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Kegerator foaming

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Snowgumbo

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Sep 10, 2021
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I have the Kronos kegerator and find that when I go to pour a beer that has not been poured in a while I get a lot of foam with the first beer that I have to toss. It has the new smaller quick connect lines. Keeping the fan on does seem to help a bit. I have even added longer dispensing lines and turned up the pressure a bit. But it still happens. Suggestions?
 
If your second or third pour is perfect the problem is probably that your faucet and tower is getting too warm as compared to your keg temperature. The fact that the fan helps also indicates this is probably the problem. Figuring a way to get more of the cold air from the bottom of the kegerator into the tower will probably help.
 
Welcome to the forums at HBT, @Snowgumbo :mug:

I agree with @Spundit, first pour issues usually can be traced back to a positive temperature differential between the cold beer and the lines (especially up in the tower), shanks and faucets. We can combat some of that with a "tower cooler" to at least get the lines and shanks chilled down along with some of the faucet.

Also, "technique matters": Try pouring two ounces in your glass, drink that, then pour a full glass. Two ounces is about all that a typical beer line/shank/faucet hold, so you'd be replacing the "old" beer with "cold" beer, which in turn will chill down the plumbing. This really does work - give it a try!

Finally, dispensing systems that are tuned to be right on the edge of break-out will likely have "first pour" problems more often and to a greater degree. In this case, "tuning" is the balancing act between beer line length and inside diameter vs the CO2 pressure used to both dispense the beer and maintain its carbonation level. Having lines that are a bit longer than required will be more tolerant than lines that are barely long enough...

Cheers!
 
@day_trippr I love that 2 oz or advice. So simple and so obvious, I don't know why I never thought of it. I've been on a multi year journey to improve first beer foam in my keezer, which has been mostly successful. Had I just thought of this simple trick, would've saved me a lot of stress and poured out foamy pints...
 
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