Perfect pour for 2 weeks now all foam...

[Colrain]

Hi, I tried searching but now must ask for some help from the kegging experts.

My kegerator setup is pretty simple. One keg + co2 tank in the fridge at around 35-40 degrees with 10 ft of 3/16 bevex beer line and a picnic tap all inside the fridge.

My beer was a set and forget it carbonation at around 18psi and poured perfectly for about the first 2-3 weeks of drinking the keg. Lately the serving and pour pressure just seems to have gone up even though the gauge hasn't changed. As far as I know there's no way I could have overcarbed with the way I did it.

Anyway now I just get 3/4 a glass of foam, I've tried bleeding the keg, reducing pressure, took apart the regulator, everything and not much has seemed to help. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Cheers

 

[shataway]

Sounds like you overcarbonated or are unbalanced for the style you are serving. Did you check the sticky for carbonation temps and pressures? For line balancing?

 

[davekippen]

18 seems a little high. It probably just now hit that PSI. Up till now it was building so it poured better. that would be my guess.

 

[AnOldUR]

fridge at around 35-40 degrees . . . My beer was a set and forget it carbonation at around 18psi

That's over 3 volumes!

What style?

Carbonation Chart

 

[pabloj13]

18 psi at 35 degrees is almost 3.5 volumes CO2. That's fairly high. Any reason you want it that high? Style?

 

[Colrain]

Bit of a correction sorry .. the fridge was around 45 .. not as cold as I thought. It was BM's centennial blonde, I like a little extra carb in my session beers, around 2.7-2.8. I remember when I set it up (line length etc) I balanced it for 18 psi for 2.8 vols.

The last keg I did with the same pressure poured perfectly tho, so I'm thinking this is new

 

[day_trippr]

^ Is this batch using the same keg, or a different one?

If it's not the same keg, a pin hole down low in the dip tube could cause sudden foaming.

But more likely the beer is over-carbed...

Cheers!

 

[JuanMoore]

Your line is way too short to serve a beer that warm with that level of carbonation. The warmer or more carbonated the beer is, the slower the pour needs to be to prevent the CO2 from coming out of solution. It was probably pouring nicely before because it hadn't finished carbonating yet. Your current set-up is filling at ~120oz/min, and you're going to need 80oz/min or slower to prevent foaming, which will require 20+ft of 3/16" line.

The good news is that you seemed happy with the beer recently, which means maybe you don't like the carbonation quite as high as you thought.

 

[Colrain]

^^ I think you maybe be right after thinking about what you said. Ill aim for a lower carb level that will be balanced with what I have.

Thanks for the help!