Do you or a friend have another keg of beer you can hook up to your gas line? If so, you might be able to isolate the problem by hooking both kegs up in your fridge for a week. If both kegs foam, might be the regulator or some other shared component. If only one does, then you can start switching parts of the system (e.g. the tap lines, etc.) to see what part is causing the problem.
I had a similar problem, and for reasons I don’t understand ended up having to replace the output poppet.
I vented my keg last night and dialed down the pressure to 4psi and the beer seems to be serving pretty good today. I still get a little more head then what I would like (about more than half head of beer) but I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can do.
The problem still remains though that I don’t know what’s causing this and I don’t want to always have to serve my beers at this level because I would like to serve them to style and because I bought an expensive 3-way regulator to accomplish that.
I guess I’m thinking like someone suggested either there’s something wrong with my dip tube or poppet but won’t know until I crack the keg. I don’t have anyone I know locally with a keg to test so that’s not an option. I guess it could also just be overcarbonated but not sure how that would have happened.
When I carbonated the beer I just did the set it and forget it method and didn’t exceed the 13.34psi for the style. Can you overcabornate your beer in this manner?
Thanks again to all
The only way you could over carbonate the beer the way you did it would be if the temp was colder than you thought or the regulator is wrong. It could be a problem with a dip tube or poppet, or the line.
Still, the way you tested it is flawed. [quote]I vented my keg last night and dialed down the pressure to 4psi and the beer seems to be serving pretty good today
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By venting the keg you released some pressure, but overnight the gas will come out of the beer and you will have pressure in the keg again. You set the regulator to 4 psi, but that is not indicative of the pressure in the keg, just in the regulator. It’s likely that all you did was remove some of the pressure in the keg, but it is probably still above 10 psi depending on how much beer is in it.
My advice is to vent it and begin pouring immediately. It shouldn’t pour at all without pressure, so then you start adding pressure until you like the pour. As it sits though, more gas will come out of solution so even if you like the pour at 8 psi you might not like it tomorrow if enough gas comes out of the beer and raises the pressure in the keg above that.
While you are doing it look at the lines - where does the foam start? If it is foaming coming out of the keg even at very low pressures then I’d lean toward the dip tube/poppet as the problem. If it is liquid in the line but foaming at or partway to the tap, it is most likely that there is too much pressure at the tap, meaning your line diameter/length isn’t restrictive enough.
Once you know at what psi you like the pour you can vent the keg repeatedly to get it down and stable at that psi, or just extend your lines to make up for it.
All,
I get a pretty decent pour at about 6psi. However, I’m seeing bubbles in my line starting from my keg or poppet. Does this mean my beer is overcarbonated or perhaps there’s something wrong with the keg?
Thanks
Bubbles or foam? And is this while you are pouring or when you’ve stopped?
Personally I would vent the keg, take off the post, pull the dip tube and poppet, clean/inspect everything, sanitize, then put it back together and see if it helps. The keg will be fine while you do it, just cover the hole with some sanitized foil while it is open to keep anything from falling in.
If you have a spare poppet you could swap it out - if not, consider switching the gas in and liquid out poppets and see if it helps.
Is it possible that by setting the serving pressure at 6 PSI the beer is out gassing before it equalizes back to its original carbonation level and he’s picking up bubbles in the line from that?
Crap, good point. I think that’s totally possible. It still shouldn’t be foaming, but I think that could definitely be the source of the bubbles right at the keg.
How does it taste - over carbonated, just right, something else?
All,
It was bubbles and I think you’re right about the out gassing as well. Because if I increase the pressure I can see the bubbles move and it appears like the line is clearing.
The beer does taste good at 6psi. I just hate to have to always vent my keg before serving and turn down the pressure. I would like to meet whomever came up with the formula to balance a kegging system because it sure doesn’t seem to work at this point.
I think I need to take Tom’s suggestion next and just crack it open and see if there’s something wrong with the poppet or dip tube. I really have nothing left to troubleshoot except the keg itself and believe it or not I’m getting tired of drinking pints of Hefeweizen every night 
Thanks again
You’re probably tired of talking about this too (not just tired of drinking the beer), but to me it really sounds like your line is just too short for your serving pressure. So IMO either your line isn’t as restrictive as it should be, or your regulator is off. But who knows at this point.
I had this problem in my converted freezer also. I found that the tempeture varied greatly with the distance from the bottom of the freezer. Placing a small fan on the compressor hump equalized the temperature from top to bottom, so now my beer flows nicely as soon as the faucet cools down (about a third glass of foam, subsiquent pours don’t have this problem).
One other thing it could be is a dirty faucet, bit of hops stuck in there.
Thanks,
I recently swapped out my dip tube and ball lock with poppet to rule those out. I’m going to try putting in a 20ft tube next. A bit drastic but we’ll see if that does anything.
I thought it also may be the temp but I’m reading about 38F on top of my keg and you’re right about the temp being colder at the bottom, about 32F from what I can tell. The fan sounds like the next step though. What type of fan are you using? Does it run all the time and how do you have it wired in?
Thanks again
As far as a fan, go get a cheap computer fan. Should only run about $3-4. They take up very little energy, pretty much a cell phone charger’s worth. I have two mounted inside my collar, screwed onto the sides.
With what and how are you powering the fans?
Thanks again
I had an old lava lamp (don’t ask) 12V adapter. I just cut the lap end of the cord and spliced it into the fans and also got a nice on/off switch in the deal. Main thing is to not pump too many volts into the fan as you’ll overload it and pop the circuit. The fans should have a rating on them. Most cell phone chargers will run the fans, but you need a bit more juice then they put out to get nice airflow. Just search your junk drawer for any adapters and try to get as close to the max voltage without going over.
Alert: I’m not an electrician by any means and my verbiage and terms may not be correct, but I hope this gibes you the idea.
So if the beer is 32 F at the bottom of the keg, you likely have a more carbonated beer than you are anticipating based on calculations … then it’s hitting warmer line on it’s way out and outgassing in the line causing foaming …
I had some similar issues when setting up my system. I didn’t struggle with it for too long … just put 2-4 more feet of line on than calculations said I needed and the problem pretty much went away. Not a scientific solution but got me pouring nicely more quickly. Try your 20ft line as you said … you will probably be pouring very slowly but with less foam. Then you can start shortening the tubing a foot at a time until you get the right pour.
– Scott