Stout tap with beer gas question

[Christ8242]

I just set up my new stout tap and hooked up my beer gas cylinder to a beautiful imperial stout I brewed.

After reading some forum posts on stout taps I set my regulator to 30psi, as I was told this was necessary to push the beer through the restrictor plate. It ended up pouring super foamy and I didn't get the beautiful cascade I was hoping for.

I turned down the pressure to 20psi - still too foamy.

10psi - still to foamy.

~3psi (hard to say exactly because the scale on a nitro regulator isn't very precise below 10psi) - seems to be working well, starting to see that cascade I've been waiting for.

Anybody have a similar experience?
Isn't this really low pressure for a stout tap?
Should I be concerned?

A couple more details. Tap and all parts from a stout tap kit purchased from northern brewer. Connected using ~6' of 3/16" ID beverage line (supplied with the kit).

Thanks!

 

[microbusbrewery]

I just recently set mine up so my disclaimer is I'm not an authority on nitro beers. I'm using a gas blender and dispensing at about 40 PSI. Mine was under carb'd at first so I got practically zero cascading foam. Then I put it on CO2 for a few days which resulted in it being slightly over carb'd; I got the cascading foam but a little more than I wanted (about 1.5 inches). Based on my experience, it sounds like it might be over carb'd. You should be at 1-1.4 volumes of CO2 before putting it on nitro. Are you using G Mix Gas (75/25)? My lines are a bit longer too at about 10 feet.

 

[thumpersk_a]

In this month's BYO there is an article on this. The article writer says to start with your beer warm in the keg put 30psi 25-75 beer gas on the keg. No co2 prior to this process. My beer gas supplier uses 30-70 I suppose it's not a big deal. Anyway chill the beer down to 35F let's say 24 hrs due to my lack of memory for the exact number. Take keg out attach gas to the dip tube side and shake it for a couple minutes. Let it rest 10 minutes between shakes and repeat 5 times to get guinness like results. Serve and enjoy. I haven't tried yet but my next chocolate milk stout will be done this way.

 

[thumpersk_a]

Ahhhaaa i found it

 

[Christ8242]

Thanks a lot for your help! Sounds like the issue is that I carbed up my beer with CO2 earlier so that it would be ready to go when I got my nitro tap set up. I think I'll try to purge the headspace a few times over the next couple of days. Maybe that will fix the issue.

 

[motobrewer]

yes you probably overcarbed the beer.

 

[thumpersk_a]

Edited