FOAM -- Another question

[beerdrinker13]

I have a question. After I installed a fan with an air tube going up into my beer tower, I noticed that another fan would be required inside the kegerator to circulate the air. I taped the fan to the very top of my keg, blowing right on my beer line that I have coiled up on top of my keg. I put a digital thermometer on the top of the keg. I'm now getting a temp reading of 36 degrees at the bottom of the kegerator, but i'm getting a 32 degree reading at the top of the keg, right at the area where the beer line is coiled up. My therory is, maybe i'm getting excessive foam in all my beer pours, because the air going from the tube up into the beer tower, is drawing the 36 degree temp from the bottom of the kegerator. And the temp of the coiled up beer line of top of the keg is only 32 degrees, creating a temperature difference between the beer line inside of the beer tower, and the coiled beer line on top of the keg. Anyone have any suggestions on where I should place my fan at to try to get a 36 degree readout at the top of my kegerator? Also, I'm using a 7 ft, 3/16 beer line and i'm still getting a fast pour. Should I increase my beer line to maybe 10 ft and then go from there? I am getting a beer temp readout of 36 degrees, with my psi set at 15, and I'm using coors light. Thanks for all the help and advice!

[lunkhead]

Originally Posted by beerdrinker13

I have a question. After I installed a fan with an air tube going up into my beer tower, I noticed that another fan would be required inside the kegerator to circulate the air. I taped the fan to the very top of my keg, blowing right on my beer line that I have coiled up on top of my keg. I put a digital thermometer on the top of the keg. I'm now getting a temp reading of 36 degrees at the bottom of the kegerator, but i'm getting a 32 degree reading at the top of the keg, right at the area where the beer line is coiled up. My therory is, maybe i'm getting excessive foam in all my beer pours, because the air going from the tube up into the beer tower, is drawing the 36 degree temp from the bottom of the kegerator. And the temp of the coiled up beer line of top of the keg is only 32 degrees, creating a temperature difference between the beer line inside of the beer tower, and the coiled beer line on top of the keg. Anyone have any suggestions on where I should place my fan at to try to get a 36 degree readout at the top of my kegerator? Also, I'm using a 7 ft, 3/16 beer line and i'm still getting a fast pour. Should I increase my beer line to maybe 10 ft and then go from there? I am getting a beer temp readout of 36 degrees, with my psi set at 15, and I'm using coors light. Thanks for all the help and advice!

I would point the circulation fan down if it's mounted on top of the keg, and at the cooling plate if it's rear mounted. This will mix the upper and lower air and hopefully give you a more even temp inside. I use the excess air out of my blower and have it aimed up, blowing up the cooling plate, blower is bottom mounted. As for the coors light the pressure sounds about right, 15-16psi so you may want to legthen the line to 10 ft and then shorten as required if needed.

[beerdrinker13]

lunkhead, thanks for the advice! I did decide to take the fan directly off of the keg(figured maybe it was blowing too much air onto my coiled up beer line) and I taped the fan on the side of the kegerator, at the same height as the top of my keg, and pointed the fan in the direction of my beer line that's coiled up on my keg. In no time, my temp at the top of my keg is now the same as the bottom, so I feel like that is a victory! So, now I have to try to get down to the foam problem that i'm still having, even after getting the temp the same between the top and bottom of the kegerator, and the beer temp on my 2nd pour. I'm going to go from my 7 ft beer line up to a 10 ft and see if that solves the problem. Would a 7 ft beer line really be the cause of excessive foam? My beer is comming kind of fast out of the tap, but could a longer line that would slow down the pour, also create foam, or would it help? The only other things I can think of is, maybe there's not enough return air getting back down into the kegerator from the beer tower(I probably have a 1 1/2 inch hole going up the beer tower on my Kenmore Kegerator, but with my 1 inch air tube and my 3/16 beer line, it's a little cramped up there, but I do feel air comming back down if I place my hand over the hole! I'm very afraid to do any kind of drilling to the unit, to make the hole bigger, as I don't want to ruin anything!) Or 2, maybe my regulator on my gas gauge is reading 15 psi, but maybe putting out more pressure than 15? The regulator is a single gauge that came with the Kenmore Kegerator, and I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do to check the accuracy of the regulator? I heard something about using a digital tire gauge, but I have no clue what I need to do! Also, could replacing the faucet that came on the Kenmore Kegerator maybe help with the problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!

[lunkhead]

I can't say for sure that going to a 10ft line will help, but it can be shortened if needed. If I remember correctly there may be a "type of faucet" issue with Coors too. Might try a search forum on this. Just seems a bit more finickey than most beers.

[beerdrinker13]

Wow, sure enough going from a 7ft beer line to a 10 ft beer line finally did the trick for me! Slower pours, and no more excessive foam! After wasting my first 2 kegs by pouring so much foam down the drain, I ordered a 10 ft beer line, tapped a keg of miller lite, dialed the beer temp in at 38 with my psi set at 14, and so far, it's working great! Beer is slower coming out of the faucet, and I really don't have much of a head at all, but the beer is tasting good, and it sure beats wasting so much beer with all the foam! Thanks for all the help and advice, this forum is a lifesaver!

[leif189]

@Beer_Hunter...

I am here in Denver with a Keg of Bud Light until I get the damn settings right. I am running a Danby with the resistor mod in place with 2 cpu fans keeping a cool 36-38 pour temp @15psi. I am wondering how long your Beer hose is and what kind of pressure do you run at this altitude? I still end up with a 3/4 cup of foam on every pour.

Thanks to all of the help from everyone on the forum.

Leif