Foamy beer, no solutions

[McClellandBrew]

I recently kegged my homebrew and cannot get it to spit out good ol' beer...only foam and more foam. I feel as if I have tried everything.
My kegerator is sitting just below 40F, my beer line is 5+ feet. I have tried every level of psi from 1 to 12 with only 1-2 psi working. Everything is tight and secured. I have a beer tower cooler. It is not over-carbonated (at least it doesn't taste as such at all). Beer tastes great once foam settles, but why can't I get a consistent beer flow. Beer after beer is foam. I drank 5 beers that had settled last night just trying every possible thing, got drunk and still couldn't figure out what the problem is.
My only solution as of now is to keep at 10-12psi and when I want to serve, drop the pressure, purge the keg and serve at 2 psi....Lame.
Has anyone had this problem in the past?

On a side note, it only works at 1-2 psi using an old black spicket that we had all used in high school kegs. When hooked up to my beer tower tap/faucet, it spits out only foam at a slow rate.

Any help or guidance out there?

 

[Yooper]

I think 10-12' lines (3/16") will solve your problem as long as the tower is cooled.

 

[billl]

You can't tell if a beer is overcarbed by drinking the remains of a glass of foam. The carbonation already escaped. Hence all the foam.

+1 to longer lines. 5ft is generally too short for a kegerator.

 

[conneryis007]

I would go with longer lines regardless of what this problem is and it could just be a line to short issue.

Sounds more like an overcarbonation issue to me. Tell us about your exact carbonation process for this keg.

 

[McClellandBrew]

I charged it at 35 psi for about 30 hours, turned off the gas, purged, set at 10psi and let it ride out for 3-4 more days, purged and serve. I have done this method in the past and has worked well. I did get a new hose that screws on to the keg tap and faucet so I thought that might be the reason, but the black spicket is doing the same thing

 

[IPA-Hole]

Could be your faucet. Make sure your faucet is wide open when you dispense. A person's first reaction will be to slow the release of the beer, trying to mitigate the foaming but that actually makes it worse. If it continues, swap out the faucet. Everything else sounds correct.

 

[Bobby_M]

I charged it at 35 psi for about 30 hours, turned off the gas, purged, set at 10psi and let it ride out for 3-4 more days, purged and serve. I have done this method in the past and has worked well. I did get a new hose that screws on to the keg tap and faucet so I thought that might be the reason, but the black spicket is doing the same thing

First, you're seeing the dark side of burst/rush/hurry carbing. That beer is overcarbed and your serving line is too short. What's the inside diameter of the tubing and exactly how long is it? 5+ feet could be 5.25 or 10.

 

[McClellandBrew]

3/16" The beer line is 5 feet exactly but is connected to another foot long stainless steel tube 3/16" inside the tower. 6 feet from tap to faucet.
I have done this same rushed carbing technique in the past which has worked out pretty well, or was still somewhat flat after 5 days.

 

[McClellandBrew]

If it happens to be overcarbed, how long would you say it takes to return to normal carbonation? Using the "shut off gas and continuously purge every few hours" method?

 

[JuanMoore]

If it happens to be overcarbed, how long would you say it takes to return to normal carbonation? Using the "shut off gas and continuously purge every few hours" method?

Depends on how overcarbed it is. Could be less than a day, or a few days.

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

I used this keg balance calculator and it worked wonders for me.
http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/kegbalance.shtml
I used to get all foam and flat beer, but it turned out my lines were actually too long for my system. This calculator takes into account pressure, line length, tower height, and line resistance. In your case (39F), you need 12 psi to make 2.5 volumes of CO2. Depending on the height from the middle of your keg to the top of the tower, you can either lengthen or shorten your beer hose to properly balance your system.

 

[JuanMoore]

I used this keg balance calculator and it worked wonders for me.
http://www.iancrockett.com/brewing/info/kegbalance.shtml
I used to get all foam and flat beer, but it turned out my lines were actually too long for my system. This calculator takes into account pressure, line length, tower height, and line resistance. In your case (39F), you need 12 psi to make 2.5 volumes of CO2. Depending on the height from the middle of your keg to the top of the tower, you can either lengthen or shorten your beer hose to properly balance your system.

Lines that are "too long" won't cause foaming or flat beer, the only thing they do is cause a slightly slower pour. The calculator you linked will only give you the length that will result in a flow rate of 1gal/min (~7.5 sec pint fill). The problem is that the warmer or more carbonated the beer is, the slower the pour needs to be to prevent foaming. Homebrewers tend to prefer slightly warmer serving temps, and using lengths like that calculator suggests usually results in a foamy mess. The only line balancing calculator I've seen that accounts for the different line resistance of varied flow rates is this one here- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApGb-vIKLq7FdGtzN3BrY2xZSldORzQ2bHVVX0hzaEE#gid=0

The only tricky part is figuring out the pint fill speed to input that won't cause foaming. The calculators like you linked all claim to give the "ideal" line length, but IMO a longer line that allows serving at a much wider range of carbonation levels and temperatures is much more ideal for the average homebrewer. I'd suggest at least a 10 sec pint fill for some system flexibility, but YMMV.

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

Yes, too long of lines Can be problematic. In using longer lines, the temperature and/or backpressure need to changed accordingly. In my case, I wanted to keep the keg pressure the same and my fridge temp was set already. Easiest thing to do was to change the line length.

 

[Bobby_M]

People will argue this point forever. You have a couple hundred people here regularly posting that the calculators are errant in many cases and that running longer lines fixed up their problems immediately. Somehow relatively new keggers will continually refer to the calculators because math must be more accurate than empirical evidence. I'm kind of at the point where I don't want to argue about it anymore. If you have 5' lines and foam, it can't be that the line is too short. It must be something else. Keep looking.

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

I'm just saying that it's not only line length, but dependent on temperature and pressure too. Increasing line length will usually solve the problem, but not always, depending on the other conditions.

 

[IPA-Hole]

Just goes to show you, whenever guys get to talking, the argument always comes down to length.

 

[Echoloc8]

To throw in my inflation-adjusted $0.02, if you're starting off with overcarbed beer, no amount of line-length fiddling will help. And you probably are, since you used the speed-carb method.

I was convinced that I had a line-length problem (self-built kegerator, 5-foot lines came with my tower), but when all was said and done the only thing that helped was shutting off the gas and burping my keg every 8-12 hours for a few days. When it came to equilibrium, suddenly five feet of tubing was just dandy. Poured perfectly every time, warm or cold.

Bobby_M is right (and he should be, he wrote the sticky). There is a dark side to the 30+-lbs-for-n-hours technique. I recommend the OP burp his keg over a few days and see whether everything just works better from there.

I wish I'd listened to this advice sooner: because of my line-length goofing around, the first two-thirds of my EdWort's-IPA keg came out foamy and having to settle out before drinking, which definitely detracted from my enjoyment of it. That last third was sublime, though.

-Rich

 

[Darwin18]

Also the "shake and burst" method is notorious for causing foaming and over-carbonation. In addition to the longer lines, I would recommend trying the "set and forget" method. Set the PSI to serving pressure, set the kegerator to serving temperature, and walk away for two weeks. The extra benefit is that this also effectively cold crashes your beer as well, helping with clarity.

 

[JuanMoore]

Yes, too long of lines Can be problematic. In using longer lines, the temperature and/or backpressure need to changed accordingly.

Yes they can be problematic, but the only "problem" they can create is a slow pour. The temperature and/or backpressure absolutely do not need to be changed just because the lines are longer (unless you're stuck on the concept of mandating some arbitrary flow rate).

I'm just saying that it's not only line length, but dependent on temperature and pressure too. Increasing line length will usually solve the problem, but not always, depending on the other conditions.

Agreed, but that's not at all what you were saying above.

 

[McClellandBrew]

Any guidance/experience out there?

I have homebrew (an IPA) in my kegerator now. I've spent hours and many beers trying to figure out this over foamed beer problem. I thought I had over carbonated it a month a go. De-carbed it, recarbed at 10psi for two weeks (the old set it and forget it method) My kegerator is sitting around 40 degrees. My beer line is 6ft (5ft connected to a 1 ft stainless steel tower tube). The tube is 3"16. I have a tower cooler. Everything is sealed tight with rubber washers where needed. No leaks.
I've tried serving it at 2, 8, 10 and 12 psi. Still all foam
Everything seems to be checked, and rechecked. Should be perfect.

I've never had this problem in the past.

Any other ideas on what this could be?

The only thing I can think of is using this old blue moon keg. Maybe something is just faulty with the keg.
Hmm...

 

[JuanMoore]

Check the liquid side diptube oring.

 

[acidrain]

My beer line is 6ft (5ft connected to a 1 ft stainless steel tower tube). The tube is 3"16.

Have you always used the added ss tube? Beer doesn't like to run into wide and thin areas while flowing in a line.

This thread has been active for awhile now, have you tried lengthening your lines yet?