I have recently finished my kegerator project (I will post some pics as soon as I can get ahold of a nice camera), and have been enjoying rye pale ale and oaked porter of my own making. I have been kegging for 8 or 9 years now, and this is my second custom build. While there was some downtime in upgrading my brewing system, I decided to purchase a keg of Deschutes Chain Breaker to keep the beer flowing on the kegerator - this is the first time I have ever bought a keg for my personal kegerator consumption.
I seem to get a ridiculous amount of foam from this configuration. This is on the same line and pressure that I was serving my rye pale on, and I’m not sure what to do. My pressure is 8-10 psi for serving and I am using 1/4" polyethylene, which wasn’t an issue for my homebrewed Cornies. I have noticed when opening the system after pouring a foamy pint, that there seems to be gas/bubbles trapped near the beer tap (top of the keg coupler, with the ball-lock adapter), which slowly seems to fill up as I stare at it.
I noticed that there was some interference with the top of the beer line connector/line, and the lid of the keezer, but this problem seems to still occur when I pour a pint with the line open (so the lid does not touch the beer line/tap). I’m starting to assume that there is an issue with my particular choice of coupler and ball-lock adapter. As I said, the same line and pressure was not an issue on my corny keg…
Does anyone have experience with this transition or the finer differences between Sankey and Corny valves/plumbing, and what I should be looking at?
I bought a keg of SN Pale Ale once and had a hell of a time with it foaming up. It turned out I had shaken it up properly while transporting it home. I understand why bartenders use hand trucks, even when they’re just moving 1/6 barrel kegs. Let it sit still for a couple of days and hopefully the co2 will go back into solution. At least that’s what worked for me…that one time…
I hope this helps. I look forward to seeing kegerator pics!
I’m not sure that the bubbles in the line are the problem. My guess is that is a high point in the line and the bubbles in the beer simply gravitate to there.
Try releasing the pressure on the keg to make sure you’re serving at the PSI your set at. The keg might have a higher pressure. Your Sanke coupler should have a PRV on the side.
Then, I’d start super low on the serving pressure and bring it up to where you’re pouring as you like it.
While it is possible that the trip home agitated some CO2 out of solution, it shouldn’t be overpressured from the brewery. I did try venting from the PRV on the coupler yesterday, with the gas line disconnected. Not much gas came out, and I wasn’t able to get any beer out this way. Further suggesting it’s not the keg pressure.
However, I don’t have any better theories at the moment, so I’m going to be patient and hope it settles. I’ll need to be more attentive next time I try some pours, and I’ll report back, but that won’t be at least until midday…
When you hook it back up, start at 5psi or so and bring the pressure up until you get a pour you want.
When I hook up to Sanke kegs for our block party, I usually pour at around 5psi. I have maybe 5 feet of line on the tap. Much higher and I get foam. That keg gets moved around a fair bit the day of the party.