Over carbonated Heff ... how to fix?

[GRHunter]

I cracked my first two kegged beers tonight and both are over carbonated. I am having a party tomorrow night and I was hoping to serve these two brews to my guests. The oatmeal stout is just slightly over carbonated and is quite drinkable. But the Heff is nothing but foam. I was shaking the keg and then relieving the pressure to remove the carbonation. After doing that for a while closed off the CO2 to it and decided to come in here and ask advice before I went any farther. So ... can this beer be salvaged for my party tomorrow night? HELP!!!!!

 

[marubozo]

Was the foam actually from over carbed beer or just an unbalanced keg setup? What was your process for carbing the hefe? Did you set it to your serving PSI and let it set for a few weeks or did you force carb at a high psi in an attempt to get it carbed up quicker?

 

[GRHunter]

Unbalanced keg setup? What's that? I had it at 30 psi @ 70 degrees for about 2 weeks, then 15 psi @ 50 degrees for 2 weeks.

 

[marubozo]

Unbalanced keg setup? What's that? I had it at 30 psi @ 70 degrees for about 2 weeks, then 15 psi @ 50 degrees for 2 weeks.

Just meaning you have the right line lengths, sizes, psi, temp, etc. Trying to serve beer with the incorrect line length for a given pressure and temp can lead to instant foam even if the beer is carbed up perfectly.

But given what you said above there's a lot going on there. If it's at serving temp now, what temp is that and what is your target serving pressurei? And then how long is your beer line?

 

[GRHunter]

Just meaning you have the right line lengths, sizes, psi, temp, etc. Trying to serve beer with the incorrect line length for a given pressure and temp can lead to instant foam even if the beer is carbed up perfectly.

But given what you said above there's a lot going on there. If it's at serving temp now, what temp is that and what is your target serving pressurei? And then how long is your beer line?

It is now at 10 psi @ 40 degrees and I believe that the length is 5 1/2 feet.

 

[marubozo]

Ok. I don't know what you were targeting for carbonation of the beer, but assuming you wanted about 3.6 volumes of CO2, according to this worksheet (assuming 16" height from tap to keg center, 3/16" beer lines, etc. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/attach...ator-beer-line-length-pressure-calculator.zip If you're using 1/4" ID lines, lord have mercy.

At 40 degrees you'd want 122.5" of beer line (or about 10 feet) at a pressure of 21 psi to achieve that.

That being said, you should be able to purge the excess CO2 and start by slowly ramping up the pressure and see if you can get it to serve without foaming with your current setup. Start at just a couple psi and see what happens. If you're still getting nothing but foam with even very low pressures then it's probably safe to assume the beer is overcarbed.

 

[duskb]

That being said, you should be able to purge the excess CO2 and start by slowly ramping up the pressure and see if you can get it to serve without foaming with your current setup. Start at just a couple psi and see what happens. If you're still getting nothing but foam with even very low pressures then it's probably safe to assume the beer is overcarbed.

+1 on this.

 

[GRHunter]

UPDATE: After shaking and purging I dropped the psi to 10 last night. This morning all that is coming out is about 90% air with 10% foam. Although the keg is completely full it is acting like it is almost empty. When I close the faucet you can see that the beer line is full of air. Could there be a problem with my dip tube?

 

[kmk1012]

I hate to ask the obvious question, "started all foam now almost only air comming out", do you have the lines properly attached to the correct side of the keg? I've read enough posts to realize that this does happen, I'm not suggesting this is what you did just reccomending to double check.

 

[carnevoodoo]

Sounds like you're trying to draw from the wrong side of the keg. Or you have a broken dip tube.

 

[Malintent]

after shaking up the keg and messing with it, you've connected the gas to the liquid and the liquid to the gas... the foam from shaking is reaching the gas tube a sputtering out your liquid line. If your regulator pressure is less than your keg pressure, then you might have drawn beer up into your regulator, and you should disassemble and clean it.

 

[GRHunter]

I just checked and I have everything assembled correctly. I am now going to switch out my dip tube and gas connector.

 

[GRHunter]

Fixed!!! I think that the problem was that the dip tube was missing the O-ring. I did switch dip tubes, making sure that there was an O-ring, and I am now getting an awesome pour! I have no idea why an O-ring would make such a difference, but I am one happy camper now.

 

[brokeoono]

A bad o-ring once brought down a space shuttle, I'm also sure it can cause havoc on a keg.

 

[makisupa]

Just a note to say thanks. I was having the same problem this afternoon — foamy, gurgling draws coming out of the picnic tap. Turns out I had the valves on wrong. Dip-tube was in the right place but the outer valves were backwards. A quick wrench to the get them off, spray with iodophor, and re-wrench on and I was getting excellent pours.

FIRST POST! w00t!

 

[makisupa]

^^^ ha ha. Not my first post, I guess ^^^