Foam Problem

[Cason Pleasant]

I'm having an issued with foam on only the first pour. After it sits for a few minutes I have to pour one beer to get a perfect beer after that.

 

[day_trippr]

Without any other helpful information I would bet it's due to warm faucet/shank and perhaps beer line as well. The first pour cools all that down.

One thing you can do to optimize the first pour: pull two ounces, count to ten, then fill the glass...

Cheers!

 

[Robert65]

It's not unusual to have some bubbles break out in the line as it sits unused for a time. Because of gas permeability of PVC lines, the beer sitting in the line often also tastes a bit oxidized. A good SOP is, at the beginning of a session, to pour a couple of ounces from each tap and discard it. After that it's all good.

 

[mongoose33]

Let me extend the above two excellent responses.

Beer can hold more CO2 in solution when it's cold than when it's warm. When beer is warmed up rapidly--such as pouring through a warm faucet, or pouring into a warm glass--some of the CO2 in solution will come out, and it comes out as foam.

I have a glass rinser on my keezer connected to a water source inside the keezer; the idea is to not only rinse and wet the inside of the glass (which btw also reduces foam to some degree), but it also cools the glass a bit which helps.

I had an issue for while with significant foaming and even bubbles in the lines in my keezer. Turned out that the beer being drawn from the bottom of my kegs--which was the coldest beer--would sit in the lines at the top, where it was a lot warmer in the keezer. That beer, warming, gave up CO2 and thus the bubbles.

I had a fan in there, but it had largely given up the ghost. There was significant temp stratification in the keezer which is why those lines were warmer.

A new fan to recirculate the air and voila! Bubbles were gone.

Here are some pics showing that, before and after. BTW, kudos to @day_trippr who helped solve that issue.

 

[LittleRiver]

If you have flow control faucets you can throttle down the flow for the first couple of ounces. That will give the faucet time to cool, while minimizing foam. After that you can open up the flow all the way.

I put a fan in the bottom of my keezer, blowing upward. I mounted my lines around the inside of the collar in such a way that there's air space on all sides of the lines, so cold air can freely flow all around them.

My lines are short, only about 7ft, but they work well. That is shorter than what the calculators say I need, but I have some built-in flow resistance due to the right angle shank adapters and flow control faucets (even when wide open there's some resistance). Effective cooling of the lines also helps.

You can just barely see the fan in this photo.

 

[brew703]

I have the same issue with my first pour. I used to fret over it but now I just pour a couple ounces, drink then pour my pint and that usually solves the issue.
Warm faucets and shanks does play a roll in foaming. I don't have a glass rinser as 'goose does but I do rinse my glass prior to pouring and it does cut down on the foaming. A glass rinser is a nice addition but for my just isn't feasible due to my current set up. Maybe once I get my man cave I can add one.

 

[Cason Pleasant]

I'm using 10' lines and running at 15psi. I did put a fan to circulate the air in the keezer but it did not change the out come of the first pour. Temp is 33*

 

[mongoose33]

I'm using 10' lines and running at 15psi. I did put a fan to circulate the air in the keezer but it did not change the out come of the first pour. Temp is 33*

If your first pour is going into a warm glass, out of warm faucets, you're going to have some foam.

I haven't found that the flow control faucets make much difference for me (I have Perlick 650SS faucets).

When I bottle beer off my keezer, using a growler filler, I have found I need to draw off about a half pint to cool the faucet and the growler filler enough to get the foam down. Of course, that half pint of beer doesn't go to waste.....