Beer at Altitude Issue

[richnell]

Greetings
I am a new proud owner of a kegurator, but its giving me some issues.
Here's the setup
36F
5 ft of 3/16ths beer hose
double guage reg.
4/18th shank with 3/16 bore
The tap is at the same height as the keg coupler, and although i have 5 ft of line, in reality the tap is only a ft. away.
My brother seems to think i should have my PSI set waaay low, around 4-6. but everything I am reading here seems to indicate otherwise.
I get head on my first beer real bad, like say 75% foam, second beer i'd say around 20% which i can deal with.
I've also noticed that after its sat idle over night there is air in the beer line near the shank.
I've currently got it set at 12psi. But I have no idea if that is right. I reside at 9000ft above sea level.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to read my inquiry.
Rich
Frisco, CO

[Scott Zuhse]

Is the 36 degrees the temp. of the beer? What product are you dispensing. Higher pressures are required for your elevation. You may need to have a longer beer line due to the higher PSIG. Get back to us with more info and we can instruct you on set up.

Scott Zuhse, Instructor Micro Matic Dispense Institute

[richnell]

dispensing coors light, and the fridge is at 36, and the beer has been in there a while so i'd say, yeah, its 36 also.
cheers, and thanks for getting back so fast!

[EastVailChutes]

I live at 8700 ft (Vail, CO) and I had the pleasure of troubleshooting my kegerator for MONTHS. I kept getting glass of foam after glass of foam.

The end issue is the pressure. I set my pressure at 5-7 psi depending upon the beer and that has fixed the problem. I realized this after I cleaned the beer lines a hundred times and troubleshooted everythinge else, because the "normal" advise regarding psi is so clear. But the advice doesn't pay adequate attention to ALTITUDE!

The issue is that when you dispense the beer at altitude, there is much less pressure pushing down on the beer to hold in the CO2 than there is at sea level. So what happens? Woosh, lots of the CO2 bubbles out of the beer and you get your glass of foam.

So set your pressure low. WAAAAY low.