Foaming

[MFigz]

Ok, I've read a ton of these foaming keg threads and I think I've tried everything with no solution.

I have a keezer and the first pour has a lot of foam and I can't get rid of it. I have a fan in there running 24/7. Temp is around 37 degrees as measured by a grill thermometer which seems fairly accurate. 10' of 3/16 line from lhbs. Psi is currently set at 8 which provides for a pretty slow poor. I've tried as high as 12 PSI but the foaming seems worse. At this point, I am thinking that for some reason the beer in the lines are getting warm somehow because after the initial glass which is 3/4 foam it pours beautifully. If i sit's for an hour or so, it's back to foam. I know the easy answer is to not let my keg sit for a full hour without giving it proper attention, but unfortunately the wife gets upset when I use that practice. It kills me to dump this much brew out, does anybody have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong, or how I can fix it?

Thanks!
Mike

 

[owmatooth]

i think you're right on track with the beer in the lines getting cold. psi should be at about 10-12 for 37 degrees, and 10' of line should be about right. psi of 8 is just compensating and the under carb in the beer comes out of solution easier.

are your taps in a tower or off the side? somehow you need to cool the lines, which is generally an issue with having a temperature gradient from the top of the keezer (where the lines usually sit) and the bottom of the keezer where the cold sits. try a fan to get the cold air moving inside. notice the condensation on the faucets after a few pours. the goal is to have the faucets be almost that cold the whole time.

post a picture of your setup, that will make it easier.

 

[MFigz]

Tap is mounted as low as possible. It has a fan, it's hard to tell in the pictures, but it's in the well mounted to the floor. It pulls the cold air outta the well and blows it up top. There's a few degrees of temp variance from top of keg to the bottom, but not a lot. I also have insulation board sitting on top of the keg to try and keep the cold air lower. Kicking the co2 to 12 and I'll see what happens. Any ideas on how to keep my lines cooler? I have as much of the 10' on the bottom of the keezer as possible.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[raysmithtx]

It looks like your kegerator may be outside. I live in Texas with my kegerator outside and had lots of foaming issues. I had multiple fans inside and the first pull was nearly all foam. I finally mounted a fan close to one of the faucets to see if that would help. My thinking was that the heat that was causing the foam was from the warm tap and not warm lines. That fixed the problem for me but since I have 6 taps I decided to just get a hella powerful fan and connect it to a PVC manifold so I can force the cold air on the faucets (and mix up the rest of the air at the same time). This helped a lot. Food for thought.

 

[MFigz]

Great idea with the fans! It is outside in the summer and inside for the winter, I have the problem all year long though. I'll give that a shot!

Thanks!
Mike

 

[bunzy]

From reading on the forum here, Thanks everyone and trail and error, I found having my lines coiled on top of the Keg instead of at the bottom of the freezer/fridge helped with foam.