HELP Foaming nightmare!!! beer tower dispensing soda

[born2dive9702]

Hello everyone, I would like to thank you for your help in advance.

I recently purchased a maxi panther beer tower
http://www.micromatic.com/sites/5/downloads/865_6404-C.pdf
with 4 euro faucets like these http://www.chicompany.net/index.php...d=2064&zenid=f0dad63c60eac7677e92e836fced1b8e
I think I prefer my perlick 650ss https://www.kegworks.com/perlick-flow-control-faucet-stainless-steel but that is another story.

I have modified a chest freezer to use as a refridege with a Stc1000 which can control the temp by .1 degrees F

The tower is bolted to the top of the lid. I am using a Taprite regulators running stainless steel braided hose from the regs to the kegs.

I am using acuflex bev seal 3/16" line for the soda line.

My reguators are set to 22psi @36'f and which is carbing the diet soda 3.6GV. The line is 3/16" diameter connected and is 10ft long. it is connected to a 19" long 1/4" stainless tube that runs up to the head. the faucets have a 3" shank. From center of the keg to the top of the head is 29" and 12" on the horizontal.
I have cleaned the entire system with starsanz sanitizer and distilled water. I am rather sure that I have everything set up and balanced correctly.

I did a flow rate test with water and have 1.3oz/sec which is good for me I prefer a slower pour.

The soda in the tanks is at 35.9'f I can not get a accurate temp on the soda coming out of the faucet because it is all foam.

What is going on what is causing the foam? have I missed something obvious.

Please let me know I am having a nightmare with this.

 

[rtt121]

All sounds pretty good.

Two things I would try:

1. Turn your regulator down to about 12psi. If that solves it then you need a longer beer line to serve at 22psi. Edit: Also equalize your kegs so that they are 12psi.
2. Do another keg full of water and let it come to your kegerator temperature and measure the temperature of the pour with that. If it is much warmer than your 35.9 CO2 is coming out of solution due to the temp change.

 

[myndflyte]

New to kegging here so excuse anything I may say wrong/overlook but the only thing I didn't see was your serving pressure. If you're still pushing 22psi, I would say that's way too much. Although you may have just missed typing that in.

 

[kristiismean]

I would drop that pressure, rtt121 and myndflyte said, it's to much. It's easy to start low and increase, start at 6 or 8, no harm in that.... can always turn it up more.

cut the gas, purge the keg, then apply 8 psi to the keg to achieve 8 psi as a starting point. I have found new kegs on my system sometimes have more head/foam than I like. so for the first 5 or so I actually kill the gas, bleed a little bit out and let the internal keg pressure do the serving. (then reapply the gas of course....

 

[rippajak]

As others have said, 22 psi is unusually high for most draft beer systems. If I understand you correctly, you are using your system to dispense soda, which is why you have the pressure up so high?

To dispense properly at that kind of pressure, you will need to balance your system with longer lines that provide more resistance. You can find equations for this process, but beverage line is cheap. I would just start by hooking up a 20 ft line between your keg and tower. If the pour is too slow for your taste, shorten the line a little at a time until you find a good balance point.

Hope this helps.

 

[day_trippr]

Dispensing at a lower pressure than required to maintain carbonation level is an undesirable methodology as it causes CO2 to break out of solution to equalize at the lower pressure. Along with gradually flattening the beverage, this can cause a cascade effect during a pour, losing even more carbonation to foam.

Instead, solve the problem the proper way by providing enough line resistance to allow the full CO2 pressure to be used while taming the flow rate.

PET lined barrier tubing aggravates the problem as it is "slicker" than solid PVC line. In the beer dispensing realm it's not uncommon for Bev Seal Ultra 235 users to report their best dispensing solution required their lines to be 50-100% longer than PVC tubing for the same CO2 pressure. So, while my 12 foot Bevlex 200 PVC lines are nicely balanced to a 12 psi CO2 pressure, the Bev Seal line might need to be 18 to 20-something feet to pour as well. At 22 psi those line lengths would have to be much longer.

So the only practical way to deal with this long term is to tune the line lengths, but there aren't any calculators that really deal with PET lines very well. One can start with the only line length calculator worth using, but again, it's tuned to PVC lines, so there's a multiplier that isn't included...

Cheers!

 

[born2dive9702]

Hello every one I am dispensing Soda not beer, so the pressure must be set at the 22psi for proper carbonation.

As I had mentioned I have 10' of 3/16 line on it already and dispensing at 1.3 oz/sec.

@rtt121 I will give that a try. with the water trick. Didnt think of that.

@Daytripper Diddnt now that about bevseal

So it looks like I have it set up correctly???

I will get back on the temp of the water shortly

 

[jmcquesten]

Hello every one I am dispensing Soda not beer, so the pressure must be set at the 22psi for proper carbonation.

As I had mentioned I have 10' of 3/16 line on it already and dispensing at 1.3 oz/sec.

@rtt121 I will give that a try. with the water trick. Didnt think of that.

@Daytripper Diddnt now that about bevseal

So it looks like I have it set up correctly???

I will get back on the temp of the water shortly

I have made and served ginger ale at 30 psi. It required about 30 ft of 3/16 bevlex to get it serving right, but it is possible. The longer line will fix it.

 

[born2dive9702]

Well this is what I have found out. the cooler is set at 35.8'F

I poured 2 oz off like you normally would do.
I then poured a 8 oz glass
the temp was 40.8'F
The second pour of 8 oz was at 41.4 8 oz
The third pour of 10 oz was at 38.8'

So it warms about 5-6 degrees F coming thru the tower. Could this be the problem with the foaming issue???

 

[jeffcosgrove]

I agree with day trippr on the link he provided. That's the one that I used to calculate all of my line lengths. I serve root beer at 22 psi and 34 deg. I'm pretty sure I ended up with almost 25' of 3/16" line.

 

[idylldon]

So it warms about 5-6 degrees F coming thru the tower. Could this be the problem with the foaming issue???

Yes. This was my first thought when I read your post. Towers that don't have cooling will tend to heat the beverage up just at a critical point, which then allows the CO2 to escape the beer/soda. In our pub, we have two keg coolers with four taps on each and use small blowers to push the cooler air up into the tower. While it's not as good as a glycol loop, it works well. You might even combine this with insulation on the individual tap lines.

Cheers,
--
Don