ginger beer - under... now over carbonated!!

[VJmotion]

I'm finding carbonation to be a very tricky process. Currently, my soda is so carbonated that when I open the tap the soda shoots out like a jet, hits the bottom of the glass and goes flying all over my shift and the rest of the room. Then I'm left with a glass of foam... that incidentally settles pretty quickly.

Here's what I do. I put my keg into the fridge. Temp is about 42F. Then I hit it with about 40psi for a couple days.

I usually keep the pressure at 40psi for serving. That may be part of the problem. And I don't have a long line for serving. I use a 2 foot stainless extension rod with a tap at the end of it.

Questions:

1) what am I doing wrong with my current method of carbonation/serving?
2) What can I do with my overly carbonated beverage to make it servable?

I have an event on Tuesday during which people will be pouring their own sodas. I can't have it exploding all over them. So I'm sort of desperate for some help. Thank you in advance for any assistance!

 

[hunter_le five]

At 40psi, you are going to need a LONG beverage line for serving. Otherwise, you will continue to have that problem.

If the beverage is in fact over carbonated, you need to turn the pressure down. Try 30psi for soda... and longer beverage lines.

 

[peterj]

I'm finding carbonation to be a very tricky process. Currently, my soda is so carbonated that when I open the tap the soda shoots out like a jet, hits the bottom of the glass and goes flying all over my shift and the rest of the room. Then I'm left with a glass of foam... that incidentally settles pretty quickly.

Here's what I do. I put my keg into the fridge. Temp is about 42F. Then I hit it with about 40psi for a couple days.

I usually keep the pressure at 40psi for serving. That may be part of the problem. And I don't have a long line for serving. I use a 2 foot stainless extension rod with a tap at the end of it.

Questions:

1) what am I doing wrong with my current method of carbonation/serving?
2) What can I do with my overly carbonated beverage to make it servable?

I have an event on Tuesday during which people will be pouring their own sodas. I can't have it exploding all over them. So I'm sort of desperate for some help. Thank you in advance for any assistance!

Disclaimer: I've never made soda but I imagine the kegging parts would be the same as beer.

40 psi seems pretty high, but I guess soda is carbonated a lot more than beer. I just did a quick search and it looks like your line length is nowhere near long enough if it's only 2 feet. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/carbonation-issue-soda-287261/. Yooper says 30 psi at 40F is good, and you need 25' to 30' of line in order to bring the pressure down slow enough to dispense without foam.

 

[MrFoodScientist]

Since you will be serving this at an event, there should be no trouble dropping the pressure to serve. You want to repressurize anything that's left over if you intend to store it.
Since venting pressure often leads to making a mess, I like to turn off the CO2 completely and let the existing pressure serve the first few pours. On a full keg with small headspace, that shouldn't take too long. Once the pour is pretty slow, turn the CO2 back on, but start at 5psi and turn up as desired from there.
Longer lines will help, but you're not likely to have that in operation by Tuesday unless you have somewhere local that sells the proper sized lines.
Other solutions for future reference would be to get a narrower diameter and/or longer serving line, inserting epoxy mixers or other line restriction in your dip tube, carbing/serving at lower temperature and pressure.