Kegerator only pouring thick foam

Hey all,

I built a kegerator previously, but haven't poured anything in a while (traveling). I tried to pour a pint and all that came out was an extremely thick foam (looked more like soft-serve ice cream than beer).

I checked the lines, and - in the line - the beer is still in liquid form.

Any ideas why this is happening / how to fix it?

Side note: This is only happening to one of the beers in my kegerator (a wheat beer) the other beer (double IPA) is pouring just fine.

Thanks!

is the faucet fully opening? I know if I don't open mine all the way, perlick and picnic, then the beer foams a lot more.

Swap the beer lines between kegs yet?

Cheers!

So the faucets (perlicks) are completely open when pouring, but still having problems.

I haven't swapped the beer lines yet, I'll try that when I get home. What is this supposed to accomplish? Possibly a bad line? Just to provide more information, the kegerator uses 3/16" lines (5ft I believe) that I bought as a kit.

I bled the pressure from the keg, but at one point instead of getting the headspace co2 I started getting foam out of the pressure release. Is it possible that inside the keg the beer is all foam?

On a side note, after letting the head settle the beer is extremely sweet. Is that normal (since the beer has little to no co2 left?)?

Thanks!

bleed that pressure and open it. might be infected, it should be THAT foamy that it comes thru the bleed valve

Could the keg have partially frozen somehow? I'm not sure if that would cause the symptoms you're describing.

pmbc said:

[...]I haven't swapped the beer lines yet, I'll try that when I get home. What is this supposed to accomplish? Possibly a bad line?

Click to expand...

Fault isolation, plain and simple.

And while you had said the beer looks the same in the two lines, you're now finding something odd about the foamy keg...

Cheers!

Thanks for all of the advice, I'll try it when I get home. I don't believe the keg could've frozen, the temp gauge inside the kegerator says it stays between 38-40 degrees.

Is it empty? When my cornies kick, they push a pint of foamy, yeasty, slurry in their dying breath.

Thanks for all the help. I unhooked the keg, released the pressure, and opened it up and sure enough the beer was frozen. The temperature gauge inside was reading 46 degrees this morning, but apparently that's not correct. I'm going to try and let them thaw out by turning the kegerator off and leaving the CO2 on and hopefully it will work.

Thanks!

Hi everyone.

I am having the same issue with foaming. I am new to kegging, and my first is a Hefeweizen. I thought I had the right line length to balance the system, but all I get is foam.

My keezer is at 35-39 deg, and I wanted to hefe to sit at 4.04 - 4.36 volumes. So I run the CO2 at 28 PSI. The CO2 is external to the keezer. The faucet is 2' above the center of the keg, and I am using about 9' of 3/16 ID PVC.

The beer is not frozen in the keg.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

ersogoth said:

Hi everyone.

I am having the same issue with foaming. I am new to kegging, and my first is a Hefeweizen. I thought I had the right line length to balance the system, but all I get is foam.

My keezer is at 35-39 deg, and I wanted to hefe to sit at 4.04 - 4.36 volumes. So I run the CO2 at 28 PSI. The CO2 is external to the keezer. The faucet is 2' above the center of the keg, and I am using about 9' of 3/16 ID PVC.

The beer is not frozen in the keg.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

How long has it been at that pressure? I could be wrong, but once it is carbed up, you need to dial the pressure back down to a more reasonable serving pressure. Something closer to 8-10 PSI. It sounds way overcarbed.

Correct me if I'm wrong... but the style guidelines for Hefe's top out at 2.9 volumes, correct? Should be ~15psi for that.

I'd try lowering the CO2 to about 15 pounds and degassing the beer a little. 4 volumes is a lot of CO2... even with a properly balance system I'd imagine the dissolved CO2 is gonna be tryin real hard to get out of the beer as soon as it is in the glass.

Punx Clever said:

Correct me if I'm wrong... but the style guidelines for Hefe's top out at 2.9 volumes, correct? Should be ~15psi for that[...]

Click to expand...

Well, that's what the BJCP thinks. Otoh, Palmer's How To Brew book says 3.3 - 4.5 is typical and Eric Warner's German Wheat Beer book says 2.8 - 5.1 volumes, just to list two that would say the BJCP got it wrong. And my sprightly wheat beers are up in the 3.5 range.

As for the original question, here's the deal: don't believe the alleged beer line length calculators, because they're wrong - nearly without exception (see below) - when it comes to home dispensing systems.

Many keggers are using 10' long 3/16" ID runs just for "normal" brews (ie: in the 2.5 volume +/- range). At your 35-39°F setting, that means pressures averaging 11-12 psi. For effervescent brews in the 3.5-4 volume range, you're looking at twice that psi or more - and that calls for twice the line (same ID) or longer.

And here is the exception. Use this Excel file and I believe it will solve your foam problems. It nailed my existing line lengths within a couple of inches, so I believe in it Kudos to the author...

Cheers!

[edit] ps: folks need to get the idea out of their head that there should be a difference between carbonation pressure and serving pressure. That's just plain wrong, period.

Day Trippr, thanks for the link!

I was really hoping to find something that gave a better line length estimate. I have been using the calculations from the Draft Quality Beer Manual. Just based on your 10' comment, it looks like I need to get longer lines =)

I have been hoping to have the keg as a true set and forget, I have multiple regulators just for that purpose, and really don't like the idea of carb pressure and serving pressure. I will see what the calculator comes up with, and let everyone know how it goes!