right. smaller diameter longer lines are gonna help keep the foam down. the lines should be as cold as possible but it sounds like yours are in the keezer so that shouldn't be a problem.

co2 starts to foam out if its aloud to drop in pressure somewhere. example: if your dip tube is partially clogged by debris. the other side of the clog would be under less pressure and would allow the beer to foam past the point of the clog. maybe not the dip tube but it could be in the quick disconnect. either keg side or hose side. also check all your parts for nicked or sharp edges, burs, anything that can cause turbulence or a vortex.

beer also foams when it warms up rapidly. causing the co2 to expand... cold keg to warm beer lines... warm glass...

If your seeing foam on the keg outlet i'd look from the dip tube all the way to both sides of the disconnects...

It's possible the beer was overcarbed. Would leaving it under less pressure and serving beer would help it equalize with the serving pressure (ie. 8, 10 or 12 psi?). I use Bevlex 200 which is standard, so I doubt line diameter is a problem.

I really don't want to completly vent and repeat the process since I've poured maybe half the keg just messing and testing. Next beer will be slow carbed with a table.

 

[tstanonis1]

your gonna have to try and see... I would vent a few times for sure. as you take pressure off the top you will allow co2 from the bottom to expand and come out of solution to take its place... the same as you would see in a glass of beer. I would vent, vent, vent... then try and pour and see what happens. I wouldn't add any co2 while serving until you feel that it's going flat on you or it stop pouring from the keg.

I haven't tried the rapid co2 methods for fear of over carbing. I have had overcarbed kegs from serving pressure being to high for the cold temp. I stick to the charts now and haven't had any issues. the beer seems to only take a day to carb up when cold and under pressure.

do yourself a favor, something that caught me off guard with kegging... pick up your co2 bottle every now and then. get used to the weight of it. when they run out it's rather sudden. which put me in a world of panic when nothing came out of the tap. I bought a second bottle so I now have a spare when the other gets light and close to empty... your gauge pressure on your co2 will stay the same according to the temp it's being stored at. all the way until there is no liquid co2 left in the bottle, then it drops rapidly to flat.

 

[jfr1111]

your gonna have to try and see... I would vent a few times for sure. as you take pressure off the top you will allow co2 from the bottom to expand and come out of solution to take its place... the same as you would see in a glass of beer. I would vent, vent, vent... then try and pour and see what happens. I wouldn't add any co2 while serving until you feel that it's going flat on you or it stop pouring from the keg.

I haven't tried the rapid co2 methods for fear of over carbing. I have had overcarbed kegs from serving pressure being to high for the cold temp. I stick to the charts now and haven't had any issues. the beer seems to only take a day to carb up when cold and under pressure.

do yourself a favor, something that caught me off guard with kegging... pick up your co2 bottle every now and then. get used to the weight of it. when they run out it's rather sudden. which put me in a world of panic when nothing came out of the tap. I bought a second bottle so I now have a spare when the other gets light and close to empty... your gauge pressure on your co2 will stay the same according to the temp it's being stored at. all the way until there is no liquid co2 left in the bottle, then it drops rapidly to flat.

Thanks for the advice. I vented the headspace a bit, disconnected the gas in and poured a glass. Much better now, altough the beer just trickles, and the beer is even more carbed (probably because it isn't foaming all over the place), which leads me to believe I severly overcarbed the thing. I don't get all foam though, which is nice. I still get bubbles/gas pockets in the line though.

I aso pick up my CO2 tank about 8 times a day every since I started kegging and spray stuff to check on leaks I'll get a spare shortly (this week probably), since I'm about two hours away from the nearest place that will do refills instead of swaps.

To add to the sad pile, the hefe kind of sucks. The fermentation threw a bit of cloves and no banana or ester whatsover, which makes a plain jane boring beer. Too clean and bad mouthfeel. Might turn around when it stops being so overcarbed.

 

[tstanonis1]

and don't forget there is still yeast in that beer. a lot less now that it's been racked into a keg but it's still there. some time and the cold temp may change that beer later into something awesome. I've a few that took a month of sitting but eventually turned out great.

I just dumped one yesterday that after two months was better but not great. It was also a hop forward pale ale, so I figured any extra time trying to age it might help the beer but by then the hops would start to drop out... had to cut my losses...

 

[Gavin C]

I know lots of folks do it but seriously do yourself a favor and don't shake carb your beer.

There are a ton of posts like this where folks follow the instruction s for shaking and yada yada beer is foam.

If you need a beer carbed fast.

36 hours at 30 psi (no shake) will do it. 40hours if the beer is warm when you keg before putting it in the keeper/kegerator.

Reduce to serving pressure.

If it's not where you want up it to 30 psi for another 4 hours, reduce to serving pressure and check.

It works every time.

Also shaking kicks up sediment requiring days to settle. i do not want cloudy beer unless like a Hefe it's to style.

If the beer is overcarbed there are a few quick fix threads with keg inversion. No experience there I'm afraid. Sorry for being a bit of a 'Captain Hindsight"

 

[doug293cz]

^ +1 ^

Brew on

 

[jfr1111]

I know lots of folks do it but seriously do yourself a favor and don't shake carb your beer.

There are a ton of posts like this where folks follow the instruction s for shaking and yada yada beer is foam.

If you need a beer carbed fast.

36 hours at 30 psi (no shake) will do it. 40hours if the beer is warm when you keg before putting it in the keeper/kegerator.

Reduce to serving pressure.

If it's not where you want up it to 30 psi for another 4 hours, reduce to serving pressure and check.

It works every time.

Also shaking kicks up sediment requiring days to settle. i do not want cloudy beer unless like a Hefe it's to style.

If the beer is overcarbed there are a few quick fix threads with keg inversion. No experience there I'm afraid. Sorry for being a bit of a 'Captain Hindsight"

No problem. No sense crying over spilled milk. I taped the kegging chart on the top of my chest freezer as to not do the same mistake twice.

The next beer in the pipeline is a less than stellar pale ale that I brewed with Notty and it made no krausen and had a weak fermentation. It attenuated fine though, but it has the same nutty taste my very first AG batch I brewed with Notty in 2010 when I joined the site (which exhibited the same weird behaviour). If I screw that batch too kegging it, it won't be too bad.

Lessons taken from all this:
1) Use long lines and follow the kegging table.
2) Stop using Notthingham you stupid donk, you don't like it.

 

[passedpawn]

FYI (I made this a sticky a while back): Overcarbed Keg? Here's an INSTANT SOLUTION!