Keg overcarbed?

[blackstrat5]

I kegged a Bitter 4-5 weeks ago (first homebrew keg). I let it carb at 11-12psi for two weeks at 38 degrees. Its a minifridge kegorator. 2.5 feet roughly from tap to center of keg. And a standard faucet. The beer line is 3/16 with a resistance a little over one. I have 8 ft of line.

Anyway the first two weeks of puring the beers were perfect in terms of foam. (First pour of the day always had a bit more foam but not much more than the proceeding ones. Now its always 2/3 foam every pour. I noticed the tap really sticks on the first pour, noticeable effort to crack the handle loose.

Do you think the beer is overcarbed, or perhaps due to the sticking faucet it needs cleaning already and that's causing the foaming.

 

[day_trippr]

I would think if the beer is foamy on every pour it's mot due to sticky faucet per se - unless you're not opening it fully. There isn't any compliance in even a standard rear-sealing faucet - the level moves a plunger that has no in-line spring - so if the handle is moved full throw the plunger moves the full travel.

Otoh, if there's a build-up of dried brew within the faucet, that could provide nucleation sites for the beer passing through. Might be worth removing the faucet, tearing it down and giving it a thorough cleaning, and see what happens.

btw, I'm curious about "The beer line is 3/16 with a resistance a little over one." and where that number came from. Most system guidelines claim 3/16" ID tubing has a resistance much higher (like 2.7 or so) but "a little over one" would explain why most folks eventually find ~ten feet of beer line is required to tame the typical beer charged with ~12 psi of gas.

Somewhat surprisingly, when people try to get that number from vendors they either don't have a clue or they spout the same "2.7 to 3" value that really doesn't jibe with reality...

Cheers!