Small bubbles in beer line at faucet

[argraves]

I have fiest keg of miller lite. Going to get next keg of sam or 8th street ale. just woundering if there is a fix before I get my new keg.

Temp in glass of water in kegerator is 37 degrees pressure is 13 psi im in phoenix, az. and 5 FT beer line.

I am getting foam for the first sec maybe two the the poor is fine, but when I pull the handle it seems like the beer blasts into the glass and the slows and poors fine.


Any help would be great
Thank You,
Andy

[Scott81603]

Im using miller lite and have a smiliar issue.

like this? http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-e...2&d=1257855498

[argraves]

That is what it looks like I have no problem after I poor off first sec. Im going to try cooling the tower and see what happens.

[Hophead]

The temp of a glass of water in the kegerator/fridge means nothing. You might think the beer temp in the keg would be the same as the water temp but it's not. You need to pour a beer, chug it, then pour another one right away and take the temp of the beer in the glass. This is the ONLY way to correctly determine the beer temp and then determine the correct pressure setting. Air bubbles in the beer line means the pressure is set too low for the current temp of the beer.

Miller Lite requires 14 PSI CO2 pressure at 38 degrees BEER temp to pour correctly AND maintain the proper level of carbonation. Even at those settings, it's not uncommon for it to have a little extra head than other, non-light beers.

[Hophead]

That is what it looks like I have no problem after I poor off first sec. Im going to try cooling the tower and see what happens.

If you cool the tower correctly, it will definitely help the first second or two of the pour. But, I can tell you that in my direct draw system (no tower), I still get a 1/2 second or so of foam with just about every pour of Miller Lite. I've gotten into the habit of letting a bit of beer pour into the drip tray before I put the glass under the faucet and get perfect beers every time. A lot of bartenders have learned this trick too. If you get a little foam in the bottom of the glass, any beer you pour into it will turn to foam too!

[argraves]

The temp of a glass of water in the kegerator/fridge means nothing. You might think the beer temp in the keg would be the same as the water temp but it's not. You need to pour a beer, chug it, then pour another one right away and take the temp of the beer in the glass. This is the ONLY way to correctly determine the beer temp and then determine the correct pressure setting. Air bubbles in the beer line means the pressure is set too low for the current temp of the beer.

Miller Lite requires 14 PSI CO2 pressure at 38 degrees BEER temp to pour correctly AND maintain the proper level of carbonation. Even at those settings, it's not uncommon for it to have a little extra head than other, non-light beers.

Thanks for the advice it helped the beer is pouring great now

[mjn]

I get the same thing with Miller light. I added an 11ft beer line, a tower cooler, and a circulating fan I get just a tiny little burst of foam then perfection. I think its the faucet itself either keeping a bit of warm beer in there, or heating a small amount of beer as the flow starts. Literally 1 second, maybe a little less. How to cool the faucet? I haven't figured it out yet.

Two guys drinking 8 beers each watching a football game now results in 6-8oz of wasted beer(solely because of the 1 second foam burst). Before the kegerator mods it was 24oz+ of waisted beer given the same parameters.

I do still have my doubts as to whats really happening because it seems the first 20 or so beers of a full keg don't have the 1 second of foam. Which eliminates the faucet as the cuplrit. But truth is, I have cold beer and am waisting about a pitcher per keg, so I gave up on getting it to 100%. I am sticking with 99% happy.

[daswerve]

msj,
I keep a small cup underneath the tap. I open the tap for 1 second to let that foamy shot go into the cup, then I stick my glass underneath and fill it almost full. After about a minute, I pour the contents of the cup into my glass. No wasted beer.

[mjn]

I sometimes do that too. I noticed that the inital blast of foam, when it settles, its very flat tasting. But if its just a shot into a nice big glass its unoticable.

My favorite is when the keg is flowing perfectly and I use little 8oz pilsner glasses. No room for error with those. You know you are dialed in.