Tons of Foam

[Grantman1]

Probably a pretty common question on this section of the forum, but here's my situation.

My recent blonde ale is coming out of the keg as nothing but foam. My beer is carbed and my tap is set up at 10PSI and on a picnic tap. I tried purging the CO2, then dialing back the PSI to around 5, but that just led to foam coming out at a slower rate. I can see foam in the line.

Other info that may be helpful - I've got two kegs to the same regulator and the other one is working flawlessly. Both have beer lines from keg to picnic tap of 3ft.

Anyone have any trouble shooting ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

[kev211]

3 feet seems a little short. I run 7 foot liquid lines on mine.

 

[peterj]

What was your carbonation procedure? Sounds like it's overcarbed. Also, I agree that 3 ft lines are too short. I have 10 ft lines and I would recommend that length as a minimum.

 

[Grantman1]

I forced carbed. The beer doesn't taste over-carbed, though. When I force carb, I try to do so only to give it a head start - then let it come up to it's appropriate level over the next few days.

I'm thinking it wouldn't be the lines, since my last few kegs have all been through 3ft lines and worked flawlessly.

 

[naturebrew]

Check the silicone o ring where you connect the beer line, could be letting air in, also, have you tried swapping the picnic taps between the two kegs, are both keg connections the same? I had some pin lock connectors a while back that were shorter in height, on certain kegs they would foam like crazy and were hard to connect. I think the height of the keg post and where the pins were coming in contact with the connector were not lining up right making the opening too small for the beer to pass without foaming.

 

[peterj]

If it's coming out as all foam, you wouldn't be able to tell if it's overcarbed when you drink it because all of the extra CO2 would have come out already. How exactly do you force carb? Let it sit for a while at high PSI? Or do you shake it at high PSI? Or something else?

Yeah since you haven't had foaming with your lines in the past I would hesitate to say it's a line length issue, though I still think 3 feet is crazy short.

I carb by putting it in the fridge at 30 psi for about 36 hours then drop it down to serving pressure. On my last keg I left it for 48 hours and it was too much. I've had to fight with it to reduce the carbonation.

 

[day_trippr]

Check the beer line when pouring: if it's full of bubbles or actual foam coming right out of the keg, suspect a bad or missing O-ring under the Out dip tube flange...

Cheers!

 

[Grantman1]

Check the beer line when pouring: if it's full of bubbles or actual foam coming right out of the keg, suspect a bad or missing O-ring under the Out dip tube flange...

Cheers!

Thank you, sir. Problem solved and I'm back in business.