Are there certain ingredients in beers or certain brewing circumstances that cause some beers to pour excessive foam? Is there something in the recipe that could be changed to avoid excessive foam in the finished product? Or is there another problem?
I’ve seen this question posted many times and I know all the answers by heart BUT…now it’s happening to me. It is like the friction of the beer traveling though the beer line causes the CO2 to come out of solution.
I have an APA that will not pour without yielding half foam. Now here is my setup… I have 2 taps with 8 ft. of beer line on one side and 10 ft. on the other. Both pour this beer foamy and flat. I’ve also tried with a cheap plastic cobra fitting. I’ve changed pressure, changed temperature, de-gassed, changed out all the fittings, etc.
I force carb at high psi 30 for one day and then burp and set the pressure to 14 to finish. This has worked very well for as long as I’ve been serving beer. BUT not with this cursed beer. Any comments?
I might also suggest that the pressure is a bit high, at least for me. I set around 8 PSI for around 38F and have had good results. The occasional beer gets a bit foamy, but usually for the reasons that Steve is pointing out.
I would try a pour with the pressure reduced to about 7 or 8, burp the keg and see if the pour improves.
I’m having the exact same problem with the exact same style of beer. It’s my first kegging experience. I did dry hop, so I might have to do what Steve suggests and see if I have a clog somewhere.
If you are going to pull apart the post, be careful or the wife may get mad. I normally bleed all the gas and leave the prv open. Even with that a bit spouts out, so have a towel ready.
I push my beers are 12 and they are normally fine with 10 foot lines. I do normally double fist with the first glass getting slightly warmer foam from the line and the second getting a perfect pour.
+1 to both above as I too use 10’ lines at 38oF at 10psi with great pours. When you have changed pressure, degassed, etc have you allowed for enough time for the keg to equalize before the next pour, if not you may still be slightly overcarbonated. Otherwise I too would suggest you have something disrupting the flow to the tap.
I did only wait about an hour or so before I retried the beer, I’ll test it again tonight. I also am only running a 2’ line if that makes a difference.
2’ of 3/16th line really at any temperature is just way to short to get any sort of decent pour, you’ll need to get longer lines. I like and use BevFlex as a recommendation. I would start with 10-12’, you can always shorten the length if needed:)
I see. Looks like I’ve been duped by my LHBS. I bought a kit with all the lines C02 tank regulator and remanufactured keg. I had no idea what a proper length would be but I’ll be making another trip up there.
You might have a temperature issue, is there a tower? If the lines in the tower are warmer than the beer in the keg you will get a very foamy first pour until the colder beer begins to flow on subsequent pours. A simple small fan to better circulate the air usually will solve this.
Yep, that’s what I was getting at too. Really common in a tower, but even a freezer with a collar has a significant temp difference from bottom to top. The first pour is cooling everything down.
Yeah I have a tower kegerator and it’s a challenge. I bought a tower cooler for the warm months and it helps. Obviously don’t need it now though. I bet the beer is in the mid 30s now (kegerator in garage). A$$ freezing cold this week.
Exactly, when I had a tower it was a PITA to try and equalize, now with my Keezer its better but really took a lot of insulation on the collar and I’m still going to probably add a small fan to circulate the air
I added insulation to my collar after my kegs ran dry while I was converting to electric. Filling 2 kegs tomorrow, should be able to test it soon. I’m wondering now if colllar itself combined with the face board is warming the beer in the shank immediately before pouring. Only way to fix that would be to make a large cutout in the collar to expose more of the shank to the freezer… doesn’t sound like a fun fix.
The temp issue makes sense. I have a little 2-tap kegerator in the house. My IPAs almost always pour foaming partly through the first fill. Other beers, not so much. Still run at the same temps as my keezer just to keep things more or less equal. I added one of the little kegerator muffin fans that have a 1" hose attached to push chilly air into the tower. It helps some, but not completely. I finally bought the perlick taps with the flow valves so I can restrict the IPAs more than the darker beers (speaking in generality).
I tried this beer in 2 kegerators with cooling towers and a walk in fridge. Still more foam than beer. The real problem is not serving a beer with a larger head, it’s that the beer de-carbonates when there is a big head.
The carbonation releases to give you a flat beer with a huge head of foam.
Hmmm, the big foamy head shouldn’t be degassing the beer to the point that its then flat. Once the head dissipates do you still see bubbles rising in he beer?