foamy keg?

[Lazarous]

hey everybody, Im new to kegging my beer as Ive only done a couple of batches this way so far, but both times now Ive ended up having a lot of trouble getting my beer to pour properly, with it coming out as mostly all foam. Im just a little unsure of what to do to prevent this, i have gone through the force carbing thread on this site and have been following that method (set it to 30 psi shake than tune it back to 10-12 and let it sit a couple days) both times Ive ended up with nicely carbed beer but have real hard time pouring it without it being all foam. so far i have had to resort to reducing the psi in the keg to around 5 psi to get it to pour but that is a real pain to have to do before every pour... any thoughts?

 

[Arneba28]

yeah you should be pushing your beer around 4-7psi I believe if you have standart 5 foot lines. 12lbs is kinda high.

Degas your keg and set the pressure to 8. Then try pouring a pint. If its still foamy then degas the keg again and set it to 6psi and see how that works.

 

[Germey]

Most likely over carbonated. I have done it several times.
Forcing it quickly makes it fairly easy to overdo it. Once it is dissolved, it is surprisingly difficult to get it out. You can't just vent and be done with it. You need to vent, shake it around a bit, vent, Repeat several times...
Doing so can off-gas a significant amount of hop aroma as well. I only quick-carb in emergencies. A safer route is to put it in the fridge at the storage pressure (that which will obtain the correct volumes at that temperature) and let it sit for about a week. I find this is useful in that it gives the keg a chance to settle and clear up.
The only other thing that has happened to me is that I discovered that kegs in the center/back of my fridge were freezing a column of ice at the back of the keg. Those kegs were foaming like crazy and I didn't know why until they seemed to go empty, and I cleaned them. Had to restructure the kegerator. Pretty odd situation though. Most likely over-carbed.
Oh, I store and serve mine at 12-14 psi, with 6 ft of 3/16th line.

 

[JuanMoore]

Foam can have many causes. It's very easy to over carb using the "burst carb" method you've described. If that's the case, you'll need to disconnect it from the gas, and keep releasing pressure for a day or two until it comes back down. The set and forget method is much easier and never results in overcarbed beer.

As a side note, shaking the keg isn't a good idea if you like lacing and head retention since it destroys many of the head forming protiens. Burst carbing can still be done without shaking, by raising the pressure for a day or two and then reducing it to serving pressure.

An unbalanced system is one of the most common causes of foaming. You need to have the correct length and ID of beer line for the rise, beer temperature and pressure you have. Here's an older thread with a line balancing calculator that should at least get you in the ballpark.

Kinks or sharp bends in the lines can also cause foaming.

Another cause could be warm faucets or lines, especially if you're using a tower. The lines need to be cold their entire length, or the co2 will start to come out of solution when it hits the warm spot and cause foam. From what you describe I think it's the least likely cause, but still a possibility.