All foam no beer

[p1u1n1x1]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum and it seems like most of you own purpose built kegerators but maybe you can help me anyway. I just bought a used home-built kegerator setup a few days ago and taped my first keg last night but got about 90% foam on every pour. The keg sat in the fridge for a day before serving and the beer in the glass is coming out at around 40 degrees F. I took the CO2 line off and bled the pressure and then re-attached it with the regulator set to 0 and a tiny trickle of beer came out just from the keg pressure, but if I turn the regulator up even just to 2 psi it starts to come out really foamy and at 2 psi it will fill the glass about 50% with foam. At 12psi it fills the glass in about 2 seconds with almost all foam. The seals on the keg and on the tap look pretty good and I'm sure the regulator is accurate and working fine...anyone have any ideas?

[p1u1n1x1]

P.S. I'm going to post pics of my setup but I cant find the charger for my camera right now and the batteries are dead.

[BrewGuru]

Welcome to the forums, congrats on converting to draft beer at home.

It sounds like you have several issues, the first one to address is the temperature of your beer, which is a little on the warm side, see if you can't push that liquid temperature down to 38 or 36 degrees.

The second is your pressure, as counterintuitive as it might sound, the warmer the beer in the keg is above 36-38, the MORE pressure you will need to apply in order avoid foamy beer, you have to counter the existing pressure in the beer, and avoid undercarbonation, for 40 deg, if you are drinking a lighter lager, I would set the regulator to 15 psi, and see how that works for you.

Also keep in mind that your changes may not take effect instantly, the system needs to balance, and the pint you pour immediately after adjusting something doesn't always tell you what your adjustment did, due to the beer in the line, varying temperature, etc...

Additionally, ensure that your lines are CLEAN, or better yet, replace them - if your lines are short, and if you can, order from MM one of the long brushes and some line cleaner, and go to town on your line, dirty beer lines can lead to foaming issues at least as often as any temperature or pressure issues.

Good luck!

[cubby_swans]

Originally Posted by p1u1n1x1

Hello, this is my first post on this forum and it seems like most of you own purpose built kegerators but maybe you can help me anyway. I just bought a used home-built kegerator setup a few days ago and taped my first keg last night but got about 90% foam on every pour. The keg sat in the fridge for a day before serving and the beer in the glass is coming out at around 40 degrees F. I took the CO2 line off and bled the pressure and then re-attached it with the regulator set to 0 and a tiny trickle of beer came out just from the keg pressure, but if I turn the regulator up even just to 2 psi it starts to come out really foamy and at 2 psi it will fill the glass about 50% with foam. At 12psi it fills the glass in about 2 seconds with almost all foam. The seals on the keg and on the tap look pretty good and I'm sure the regulator is accurate and working fine...anyone have any ideas?

How long is the beer line from the coupler to the shank? It should be at least 5ft of 3/16 ID hose. Shorter lines give you faster pours, longer lines give you slower pours. You state that the glass fills up in about 2 seconds at 12 PSI. Way too fast. 12PSI is probably ideal for whatever your serving. I would try replaceing the beer line with a 10 footer, and then, if it's pouring too slowly, you can trim a foot at a time off as you see fit. If you can't find a local store that sells beer line, you can order it by the foot from micromatic's beer equipment store on this site.

[p1u1n1x1]

I'm going to replace the line with a longer one and see what happens, The line on there now is really short, like just over three feet.

[p1u1n1x1]

the line that was on there was 1/4 inch id which I replaced with 3/16 and about 8 feet of it. I'm letting everything settle and cool back down and in a few hours I'll try it out and report back on the results.

[p1u1n1x1]

So, since I have followed a lot your advice I discovered a few things about the setup I bought used:
My keg was at 43 degrees
the tubing was crusty and 1/4 inch from the keg to the tap, and only three feet long.

Now I replaced the line with 8 feet(too long, but I can trim it later) of fresh shiny 3/16, cranked the thermo waay down(I'm getting 39 now, but We'll see in the morning if I turned it too far) And now I'm getting perfect pours with about 1/2 inch of head at the top and it doesn't go flat before I finish the pint.

[BrewGuru]

Glad to hear things are working well for you! Clean / New lines are always a good thing.

[p1u1n1x1]

I am floored to see what a huge difference just a few small tweaks made, i guess that's why there is a forum!