Kegrator
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mikescooling
Well-Known Member
When you open the tap, do you fully open it or do it slow? How hot is the tap? What kind of tap is it? How long are the feed lines? What pressures are you pushing?
tgmartin000
Well-Known Member
I have the same issue. i have the cheap taps, fully open, 5 ft, room temp, 10-12 psi.
mikescooling
Well-Known Member
You could try turning your pressure down to 9psi or lower. Some CO2 regs creep up, they have soft lows and highs. The reg may creep up to 15psi then as you drop the press it may not kick back on till 7psi. I had a reg that would creep up to 25psi. Some of the cheap regs need the metal shavings cleaned out of the diaphragm.
Part of the issue is the length of the serving lines.
5' @ 12 psi, will cause some foaming issues, in many cases.
Second. The lines themselves are getting warm in the beer tower, causing the Co2 to come out of solution. Therefore causing your first beer to pour foamy.
Lengthen your beer lines, and implement cooling for your tower.
There are a few DIY threads on HBT on building a cooling fan.
5' @ 12 psi, will cause some foaming issues, in many cases.
Second. The lines themselves are getting warm in the beer tower, causing the Co2 to come out of solution. Therefore causing your first beer to pour foamy.
Lengthen your beer lines, and implement cooling for your tower.
There are a few DIY threads on HBT on building a cooling fan.
2005STi
Well-Known Member
+1 for lowering the psi. If you have the right amount of line, i.e. 5'-6', then lower the pressure to what ever gets the beer coming out slower with less head. Don't worry about the 12 psi recommended by the manual, it's what ever draws the beer out in the correct manner for serving.
A few questions and possible solutions.
Are you dispensing homebrew or commercial kegs? If homebrew, how are your carbonating? Natural(priming sugar) or force(set and forget or the shake method)? How long are your serving lines? What pressure do you have your regulator set to? Before your first pour how warm is the tap(is it warm or cold)?
The reason I ask is this.
Commercial kegs tend to be carbonated higher than most homebrewers carbonate. If your serving pressure is lower than the carbonation level of the beer you will have CO2 come out of solution. The fix for this is to increase the serving pressure until you do not see bubbles come into the beer line from the keg anymore. Most of us leave the regulators set at around 10-12 psi for homebrew. You will need to match the regulator pressure to the commercial kegs carb level if you use commercial kegs.
Serving line length seems to matter more when you always get a foamy pour as the beer will come out too fast and knock the CO2 out of suspension. Most of us use 10 foot lines to provide resistance to slow the pour down.
If your tap itself is warm, you will notice that especially at first you will get a big foamy start and then the beer will cool the tap and pour well. The fix for this is more difficult as it is hard to cool the taps other than use a fan to circulate air into the tower, or run something like glycol or some metal to conduct cold to the tap to keep the beer in it warm.
Hope this helps.
Are you dispensing homebrew or commercial kegs? If homebrew, how are your carbonating? Natural(priming sugar) or force(set and forget or the shake method)? How long are your serving lines? What pressure do you have your regulator set to? Before your first pour how warm is the tap(is it warm or cold)?
The reason I ask is this.
Commercial kegs tend to be carbonated higher than most homebrewers carbonate. If your serving pressure is lower than the carbonation level of the beer you will have CO2 come out of solution. The fix for this is to increase the serving pressure until you do not see bubbles come into the beer line from the keg anymore. Most of us leave the regulators set at around 10-12 psi for homebrew. You will need to match the regulator pressure to the commercial kegs carb level if you use commercial kegs.
Serving line length seems to matter more when you always get a foamy pour as the beer will come out too fast and knock the CO2 out of suspension. Most of us use 10 foot lines to provide resistance to slow the pour down.
If your tap itself is warm, you will notice that especially at first you will get a big foamy start and then the beer will cool the tap and pour well. The fix for this is more difficult as it is hard to cool the taps other than use a fan to circulate air into the tower, or run something like glycol or some metal to conduct cold to the tap to keep the beer in it warm.
Hope this helps.
