question regarding mini keg, temp, beer lines and foaming

[Brewsterguy]

Hey everybody,

I have a mini 5liter, flow control tap directly attached to the keg. trying to serve a 2.5 vol carbed ale using 12psi and getting excesive foaming only when i am serving in a cooler. i have served a perfect pour directly from my fridge (as in the tap was also cold) and everything was okay.
In the two cases I wanted to take the keg to a party. I put it in a cooler and threw some ice on top and around it, but of course its not as cold as being in the fridge. every single pour was extremely foamy, I lost at least 2liters in each case.

since i dont have an idea how to properly fix the temp issue, i have 2 ideas:
1. use a beer line to increase the resistance to the tap, and then seeing if I get better results.
2. using a picnic tap without a flow control and a calculated beer line. just hoping it does better.

Any tips?

 

[JohnSand]

I think your logic is sound. I've haven't used a keg smaller than 2.5 gallons, and rarely from other than the kegerator. I did but a steel keg in an old wooden beer keg as a picnic cooler, I recall it working well.
Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[day_trippr]

Maybe try a non FC faucet?

I brought my new Vevor 7 liter keg to Masstoberfest filled with a hazy ipa and set to the same 11 psi as my taps at home and it worked great dunked in a bucket of ice. I put a spare Perlick 525ss (non FC) on it but I expect the oem rear sealer would have worked fine as well.

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

[...] but of course its not as cold as being in the fridge.

That difference in beer temp is most likely the cause. Warmer beer will need more pressure and a longer and/or thinner ID line to offer the needed extra resistance to retain the same level of carbonation at the tap/faucet.

https://brewingcalculators.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Forced-Carbonation-Chart-US-v3.png

But first, try to keep the small keg as cold as your kegerator. And keep the piece of line that's outside the cooler box (and will get warm) short as possible.

You can also try a regular picnic tap, to see if it makes any difference.

 

[Brewsterguy]

hey everybody
so a quick update
i ordered a 100mm beer shank, 5mmID beerline of 3.5M and hooked it all up to my cooler and put it to the test.

Now theres controlable foaming! since a cooler will always have warmer parts than having everything inside a fridge, the only way to reliably have a good pour is to have a beer line imo.

 

[Brewsterguy]

another update
i just hit the keg again, this time had a cooler with a bunch of ice stacked on top and on the sides, beer was as cool as it was in the past. The 12ft beer line spooled inside the keg got it to have just the right amount of foam. everybody enjoyed.

So to answer anyone who is having trouble with a tap attached directly to a mini keg getting tons of foaming: Either use it directly from a fridge or just get a beer line with a reasonable length to handle the foaming.

 

[IslandLizard]

The 12ft beer line spooled inside the keg got it to have just the right amount of foam.

[...] 12 ft beerline spooled inside the (mini) keg?

 

[day_trippr]

It did read like that's what was done
The 12 feet seems about right considering 5mm is a little bit wider bore than the traditional 3/16".
Cramming the line inside a mini keg is a whole new paradigm

Cheers!