Newbie Question regarding foam & beer line length

[jimpod]

Greetings All,

Bought a Vissani kegerator last weekend from my local HD on clearance for less then $300. KNowing nothing about kegerators (other then they keep kegs cold and have a faucet) I stopped and got beer on the way home, set it up, threw the 1/6 inside and opened the faucet...

So as you can guess, I had a foam issue... and after it was still happening Sunday night I started doing some googling... which led me to this wonderful site! I've already read a TON on here and have figured out a bunch of my mistakes.

After I got the temperature & psi correctly set my first beers had been above 38 and mostly foam. I had been getting 2nd beer temps of 38 degrees and a proper amount of foam. I've got the parts to install a tower cooler, which I plan on doing as soon as I finish the keg I have on tap.

However last night, I had 4-5 beers, some poured two at a time and all of them were 3/4 foam (or more). The beer seems to come out of the tap really fast, as I can fill a pint glass in about 3-4 seconds. My thoughts are that the time this 1st keg has been kept too cold, then warmed up to 38 combined with the time it spent over pressurized (was around 20 psi the 1st night) then under pressurized (around 9-10 psi for 24 hours) has taken its toll on the beer.

I've read a bunch on here about needing 8-10 ft of 3/16th ID beer line vs the 5ft that my setup came with. However when I went to the store on this site they talk about how 5 ft is the ideal length for 3/16 id...

So my question is should I indeed be using 8-10 ft of beer line in my setup to help control the flow speed?

[jimpod]

Just poured two beer back to back. Both mostly foam that eventually settles out. I checked the temp of the 2nd beer (liquid only I quickly scooped out the foam) and got a temp reading of 40, so it looks like when I turned the fridge temp down because it was too cold it took the beer in the keg 3+ days to slowly warm up to its current temp - which is too warm.

Turned the fridge temp down slightly and gonna wait till after 5 before I pull another beer. Hopefully the 2nd beer temp is back down to 38.

But my question about whether I should put the longer beer line in still stands...

Thanks in advance!!

[cubby_swans]

What's your elevation, above sea level? Pressure settings need to be adjusted for elevations above 2000'. +1 psi per 2000 feet above sea level.

What kind of beer is it?

You really shouldn't need more than 5' of beer line unless you're serving a high carbed beer that requires a higher pressure, or you live at a higher altitude, which requires a higher pressure. Longer line only restricts the flow of the beer. So if your beer is pouring fine, a longer line will slow it down. If you're dispensing foam, a longer line will only serve to dispense the foam slower.

[jimpod]

I live about 500 or so ft above sea level (eastern pa) so that shouldn't be an issue. I've got Victory Hopdevil (IPA) on tap, which has a 2.65 v/v. After I'd discovered that info on Monday I'd set the psi gauge to 12. Before that it had been set on 9-10 for about 24 hours and the 1st night it was 16-20ish while I tried to get the pressure down.

I should note that if I watch the beer flow, it runs foam for the very beginning then turns to only beer. But because it fills the pint so fast by time it switches to clear beer I only get 1-2 seconds before I have to turn it off so the foam doesn't overflow.

Also when I pour a beer or two the pressure gauge drops a few pounds (typically a lb per beer). Is that normal, and how long should it take for the pressure to equalize again??

PS - Cubby your signature is the greatest thing I've ever read.

[cubby_swans]

The foam followed by clear beer is an indicator that your tower is too warm. You need to add a tower cooler, to circulate the cold air from your kegerator into the tower, otherwise the beer in the line in the tower gets warm, and the co2 breaks out of the liquid. This is why you get a second or two of foam initially. Tower coolers are are cheap and pretty easy to build on your own. Search the forums for tower cooler.

Your glass is filling so fast because foam is mostly air, and has a lot more volume then beer, by weight. Once you pour foam into a glass, you can't pour beer on top of it. That just makes more foam. Next time switch to a fresh glass as soon as it turns clear, and see if that works better.

And, for a 2.65 beer, 12psi is right, but you should add 1 psi, to compensate for the drop in pressure when you open the faucet. This drop in pressure also allows the co2 to break out of solution, and can contribute to your initial burst of foam. I would go with 13psi.

5' of beer line should be fine, if you get your tower cooled. But if the beer is indeed pouring too fast, you would need to extend the length of the beer line to slow the flow down. 7' to 8' would be good. I think 10' would be too much in your set up.

[jimpod]

Thanks so much Cubby. That was my thought as well. I've bought all the supplies to build a tower cooler based off threads I've seen on here. Was gonna build it tomorrow morning... but debating on doing that instead of real work this afternoon

[Hophead]

Once you pour foam into a glass, you can't pour beer on top of it. That just makes more foam. Next time switch to a fresh glass as soon as it turns clear, and see if that works better.

Exactly! Took me a little while to learn that too.

Or, you could get into the habit of opening the faucet, let it pour for a second then put the glass under.

[Scott Zuhse]

Exactly! Took me a little while to learn that too.

Or, you could get into the habit of opening the faucet, let it pour for a second then put the glass under.

Another LC (Lee Corso) moment - "Not so fast, my friend!" Why waste good beer while sticking the glass under the flow after good beer goes down the "Drip Tray"? Be certain that your glass is slightly below the faucet so you can watch the clarity of the flow and if it is not right out of the gate, immediately stop and dump this crapola out. Restart with clear beer.

[dbball22]

I live at high altitude (about 6800 ft), so I know our situations are different, but changing from 5' of 3/16" to 10' really helped to slow down the flow and definitely cut down on my foaming issues. I am able to set my psi to 14 or higher, and still pour a good pint....the first time! Hope this helps, I have done a lot of troubleshooting as well as looking at this forum, so if there is anyone out there at high altitude having issues I may be able to help.

[TomK]

Another LC (Lee Corso) moment - "Not so fast, my friend!" Why waste good beer while sticking the glass under the flow after good beer goes down the "Drip Tray"? Be certain that your glass is slightly below the faucet so you can watch the clarity of the flow and if it is not right out of the gate, immediately stop and dump this crapola out. Restart with clear beer.

That's pretty much what I do, except I usually just chug the little bit of beer and foam before resuming the pour.

I have a question about the stream, though. When I'm watching the flow, I usually see the flow change intially from a solid stream (with bubbles in it, of course) to a sort of concaved distorted shape for a moment or two, then it goes back to solid and clears up right after that. I understand the bubbles in the stream and consequent foam in the glass are most likely due to my tower being warmer than the keg, but what is causing that concave distortion of the stream? Is that maybe caused by the pressure drop from opening the faucet? (Seems like it would happen earlier, if it was that.)

[cubby_swans]

I get the same thing occasionally. If I close the faucet, and turn it back on, the flow returns to normal.

I had it, most notably, on a keg of Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, which is quite a heavy beer (~8%ABV). I bumped up the pressure 1lb on that one, and that seemed to have fixed it, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I needed the extra pressure to compensate for the drop in pressure, just as you said.

For everything I know about kegerators, there is probably twice as much that I don't know.