New Kegerator not cold enough?

[LordHafen]

Hey everyone, i just finished my kegerator or at least started the journey of one and am having a problem with my refrigerator not getting cold enough. i have to add that i live in a hot town (Bakersfield California) and the kegerator is sitting in my garage, where during the summer it can be 110. The fridge i acquired from work when we moved buildings and they were going to leave it behind, it is rather new and works well, i have the thermostat set to the coldest setting and still my thermometer only reads about 40*F Air temperature at the bottom of the fridge. I have heard of fans installed inside the fridge to improve air circulation, even seen people cut holes in the freezer section (Fridge is a top freezer bottom fridge) and fan the cold air into the fridge. any other ideas? i as of right now am getting about 10% beer to 90% foam and have tried all sorts of Co2 pressures so i don't believe it is that, i have a keg of Bud Light (i know a brewing forum and i have bud light.....)

 

[Canadianbrewer2012]

I had a similar problem when I first go my kegerator set up this summer.. I live in Winnipeg, Canada and we have very warm summers (upwards of 104 degrees) my fridge also sat in the garage and seemed to have a hard time keeping up ... I don't know about u but I somewhat obsess over my kegerator and constantly check the temperatures/pressures etc. ... @ 40 degrees I really don't thing there should be that significant foaming issue due to the temperature...unless u keep messing with it by opening and closing ur filridge all the time (like I do). How long are your beverage lines? And what is your serving pressure? I ask these things because I fixed my HUGE foaming issues by discovering just that. I had 4' lines which I changed to 10' lines and I had messed my carbonation all up but that was as a result of a poor blast carb method...

 

[RogueGoose85]

Nothing to really offer besides saying 40F is a perfectly fine temp. I dont think the foaming issues are a result of temp. My reasoning is that I have a mild at 54 right now, and pours just fine.

 

[b-boy]

I keep my keezer at 40F.

I'd get longer beer lines as a first step. My beer lines are 10ft. I originally had 5 ft lines and had all kinds of foaming problems. No issues now.

The fan is a good idea if you can swing it. I have one blowing on my taps from inside the keezer and it helps a lot. Keeps the taps nice and cold which helps with foaming as well.

 

[TopherM]

1) Foaming is definitely not a result of your kegorator temperature. PSI and line length can be adjusted to any temperature to produce good pours.

2) MOST kegorators only get down into the high 30s/low 40s. Ice cold beer is a BADDDDD thing in homebrew. It is OK for mass produced light lagers, but temps in the 30s and low 40s will KILL hop aroma and malt character in most homebrew styles. The experts state that a typical homebrew ale should be served around 50-55F and homebrew wheats and lagers at 45-50F, homebrew stouts and porters at 55-60F.

Your kegerator is plenty cold. You need to read up on balancing your system so you set the PSI and line length properly.

 

[LordHafen]

Thank you all so much for your prompt replies.

I think that you are right, I bought a refrigerator to kegerator conversion kit and it came with 4-5ft hoses. I will change these out this weekend and see what happens. Does anyone have the formula or a link to a formula website for hose to co2 Pressure?

Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

[LordHafen]

Update, Just replaced the lines to 10' lines instead of 4' line the kit came with, with good results, instead of a 10% beer 90% foam i now get about 50% 50%....still work needing to be done with I am guessing with the Co2 but still on the right path, thanks everyone

 

[nickmv]

If you're still getting that much foam, you need to cut the serving pressure down. I'm running @41F on mine and w/4ft of line @ 10psi, it pours perfectly, although a bit fast, but nothing crazy.

 

[day_trippr]

If the CO2 pressure is set to the desired volumes at the kegerator temperature, and you're still getting big time foam with 10' 3/16" ID lines, the simplest answer is that the beer is overcarbed...

Cheers!