Yet another "why is my beer foamy" post

[bfinleyui]

OK, so I know it's been asked a bagillion times, but I feel like I've tried everything, and nothing's seeming to work.

This is my first beer in a keg, an american wheat. Fermented well, let it sit, etc.

I carbed it using the impatient method (cause, ya know, first keg and all), set it at 30PSI for about 36 hours, turned it down to 0, bled the pressure, brought it up to 11 PSI, and let it sit overnight.

Had mucho trouble getting anything but foam the first few times. Usually by the 2nd pint, it'll calm down now, but if I leave it for any amount of time, I come back and there are large bubbles/gaps in the beer that's sitting in the lines, probably an inch long, which makes the first pour entirely foam. After that, it pours fine, but it's just me and my wife, so having to pour 2 pints every time is kind of annoying. (not to mention bad for my liver)

I read a lot of different articles and posts trying to figure out what the problem is. Figured it might be temperature, so I did a few things,

• I moved my temperature probe up to the top of my keezer hanging in the free air (rather than on the hump in a glass of water)
• Set the air temp to 34 degrees (which has led to the beer in the glass being 36-37, from what I can tell).
• Double checked my line length, it's 10' of 3/16 ID bevflex with a (edit: picnic) tap on it
• Added a 120mm fan running at 12v (full speed) to the bottom of the keezer blowing directly up toward the lines
• Tried storing the tubing differently, coiled on top of the keg, strung out all around the keezer, nothing seemed to change there.
• Checked for leaks, wondering if air was getting in somehow, found nothing.

So now I'm at a loss.

I put a second keg in there, using the set-and-forget method, at 8 or 9 psi (a winter warmer that's going to need a few weeks before it's ready to drink anyway), on a 5' of 1/4" ID tubing (just what came with my system, I mostly use it when cleaning kegs to run starsan through the dip tube), and that's not getting any bubbles at all in the line, it's been in there for 3 or 4 days.

It doesn't seem to come flying out of the keg, so I'm fairly sure my pressure isn't too high. I've heard of those little mixing nozzles in the dip tube would help, but since I don't think it's a speed issue, not sure that's my problem?

I'm fairly certain whatever is causing those bubbles in the line is the culprit, but I feel like I've tried everything I've found online to fix that, and no luck... Thoughts? I've tried to include all the relevant details, but if I've left something out, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

 

[WPen]

So it's sitting at 11psi now? It could be that the burst method just over carbed your beer and it is still rapidly venting CO2 when you pour a pint. I'm interested to see how your second keg turns out with the set and forget method

 

[Rockn_M]

One thing you might want to look at is the temp at the taps themselves. If the foam subsides after a pint or two and if you leave it for 30 min and it does the same exact then it is probably the beer warming up at the tap and co2 coming out of solution, which causes the foam. After a few seconds of pouring the cold beer cools off the tap and it works as it should.

I tried doing the copper pipe method of cooling and that didn’t' work very well. I then opted for the computer fan blowing the cold fridge air up to the taps and that works pretty well. Sometimes if the room is hot I get the same issues.

I'd measure the temp at the taps to see what the temperature difference is.

 

[bfinleyui]

It's sitting at 11psi now. It doesn't *seem* overcarbed. I do have an extra gauge lying around, I could make my own checker to see...

Using that method, I should, when hooking the gauge up to the co2 in, get a reading of 11psi, if it's properly carbed, yes?

If it is overcarbed, is this the recommended method for bringing it back to where it should be?

 

[bfinleyui]

One thing you might want to look at is the temp at the taps themselves. If the foam subsides after a pint or two and if you leave it for 30 min and it does the same exact then it is probably the beer warming up at the tap and co2 coming out of solution, which causes the foam. After a few seconds of pouring the cold beer cools off the tap and it works as it should.

I tried doing the copper pipe method of cooling and that didn’t' work very well. I then opted for the computer fan blowing the cold fridge air up to the taps and that works pretty well. Sometimes if the room is hot I get the same issues.

I'd measure the temp at the taps to see what the temperature difference is.

edit: apparently I've been using the wrong terminology. They're just picnic taps coiled up on top of the kegs. Going back to edit my other post for clarity. Whoops

 

[Rockn_M]

edit: apparently I've been using the wrong terminology. They're just picnic taps coiled up on top of the kegs. Going back to edit my other post for clarity. Whoops

No worries. I may have mis-read as well. In my experience picnic taps always foam up on me. I just have never been able to get a good poor out of them.

I would work to release some of the carbonation and see if that helps.

 

[Brewerforlife]

Picnic taps are fine, just make sure you have at least 8-10ft of 3/16" on them. The 5 ft of 1/4" is too short, and does'nt offer enough resistance. The bubbles you see coming up in beer dispense line out of keg, is excess CO2 coming out of solution. In the first keg, it was just simply over-carbed.
The second keg is properly carbed with the set & forget method to 11psi, this keg is fine, the problem is there is not any where close to 11 psi of resistance with the short 5 ft of to large diameter 1/4" tubing. This only provides 4psi of resistance, the CO2 is coming out of the beer because your applying 11psi head pressure but the line only has about 5 psi resistance built into that short lenght of oversized tubing!! Hope that made sense!!

 

[bfinleyui]

Picnic taps are fine, just make sure you have at least 8-10ft of 3/16" on them. The 5 ft of 1/4" is too short, and does'nt offer enough resistance. The bubbles you see coming up in beer dispense line out of keg, is excess CO2 coming out of solution. In the first keg, it was just simply over-carbed.
The second keg is properly carbed with the set & forget method to 11psi, this keg is fine, the problem is there is not any where close to 11 psi of resistance with the short 5 ft of to large diameter 1/4" tubing. This only provides 4psi of resistance, the CO2 is coming out of the beer because your applying 11psi head pressure but the line only has about 5 psi resistance built into that short lenght of oversized tubing!! Hope that made sense!!

Yeah, the 5ft was just a tube to put on there to see if it had the same bubbling in the tube problem. I'll do the overcarb fix I linked earlier, and when it's time to actually drink the second keg, i'll have 10ft of 3/16 on it.

Sent from my SGH-I337 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[bfinleyui]

OK, so I spent all last night with the gas off, venting every hour or so. Left the gas off overnight, and vented again this morning, and there was very little co2 that came out. I turned the gas back on this morning. How long should I leave it on gas before attempting to see if it's ready to go?

 

[bfinleyui]

Well, thanks to all you guys' advice, I've had three consecutive perfect pours! Absolutely ecstatic. Hooray!

Sent from my SGH-I337 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Doctor_M]

Congrats! Now get to brewing.... I have found when you have beer on tap it goes a lot quicker. Could just be me though!