Foam

[Steve3730]

What can be causing my first few beers to be real foamy? It seems like the first few beers out of it after not using it for a few days are foamy. Than its fine

I have a purchased keg at serving psi 11. Beer line is about 5 feet long

 

[tooldudetool]

I'm assuming you have a tower tap? The beer in the lines in the tower warms up over time due to poor insulation in the tower and lack of airflow from the fridge, the tap itself is also at room temp. co2 comes out of solution as temperature rises, resulting in foam until the cold beer cools everything down...

 

[day_trippr]

This starts with knowing the carbonation level of the bought beer.
Knowing that, and knowing the temperature of the beer inside the kegerator, you use our friendly carbonation table to set your gas pressure to keep the beer at the original carbonation level.

For instance, if your bought beer was carbed to 2.8 volumes of CO2, and your kegerator is holding it at 40°F, you'd locate the temperature on the Y-axis, scan across the corresponding row to the closest value to 2.8, then go up that column to find the proper CO2 pressure.

And knowing the proper CO2 pressure, you then go to the only beer line length calculator worth using to find the proper length of beer line to handle that pressure.

After all that, if your beer line ID and length are within spec, and you have the CO2 pressure set properly, the remaining factor to manage is temperature differential between the bottom of your keg (where the dip tube draws the beer) and the top of your plumbing) mainly, the beer lines and faucets).

The carbonation table illustrates the two factors that determine how much CO2 can be dissolved in beer, and that higher temperatures require higher pressure to achieve the same carbonation level. So if you keep the pressure constant but raise the temperature, CO2 will come out of solution and form bubbles.

A small PC fan, 80mm or larger, running constantly will help prevent temperature stratification inside a kegerator or keezer that can contribute to that "first pour" problem. And if you're in a warm environment you might also want to add a tower cooler to blow cold air up into the tower...

Cheers!

 

[Steve3730]

This starts with knowing the carbonation level of the bought beer.
Knowing that, and knowing the temperature of the beer inside the kegerator, you use our friendly carbonation table to set your gas pressure to keep the beer at the original carbonation level.

For instance, if your bought beer was carbed to 2.8 volumes of CO2, and your kegerator is holding it at 40°F, you'd locate the temperature on the Y-axis, scan across the corresponding row to the closest value to 2.8, then go up that column to find the proper CO2 pressure.

And knowing the proper CO2 pressure, you then go to the only beer line length calculator worth using to find the proper length of beer line to handle that pressure.

After all that, if your beer line ID and length are within spec, and you have the CO2 pressure set properly, the remaining factor to manage is temperature differential between the bottom of your keg (where the dip tube draws the beer) and the top of your plumbing) mainly, the beer lines and faucets).

The carbonation table illustrates the two factors that determine how much CO2 can be dissolved in beer, and that higher temperatures require higher pressure to achieve the same carbonation level. So if you keep the pressure constant but raise the temperature, CO2 will come out of solution and form bubbles.

A small PC fan, 80mm or larger, running constantly will help prevent temperature stratification inside a kegerator or keezer that can contribute to that "first pour" problem. And if you're in a warm environment you might also want to add a tower cooler to blow cold air up into the tower...

Cheers!

Thanks for all the help. I do not know the keg pressure. I set it to serving as the same as i set it for my homebrewed IPAs since it was the same type of beer. I have had the same foam issue with my homebrewed beers. So not sure if Keg pressure vs serving psi is the issue but I will look into and make sure.

Temperature definitely sounds like it could be. Keggerator Temp is 43 degrees pretty consistent top of keg bottom of keg. however the beer is pouring out at 48-49 degrees. That sound too warm?

I do have a tour with stock insulation.

 

[Steve3730]

*tower

 

[day_trippr]

That's not a bad keg vs pour temperature difference at all, and if the bottom-to-top differential is close to zero then you can bin that to second order issues.

So if you take a look at your beer line from the commercial keg before the first pour of the day, do you see large pockets of gas in the line? If you do, given the favorable temperature situation, the remaining cause is dispensing at lower pressure than what the beer needs to keep its CO2 in solution.

Otherwise...how long are your beer lines? One foot of 3/16" ID beer line per psi dispensing pressure is a conservative rule of thumb, going shorter starts to make everything more critical...

Cheers!

 

[Steve3730]

It is just under 5ft and is 3/16th. After playing with the calculator you psted it says I should be closer to 10ft. I would have assumed shorter line the better

 

[Mike333h]

Shouldn't the beer line not drop down like it does in the pic? I try to coil the line on top or above the keg.