I recently got a canning jar Randall from NorCal Brewing. It was a pretty slick set-up, and I liked the large 64 oz size. I used some dried cherries in there to complement a Black Lager and it worked great. I then tried adding hops to a beer and ran into crazy foaming problems. A lot of Google searches told me others had experienced foaming problems, but I didn't see a solution anywhere. Then the owner at NorCal gave me a tip/suggestion to try and boom- foam problem solved. So I figured I'd share in case anyone else has this problem. This may be a unique solution to the NorCal Randall, and those that have a Randall made from a water filter housing can't benefit from this.
The NorCal Randall has two dip tubes that go into the jar. One is short and sits up top above a strainer screen. This is intended to be your "beer out" port and the screen is supposed to keep junk from flowing out into your beer line. There is a long tube that goes down to the bottom of the jar. This is supposed to be the "beer in" port and you fill the jar from the bottom and the beer passes by your goodies on its way out.
The hops float in the beer. I had a 1 oz. package of whole leaf hops in there. Once the Randall filled with beer, the hops all floated up to the top to cluster around the screen. Foamed like crazy (90% foam, 10% liquid in the glass).
But then I swapped the inlet and outlet lines and the foam issue was solved. I won't say it was foamless, and I didn't capture a picture, but it was probably 10% foam, 90% liquid. And I was able to run this at 10 psi on my keg regulator so I got a decent glass filling speed. I guess the beer passing by the hops right before exiting into the beer line caused things to foam up substantially.
If you're interested in my full review, with some more pictures, here's the link.
The NorCal Randall has two dip tubes that go into the jar. One is short and sits up top above a strainer screen. This is intended to be your "beer out" port and the screen is supposed to keep junk from flowing out into your beer line. There is a long tube that goes down to the bottom of the jar. This is supposed to be the "beer in" port and you fill the jar from the bottom and the beer passes by your goodies on its way out.
The hops float in the beer. I had a 1 oz. package of whole leaf hops in there. Once the Randall filled with beer, the hops all floated up to the top to cluster around the screen. Foamed like crazy (90% foam, 10% liquid in the glass).
But then I swapped the inlet and outlet lines and the foam issue was solved. I won't say it was foamless, and I didn't capture a picture, but it was probably 10% foam, 90% liquid. And I was able to run this at 10 psi on my keg regulator so I got a decent glass filling speed. I guess the beer passing by the hops right before exiting into the beer line caused things to foam up substantially.
If you're interested in my full review, with some more pictures, here's the link.
