Kegerator foam and dispense speed problems

[hophit]

It's been anwhile but hoping for some advice. I have set up a keg system and tap and having two problems and have read forum after forum and advice after advice and can't solve my problem:

1) beer is dispensing WAY TO FAST
2) just getting a shed load of foam

So, beer temp is 5c. Beer line length is 2m. Carbonated and rested at 12psi. I have tried reducing this to 4 psi for serving but
Not solving problem. Beer faucet is CMB v2, but no flow control on it. Can't find any instructions for this faucet online other than a parts diagram.

Have posted a few pics if that helps

I just don't understand why it is pouring so quickly and foamy. Any advice appreciated as I am at wits end, frustrated after spending a load of money, wasting beer and having to resist urge not to take a sledge hanmer to the whole bloody set up!

1

[Fil]

with just 2m of 3/8" beerline there is practically no restriction of the keg pressure so at the tap the pressure gradient (or difference) 12-0 =12!! which is a dramatic change. Aim for circa 1 or less dramaitic changes in pressure/temperature etc are known to stimulate foam out or a catastrophic dumping of abb absorbed co2

the cheapest and simplest anti fobbing solution is to employ a length of 3/16" microline which iirc will reduce the pressure at a rate of 1-2psi per foot length, closer to 1 psi for the 1st foot growing with each subsiquent foot..
fwiw i have a length of circa 5 foot inline on my Hi conditioned tap which serves fine with keg pressures upto 15psi

[hophit]

Thanks Fil. Do I just replace the 3/8" beer line with the finer 3/16"gauge line ? Is the outer diameter the same so it fits the same fittings etc?

[Fil]

Thanks Fil. Do I just replace the 3/8" beer line with the finer 3/16"gauge line ? Is the outer diameter the same so it fits the same fittings etc?

Its much thinner so some adaptors 3/8" to 3/16" would be needed, beer/gas line is measured by its outside diameter as its a 'tube'

its also much more malleable in that it can be coiled up quite neatly too.

when used its very common for the beer at the 'low pressure end' of the tube to start to shed some condition and create gas bubbles in the line, this is a 'feature' of the cheap n cheerful anti fobbing precautions, not a problem, and results in a splutter of about a 1/4 a pint of foam (10 ml? of beer) into the first glass of an evenings pour, just chuck this, as you know a large volume of foam settles out to about bugger all beer. fwiw befor i found jims i was trying to pour from my corny with an attach to keg tap with no line between the keg n tap, so know all about pouring jugs of foam to recoup a mouthful of flat brew..

tried to find a ebay link .. everything but.. our local hbs is online and sells jg fittings @ stonehelm.co.uk
friendly folk and generally have a knowledgeable brewer on staff on fridays n saturdays (Stephan) and will gladly field a phone call (well have answered all my calls....)

look for 3/8" stem to 3/16" jg fittings you can then shove the 3/8" stem bit into your current 3/8" jg adaptors (if used).

Norm is a well known and respected corny keg and sundry supplier normansplace@hotmail.com

and iirc @JonnyConga if i spelt the monika correctly has some corny supplies for sale too??

[IPA]

I use 60 cm of 7mm line to dispense with no foaming. If your beer foams it is simply because it is over carbonated and any suggested means to reduce the foam are just ways to get round this problem. You say that you carbonated at 12 lb did you kill the residual yeast in the beer before doing this? I am guessing the answer is no and so the yeast will continue to ferment the residual sugars in the beer thereby producing co2 to add to that which you have introduced. You can get away with over carbonation in bottles and barrels with taps but not with cornie kegs. The simple way to check this is to bottle some, or all, of your next brew and after conditioning open a bottle and listen does it "pop" or just a slight "hiss". Then ask yourself if you have ever heard a bottle of commercial beer "pop" ?
Please believe me I am trying to be helpful and not critical because I have had the same problems. It took me many years of brewing before I realised that I was bottling/barreling too early.

[Fil]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-16-Beer-Lin ... rmvSB=true

[hophit]

Thanks both for advice. OK, so this is the conclusion I have come to:

1) Differential pressure at tap is the problem - makes perfect sense to me (I suppose it's a bit like when you open a bottle of pop too quickly and the whole thing quickly foams over). I have purchased a couple of meters of 3/16" beer line and in-line conversion connectors. I'll splice this into the beer line inside the fridge, between the tap and keg, coiling up the extra line length. Will start longer, see what the flow rate is like and cut down to achieve desired flow rate. Copper Kettle Home-brewing had the parts so ordered online from them - should arrive tomorrow.

1) It may be a little over-carbonated but I doubt it and won't be from incomplete fermentation. Fermentation cycled nicely, all the OG/FG figures are as expected etc., it fermented out in a week and has been cold crashed at 0.1C for a couple of weeks prior to kegging - so unlikely it would continue fermenting after being transferred (still cold) to a cold keg. Never had an incomplete fermentation problem before (well I did once when I first started brewing and hadn't oxygenated the wort sufficiently!). Even if I did over-carb it a bit from the CO2 tank, I tried de-carbing it a lot (down to 5psi for 24 hours) and still fobbing at tap...

3) I still want to get the flow rate down. Short of buying a new faucet with a flow control (£££), seems like extending line with 3/16" is the best/most economical way I can do that.

Thanks again for advice - will report back how the solution turns out...

[Fil]

dalex style flow control taps are ok with keg pressures upto 6-8 psi @ 8psi and above (on my regs) they become tricky or impossible to set at the sweet spot requiering a tweek each pour, the perlik?pertlick? US style chromed taps with flow control appear to fare better with higher pressures according to reports ive read but then you need to get into spout capping and flushing with a squeezy bottle ..

[orlando]

A little known, or talked about issue (fil has to be fair), is how straight the cut is at the end of your "tube". The usual tubing used is very difficult to cut square and as a result provides nucleation points for the beer to foam before it even reaches the end of your tap. The best cure for this is to use some platinum cured silicon tube from Silex. I went for the 5mm OD and it works brilliantly and is so much more flexible than the standard stuff.

My other tip is of course to carbonate much less, pull the prv to get rid of excess gas before pouring and only add more as the pour slows.

[IPA]

A little known, or talked about issue (fil has to be fair), is how straight the cut is at the end of your "tube". The usual tubing used is very difficult to cut square and as a result provides nucleation points for the beer to foam before it even reaches the end of your tap. The best cure for this is to use some platinum cured silicon tube from Silex. I went for the 5mm OD and it works brilliantly and is so much more flexible than the standard stuff.

My other tip is of course to carbonate much less, pull the prv to get rid of excess gas before pouring and only add more as the pour slows.

One more tip. If your out tube is the bent type always make sure that it hasn't twisted sideways on tightening the post and is touching the bottom of the keg. As this also creates a nucleation point. I find it useful to shorten the out tube by about 7mm to prevent this happening.

[selly]

Hi I've set up my first kegerator recently so have read a lot about the subject. From my reading you first need to understand the carbonation levels you have in your beer from when it was first carbonated there are tables available online for this . This is established by knowing the
temp of beer and pressure set on the regulator whilst the beer was carbonating. Assuming the beer was left sufficiently long enough to carbonate to saturation level I.e at the psi set on the regulator so that no more gas could dissolve into the beer. Once you know this you need to look up the data of beer line internal diameters and lengths to determine the required length and ID to drop the pressure at the tap to something close to 1 psi. The "dispense" pressure could be dropped to help with this but should be dialled back up to the the level you used to achieve your desired carbonation level once you are done serving beer for the day. This will keep the gas headspace above the beer and carbonation in the beer at equilibrium. What you don't want is gas coming out of the beer into the headspace as then the beer carbonation will be inconsistent. Personally I use 5/16 OD beer line 9 foot in length and have current beer carbonated to 2.25 atm at 7 C I keep the regulator set to 9 psi at all times and all is well. I'm currently building a CPU fan based air blower to keep my beer tower taps and pipes cool as this is another source of foaming issues for those of us with beer towers. Hope that helps